13 So God said to Noah, "I have decided to destroy everyone, because all over the earth people are acting violently toward each other. So I am about to get rid of them as well as everything else on the earth. 14 I want you to make for yourself a large boat from cypress wood. Make rooms inside it. Cover the outside and the inside with tar to make it ◄waterproof/so that water cannot get in and sink the boat►. 15 This is the size you must make it: It shall be ◄150 yards/135 meters► long, ◄25 yards/22.5 meters► wide, and ◄15 yards/13.5 meters► high. 16 Make a roof for the boat. Leave a space of about ◄18 in./.5 meter► between the sides and the roof to let air and light enter (OR, the middle of the roof should be 18 inches higher than the sides). Build the boat with three decks inside, and put a door in one side.

1 Then Yahweh said to Noah, "I have seen that out of everyone who is now living, you alone always act righteously. So you and all your family go into the boat.

7 Before it started to rain, Noah and his wife and his sons went into the boat to escape from the flood water. 8 Pairs of animals, those that God said that he would accept for sacrifices and those that he would not accept for sacrifices, and pairs of birds and pairs of all the kinds of creatures that move close to the ground, 9 males and females, came to Noah and then went into the boat, just as God told Noah that they would do. 10 Seven days later, it started to rain and a flood began to cover the earth.

16 There was a male and a female of each animal that came to Noah, just as God had said they would do. After they were all in the boat, God shut the door.

17 It rained for 40 days and nights, and the flood increased. It flooded until the water lifted the boat above the ground. 18 As he water rose higher and higher, the boat floated on the surface of the water.

23 God destroyed every living creature: People and animals and creatures that scurry across the ground and birds. Only Noah and those who were in the boat with him remained alive.

3 The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began, 4 ◄on the 17th day of the seventh month of that year/late in March►, the boat came to rest on one of the mountains in the Ararat region.

6 40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven. 7 The raven flew back and forth to and from the boat until the water was completely gone. 8 Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on the ground. 9 But the dove did not find any place to perch, so it flew back to Noah in the boat, because there was still water all over the surface of the earth. So Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back inside the boat. 10 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again. 11 This time the dove returned to him in the evening and, surprisingly, in its beak there was a leaf from an olive tree that the dove had just plucked. Then Noah knew that the water had truly receded from the surface of the ground. 12 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 Noah was now 601 years old. By the first day of the first month of the Jewish year, the water had completely drained away from the ground. Noah removed the covering on top of the ark, and he was surprised to see that the surface of the ground was drying.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out with you all the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that scurry across the ground, in order that they can spread all over the earth and become very numerous."

8 God also said to Noah and his sons, 9 "Listen carefully. I am now making a solemn promise to you and with your descendants, 10 and with all the living creatures that are with you—including the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals—every living creature on the earth that came out of the boat with you. 11 This is the promise that I am making to you: I will never again destroy all living creatures by a flood, or destroy everything else on the earth by a flood."

13 From time to time I will put a rainbow in the sky. It will remind me of my promise that I have made to you and everything on the earth.

7 It was because Noah trusted God that after he was warned by God {after God warned him} about a flood that had not yet happened, Noah showed that he revered God by building a huge ship to save his family. By doing that, he showed all the people who did not believe him [MTY] that they deserved to be condemned {that God would condemn them}. He was someone whom God declared to be righteous because of his trusting in God.

20 Long ago, during the time that Noah was building a big boat, those evil spirits disobeyed God when he waited patiently [PRS] to see if people would turn from their evil behavior. Only a few people were saved {God saved only a few people} in that boat. Specifically, God brought only eight persons safely through the waters of the flood, while all the others drowned in it. 21 That water, by means of which eight people were saved when God punished the other people [MET], represents the water in which we are baptized to show that God has saved us from being punished. The water in which we are baptized does not remove dirt from our bodies. Instead, it shows that we are requesting God to assure us that he has removed our guilt for having sinned. And because Jesus Christ became alive again after he died, we know that God accepted his sacrifice for us and because of that he was able to remove our guilt. 22 Christ has gone into heaven and is ruling [MTY] in the place of highest honor ◄next to God/at God’s side►, after God caused all the evil and powerful spirit beings [DOU] to be made subject to him.

37-39 It will be like what happened when Noah lived. Until the flood came, the people did not know that anything bad would happen to them. Before the flood waters covered the earth, the people were eating and drinking as usual. Some men were marrying women and some parents were giving their daughters to men to marry them. They were doing all this until the day that Noah and his family entered the big boat. And then the flood came and drowned all those who were not in the boat. Similarly, the unbelieving people will not know when I, the one who came from heaven, will return, and they will not be expecting me. 40 When I return, I will not take all people up to heaven. I will take only those who trust in me. For example, two people will be in the fields. One of them will be taken {I will take one of them} up to heaven and the other person will be left {and I will leave the other person} here to be punished. 41 Similarly, two women will be at the mill grinding grain. One of them will be taken up to heaven and the other will be left.