NOAH'S ARC
God knew that everyone was terribly cruel and violent. So he told Noah: Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I'm going to destroy the earth and all its people. Get some good lumber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar, inside and out. Make it 450ft. long, 75ft. wide, and 45ft. high. Build a roof on the boat and leave a space about 18 inches between the roof and the sides. Make the boat three stories high, and put a door on one side.
I'm going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive. But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the boat.
Bring into the boat with you seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice, and one pair of all the others, including every kind of bird. Store up enough food for you and them. I will send rain for 40 days and nights, which will destroy all other living creatures that I have made.
Noah did everything the Lord had told him to do.
Noah was 600 years old when the water under the earth started gushing out everywhere. The sky opened up like windows, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights, without stopping.
Almost a year later, the water went down, and the earth was completly dry. All living creatures, not on Noah's arc, had been destroyed. Finally they could leave the boat.
Noah built an alter where he could offer sacrifices to the Lord. The smell of the burning offerings pleased the Lord, and he said to Noah: Never again will I punish the earth, for the sinful things its people do. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest; cold and heat; winter and summer; day and night. I promise that the earth will never be destroyed by flood again. The rainbow will be the sign of that promise.
