Men multiplied on the earth, and the sons of Seth mingled with the
descendants of Cain and took their daughters for wives. Thereby
wickedness became great over all the earth, and it repented God that he
had made man. But Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Therefore He said
to Noah: Make thee an ark, three hundred cubits[1] long, fifty cubits
wide and thirty cubits high, and pitch it within and without with pitch;
for I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy everything
that lives. Noah built the ship which is called the ark, and went into
it with his wife and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japhet, and their
wives, and a male and a female of all the animals that cannot live in
the water. Then God let it rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and the
waters rose 15 cubits over the highest mountains. And every living thing
was destroyed upon the earth. Noah only, and those that were with him in
the ark, were left alive.
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Footnote 1: This cubit was about 19 inches long.
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God remembered Noah and caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the
waters sank, and the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Noah
opened the window, and he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and
fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Then he sent
forth a dove, but as she found no rest for her foot, she returned to the
ark, and Noah put forth his hand and took her unto him. And he stayed
yet seven days, and he sent forth the dove again. And she came back to
him again at eventide, and in her mouth she had a fresh olive leaf. And
he stayed yet seven days and sent forth the dove again, and she returned
not; then Noah knew that the earth must be dry. The waters had then
covered the earth for more than one year.
Now Noah went out of the ark and made a thank offering unto the Lord.
And the Lord said in His heart: I will not again curse the ground for
man’s sake, for man is evil from his youth. While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night
shall not cease. And God set the rainbow in the heavens as a token that
He would remember His covenant. Noah lived till he was 950 years old,
and is the second father of the human race. (Gen. 6-9.)