The Great Flood

Noah's Ark and the great flood
 (Gen. 6:1-22; 7:1-24)

Hundreds and hundreds of years passed, Adam and Eve had many descendants upon the earth, but they were wicked men. They had forgotten the true God.

When God saw how man forgot and disobeyed Him, He was filled with sorrow. He said to Himself: "I am sorry that I ever created the earth. Now men are unclean because of sin. I will destroy them all, together with all other living creatures. I will wipe every living thing from the face of the earth."

One man alone pleased God. His name was Noe. and he had three sons.

One day, God said to Noe: "Men have turned away from Me, and have defiled themselves and the earth that I created. They no longer seek Me nor obey my com­mands. I will destroy them. I will send rain for forty days. A great flood shall rise to wipe away every living creature from the face of the earth. But because you honor and obey Me, I shall spare you. Go, therefore and build an ark of wood. When it is ready, take your wife, your sons and their families, and enter the ark that you may be saved."

The Lord God told Noe just how the ark was to be made. He told him to make little rooms and to cover the inside and the outside of the ark with pitch. God also told Noe that the ark was to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. A cubit is about nineteen inches long. God told Noe to make the ark three stories high, with one window and one door.

Noe did all the things God commanded him to do. He built the ark and stored away food. Then  he took into the ark with him his wife and his sons, and the wives of his sons. He also took a pair of every kind of living creature. And God Himself shut them up inside the ark.

Forty days and forty nights, the rain fell upon the earth.

Water was everywhere, but the ark was carried upon the waters.

Even the high mountains were hidden under the water. Everything was destroyed: beasts, birds, and all creeping things: all men and women.

Everything on earth died.

Only Noe remained, and those who were with him in the ark.

The water covered all the earth for one hundred and fifty days.