13 So God told Noah, "I have decided to put an end to all people on earth because they are all violent and lawless. I myself am going to destroy all of them, along with the earth.

14 Build an ark* out of cypress wood. Make rooms inside the ark, and coat it with tar, both inside and out. 15 This is how to build it: the ark is to measure 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. 16 Make a roof for the ark, leaving a cubit-wide opening between the roof and the top of the sides.* Put a door in the side of the ark, and construct three decks inside.

1 The Lord told Noah, "Go into the ark with all your family. I have seen how you are a man of integrity, living a moral life among the people of this generation.

7 Noah went into the ark, taking with him his wife and his sons and their wives, because of the flood. 8 Clean and unclean animals, birds, and creatures that run along the ground, 9 went into the ark with Noah. They came in pairs, male and female, just as God had told Noah. 10 After seven days the floodwaters swept over the earth.

16 A male and a female of every creature entered, as God had told Noah. Then the Lord shut the door behind him.

17 The flood increased for forty days, lifting the ark so that it floated up from the earth. 18 The floodwaters surged and grew deeper and deeper over the earth, but the ark floated along on the surface.

23 The Lord wiped out all life on earth—people, livestock, creatures that run along the ground, and birds. All were killed. The only ones left were Noah and those with him on the ark.

3 The floodwaters steadily receded from the earth. They had gone down so much that by 150 days after the flood began 4 the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. This happened on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.

6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he'd made in the ark, 7 and sent a raven out. It flew back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up. 8 Then he sent a dove out to see if the waters had gone down enough to expose dry ground. 9 But the dove couldn't find anywhere to land. So it came back to Noah in the ark because water was still covering the whole earth. He reached out his hand, picked up the dove, and took it back into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again. 11 When it came back to him in the evening it had a freshly-picked olive leaf in its beak, so Noah knew the floodwaters were mainly gone from the earth. 12 Again he waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but this time it didn't return to him.

13 By now Noah was 601, and by the first day of the first month, the floodwaters on the earth were gone. Noah pulled back the ark's covering and saw that the ground was drying out.

15 Then God told Noah, 16 "Leave the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. 17 Let all the animals go—the birds, the wild animals, the creatures that run along the ground—so that they can breed and increase their numbers on the earth."

8 Then God told Noah and his sons who were there with him, 9 "Listen, I'm making my agreement with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals around you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals of the earth—every animal that accompanied you on the ark. 11 In my agreement I'm promising you that I won't ever again destroy all life by means of a flood—there won't be a destructive flood like this again."

13 I've placed my rainbow in the clouds, and this will be the sign of my agreement with you and with all life on earth.

7 Noah trusted God, and was warned by him about things that had never happened before. Because Noah paid serious attention to what God said, he constructed an ark to save his family. By trusting God, Noah showed that the world was wrong, and received the reward of being set right by God.

20 that refused to believe, when God patiently waited in the time of Noah while the ark was being built. Only a few—in fact eight people—were saved "through water." 21 This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you, not by washing off dirt from your body, but as a positive response to God that comes from a clear conscience. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes your salvation possible. 22 Having ascended to heaven, he stands at God's right hand, with angels, authorities, and powers placed under his control.

37 When the Son of man comes it will be like it was during the time of Noah. 38 It will be as in the days before the flood, when they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, right up until the day that Noah went into the ark. 39 They didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That's how the coming of the Son of man will be.

40 Two men will be working in the fields. One will be taken, the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding grain with a mill. One will be taken, the other left.