Genesis 7

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¹After that, God said to Noah, “You are the only man that lives the right way. Get your family and take them into the big boat.

²You have to take every kind of animal with you into that big boat. You know those kinds of animals that are right for you to give to me as presents? Well, get 7 males and 7 females from each of those kinds of animals. And get all the other animals too, the ones that are not right to give to me. Get one male and one female from each of those kinds of animals. They all have to go on to the big boat.

³And the birds too. They have to go on to the big boat. Get 7 males and 7 females from each kind of bird. This will save those birds and animals, so that there will always be birds and animals on the earth.

⁴You see, I’m going to send a big rain. This rain will come in 7 days time. Then it will keep raining all the time for 40 days and for 40 nights. The floodwater will come up and wash away all the things that I have made.”

⁵So Noah did everything just the way God told him.

⁶Noah was 600 years old at the time that he went into the big boat to be safe from the flood. Noah and his wife and his 3 sons and their wives all went into the big boat.

⁸A big mob of animals came to Noah and he took them into the boat, just like God told him. Some of them were the right animals to give to God as a present. There were males and females of each kind of animal. There were all kinds of animals, birds and even animals that crawl around on the ground. They were all there together on that big boat. It was just the way God wanted it to be.

¹⁰Then, 7 days later, the flood water came, just like God said.

¹¹Noah was 600 years old at the time that the flood water came. It came on the 17th day of the 2nd month of that year. Noah, and his wife, and his sons, called Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives too, they all went into the big boat. They were there with all the animals. There were wild animals and quiet animals, big animals and small animals. And all the birds were there too. There were males and females of every living bird and animal on that big boat. All of the different kinds of animals went into that big boat with Noah. They went in 2 at a time, just like God told Noah. After the last animal went into the boat with Noah and his family, God shut the door. Then, on that same day, the rain came out of the sky. It really rained hard all the time. It was just like God opened up a big window in the sky, and rain poured down. And more water came up from springs, and from everywhere under the ground too. It kept raining for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹⁷The flood water kept getting higher and higher for all those 40 days, and the big boat started to float on the water.

¹⁸The water got deeper and deeper, but that boat was all right, it floated on top of the water, high above the ground.

¹⁹The water got so deep that it covered all the big mountains everywhere.

²⁰It covered the tops of those mountains with about 7 metres of water.

²¹Everything that lived on the earth died. Only the people and animals on that big boat didn’t die. The flood water killed all the birds, all the animals, the wild ones and those that are not wild, and it killed every insect and every person.

²²All the living things on the ground, that breathed air, they all died.

²³There was nothing left on the earth. There were no birds, or animals, or insects or people. God killed them all and washed them away. The only things that stayed alive were the animals and birds on the big boat with Noah and his family.

²⁴And that went on for a long time. The flood water covered the earth for 5 months.