Genesis 7

Living Bible

7 Finally the day came when the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. ² Bring in the animals, too—a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them, ³ and seven pairs^[a] of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended. ⁴ One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die.”

⁵ So Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. ⁶ He was 600 years old when the flood came. ⁷ He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood. ^8-9 With him were all the various kinds of animals—those for eating and sacrifice, and those that were not, and the birds and reptiles. They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.

^10-12 One week later, when Noah was 600 years, two months, and seventeen days old, the rain came down in mighty torrents from the sky, and the subterranean waters burst forth upon the earth for forty days and nights. ¹³ But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ^14-15 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild—and reptiles and birds of every sort. ¹⁶ Two by two they came, male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the Lord God^[b] closed the door and shut them in.

¹⁷ For forty days the roaring floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. ¹⁸ As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it; ¹⁹ until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven, ²⁰ standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks. ²¹ And all living things upon the earth perished—birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles and all mankind— ²² everything that breathed and lived upon dry land. ²³ All existence on the earth was blotted out—man and animals alike, and reptiles and birds. God destroyed them all, leaving only Noah alive, and those with him in the boat. ²⁴ And the water covered the earth 150 days.