Wiping the Slate Clean

THE STORY of NOAH AND THE ARK         Genesis 6-9

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Make a roof for the ark; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.

Then God said to Noah, “For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark; they shall be male and female. Of the birds, of the animals, and of every creeping thing, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.

Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.

Then God said to Noah, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—birds and animals and every creeping thing—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, went out of the ark.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”