Through the Bible – Day 3

_1-2More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings came down and married the ones they wanted. ₃Then the LORD said, “I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone for ever. No one will live for more than one hundred and twenty years.”

₄The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.

₅The LORD saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. ₆He was very sorry that he had made them, ₇and he said, “I'll destroy every living creature on earth! I'll wipe out people, animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them.”

₈But the LORD was pleased with Noah, ₉and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God. ₁₀He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

_11-12God knew that everyone was terribly cruel and violent. ₁₃So he told Noah:

₂₂Noah did everything the LORD told him to do.

₁The LORD told Noah:

_5-7Noah was six hundred 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. _8-9He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. ₁₀Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.

_11-12Noah was six hundred years old when the water under the earth started gushing out everywhere. The sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for forty days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. ₁₃On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ₁₄They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. ₁₅Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, ₁₆just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, God closed the door.

_17-18For forty days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. _19-20Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were about seven metres below the surface of the water. ₂₁Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. _22-23The LORD destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. ₂₄A hundred and fifty days later, the water started going down.

₁God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down. ₂God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped. ₃For one hundred and fifty days the water slowly went down. ₄Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains. ₅The water kept going down, and the mountain tops could be seen on the first day of the tenth month.

_6-7Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. ₈Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, and he sent out a dove. ₉Deep water was still everywhere, and the dove could not find a place to land. So it flew back to the boat. Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.

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

₁₃Noah was now six hundred and one 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. ₁₄By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.

₁₅God said to Noah, ₁₆“You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. ₁₇Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” ₁₈After Noah and his family had gone out of the boat, ₁₉the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.

₂₀Noah built an altar where he could offer sacrifices to the LORD. Then he offered on the altar one of each kind of animal and bird that could be used for a sacrifice. ₂₁The smell of the burning offering pleased God, and he said:

₁God said to Noah and his sons:

₈Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

₁₈Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, came out of the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. ₁₉All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.

₂₀Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. ₂₁One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. ₂₂Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. ₂₃Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.

₂₄When Noah woke up and learnt what his youngest son Ham had done, ₂₅he said,

₂₈Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood ₂₉and died at the age of nine hundred and fifty.

₁Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. ₂He said, “Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

₃John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about, when he said,

₄John wore clothes made of camel's hair. He had a leather strap around his waist and ate grasshoppers and wild honey.

₅From Jerusalem and all Judea and from the River Jordan Valley crowds of people went to John. ₆They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the river.

₇Many Pharisees and Sadducees also came to be baptized. But John said to them:

₁₃Jesus left Galilee and went to the River Jordan to be baptized by John. ₁₄But John kept objecting and said, “I ought to be baptized by you. Why have you come to me?”

₁₅Jesus answered, “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do.” Then John agreed.

₁₆So Jesus was baptized. And as soon as he came out of the water, the sky opened, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove. ₁₇Then a voice from heaven said, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him.”