13 So he told Noah:

Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I’m going to destroy the whole earth and all its people. 14 Get some good lumber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. 15 Make it 133 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13 meters high. 16 Build a roof* on the boat and leave a space of about 44 centimeters between the roof and the sides.* Make the boat three stories high and put a door on one side.

1 The Lord told Noah:

Take your whole family with you into the boat, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me.

5-7 *Noah was 600 years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. 8,9 He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. 10 Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.

16 just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, the Lord closed the door.

17,18 For 40 days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground.

22,23 *The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat.

3 For 150 days the water slowly went down. 4 Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains.

6,7 Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. 8 Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, so he sent out a dove. 9 Deep water was still everywhere, and when the dove could not find a place to land, it flew back to the boat. Then Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.

10 Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. 11 It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew the water was finally going down. 12 He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.

13 Noah was now 601 years old. And by the first day of that year, almost all the water had gone away. Noah made an opening in the roof of the boat* and saw that the ground was getting dry.

15 God said to Noah, 16 "You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. 17 Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth."

8 Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

9 I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10 This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11 I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

12,13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever.

7 *Because Noah had faith, he was warned about something that had not yet happened. He obeyed and built a boat that saved him and his family. In this way the people of the world were judged, and Noah was given the blessings that come to everyone who pleases God.

20 **They had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into that boat and were brought safely through the flood.

21 Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body. It means turning to God with a clear conscience, because Jesus Christ was raised from death. 22 Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side* of God. All angels, authorities, and powers are under his control.

37 *When the Son of Man appears, things will be just as they were when Noah lived. 38 People were eating, drinking, and getting married right up to the day the flood came and Noah went into the big boat. 39 *They didn’t know anything was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. This is how it will be when the Son of Man appears.

40 Two men will be in the same field, but only one will be taken. The other will be left. 41 Two women will be together grinding grain, but only one will be taken. The other will be left.