Noah Builds the Boat

As the years went by, more and more people lived on the earth — but their hearts went wrong. The Lord God saw that people had grown wicked, and that they thought about evil things all day long. It grieved him that he had made man, and he thought it over deeply. But there was one man who was different. His name was Noah. Noah was righteous, and he was well-pleasing to God. Noah found favor before the Lord God.

God said to Noah, “The earth is full of wrong. I am going to send a great flood of water on the earth. But I will make my covenant with you — my promise. Build yourself a boat of strong wood. Make rooms in it, and seal it with tar inside and out.” It was to be a huge boat — as long as one and a half football fields! God told Noah, “Go into the boat, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. And bring the animals with you, two of every kind, male and female, to keep them alive with you — and take food for everyone.” And Noah did everything, just as God told him.

So Noah built and built. And when the boat was finished, the animals came — birds and cattle and creeping things, two by two, and of the clean animals seven by seven — into the boat with Noah and his family. And the Lord God shut the door behind them. Then the rain came. Water burst up from below and poured down from above, and it rained for forty days and forty nights. The water rose and rose. It covered the fields, and the trees, and at last even the tops of the highest mountains. Every living thing on the dry land was gone. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the boat. But the big boat floated safe on top of the water, and inside, Noah and his family and all the animals were warm and dry. And God remembered Noah.