The Story of Noah
Chapter 6
The Evil of Man
When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how
beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. Then the
Lord said: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one
hundred and twenty years."
At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the
daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown. When the Lord saw
how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but
evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved. So the Lord said: "I will wipe
out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping
things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them."
But Noah found favour with the Lord. These are the descendants of Noah. Noah, a good man and blameless in
that age, for he walked with God, begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In the eyes of God the earth was
corrupt and full of lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led
depraved lives on earth, he said to Noah: "I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full
of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth. Make yourself an ark of
gopherwood, put various compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall
build it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and finish the ark a cubit above it. Put an entrance in the side of the
ark, which you shall make with bottom, second and third decks. I, on my part, am about to bring the flood
(waters) on the earth, to destroy everywhere all creatures in which there is the breath of life; everything on
earth shall perish. But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons'
wives, shall go into the ark. Of all other living creatures you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one
female, that you may keep them alive with you. Of all kinds of birds, of all kinds of beasts, and of all kinds of
creeping things, two of each shall come into the ark with you, to stay alive. Moreover, you are to provide
yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for
them." This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him.
Chapter 7
The Voyage of the Ark
Then the Lord said to Noah: "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I
found to be truly just. Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the
unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and
a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over
all the earth. Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I
will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made."
Noah did just as the Lord had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came
upon the earth. Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, Noah went into the ark because of the
waters of the flood. Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the
ground, (two by two) male and female entered the ark with Noah, just as the Lord had commanded him.
As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of
Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that All the fountains
of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. For forty days and forty nights
heavy rain poured down on the earth. On the precise day named, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons had entered the ark, together with every kind of
wild beast, every kind of domestic animal, every kind of creeping thing of the earth, and every kind of bird.
Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life entered the ark with Noah. Those that entered were
male and female, and of all species they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose
above the earth. The swelling waters increased greatly, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters. Higher
and higher above the earth rose the waters, until all the highest mountains everywhere were submerged, the
crest rising fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains. All creatures that stirred on earth perished:
birds, cattle, wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything on dry land
with the faintest breath of life in its nostrils died out. The Lord wiped out every living thing on earth: man and
cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those
with him in the ark were left. The waters maintained their crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8
The Earth is Cleansed
God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a
wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of
the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. Gradually the waters receded from the
earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished that, in the seventh month, on
the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to
diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, and he sent out a raven, to see if the
waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. Then he sent
out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the
dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the
ark. In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew
that the waters had lessened on the earth. He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once
more; and this time it did not come back.
In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water
began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the
ground was drying up. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then
God said to Noah: "Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. Bring out
with you every living thing that is with you - all bodily creatures, be they birds or animals or creeping things of
the earth - and let them abound on the earth, breeding and multiplying on it." So Noah came out, together
with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives; and all the animals, wild and tame, all the birds, and all the
creeping creatures of the earth left the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and
choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar.
When the Lord smelled the sweet odour, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man,
since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I
have done. As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and
night shall not cease."
Chapter 9
A New Hope
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Dread fear of you
shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about
on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Every creature that is alive shall
be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall
not eat. For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and
from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life. If anyone sheds the blood of
man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made. Be fertile, then, and
multiply; abound on earth and subdue it." God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "See, I am now
establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was
with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I
will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a
flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth." God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for
all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the
clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and
the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the
clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings
- all mortal creatures that are on earth." God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established
between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."
A Blessing and a Curse
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)
These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was peopled. Now Noah, a man of the soil,
was the first to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay naked inside his
tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside about it.
Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their backs, they walked backward and covered
their father's nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father's nakedness.
When Noah woke up from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said:
"Cursed be Caanan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He also said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God
of Shem! Let Canaan be his slave. May God expand Japheth, so that he dwells among the tents of Shem; and
let Canaan be his slave." Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. The whole lifetime of Noah
was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.
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