Noah

God told me the end was coming, because the earth was full of violence. Then he gave me the plans. Gopher wood. Pitch inside and out. Three decks, a door in the side, 300 cubits long. About 140 metres.

I was 600 when it started. The springs of the deep burst open, the windows of the sky opened, and it rained for forty days and forty nights. We went in, me, my wife, our sons and their wives, and the animals with us, two by two.

Replying to @noah

And we didn’t shut the door. The LORD did.

The water kept rising until even the highest mountains were under. Everything on land that breathed died. Just us left, in the ark.

Sent out a raven. It just kept flying back and forth. Then a dove. Nowhere to land, so she came back and I reached out and brought her in. A week later, again. That evening she came back with a fresh olive leaf in her beak. A week after that, she didn’t come back at all.

First thing on dry ground: built an altar. And the LORD promised that as long as the earth lasts, there’ll always be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.

Warned about things nobody had ever seen. Built the ark anyway, out of reverence for God, and my family was saved.

Noah@noahGod told me the end was coming, because the earth was full of violence. Then he gave me the plans. Gopher wood. Pitch inside and out. Three decks, a door in the side, 300 cubits long. About 140 metres.

Noah. Married, three grown sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. When I was born, my dad hoped I’d bring some comfort from all the hard work on this ground the LORD cursed.

God spoke to me. He’s going to put an end to everyone. The earth is full of violence because of them.

Replying to @noah

Then he told me to build a boat.

Replying to @noah

An ark. A huge wooden box that floats. He gave me the measurements.

The plans, since everyone keeps asking. 1. Gopher wood. 2. Rooms inside. 3. Pitch, inside and out. 4. 300 cubits long, 50 wide, 30 high. 5. A roof, with the walls finished a cubit from the top. 6. A door in the side. 7. Three decks.

Noah@noahGod told me the end was coming, because the earth was full of violence. Then he gave me the plans. Gopher wood. Pitch inside and out. Three decks, a door in the side, 300 cubits long. About 140 metres.

Replying to @noah

That’s the size he said.

He said he’s bringing floodwaters on the earth. Everything that breathes will die. But he’s making a covenant with me, a binding promise. Me, my wife, our sons and their wives. We go into the ark.

Two of every kind of animal as well. Every bird, every animal, everything that crawls. A male and a female, to keep them alive. And I don’t go and catch them. They’ll come to me.

And food. Every kind of food we eat, stored on board, for us and for them.

Building for something nobody’s seen yet. But he warned me, so I’m building.

The LORD spoke again. Go into the ark, you and your whole family.

Replying to @noah

Seven days. Then rain. Forty days and forty nights.

Updated list. Clean animals: seven pairs of each kind. Birds: seven pairs of each kind. Everything else: one pair.

Six hundred years old this year.

The door’s shut. We didn’t shut it. The LORD shut us in.

Replying to @shem

Not just rain. Water’s bursting up out of the ground as well, and the sky’s pouring like someone’s opened the floodgates.

Replying to @ham

Floating. Right on top of the water. She holds.

Wind. A wind is blowing over the water. It’s going down.

Opened the window I built into the ark. Sent out a raven.

Replying to @noah

Just flying back and forth over the water.

Trying a dove. To see if the ground’s clear.

Replying to @noah

She’s back. Nowhere to put her feet. Water everywhere still. I put my hand out and brought her in.

Waited a week. Sent the dove out again.

Replying to @shem

An olive leaf. Fresh. Just picked.

Replying to @shem

The water’s gone down. Now I know.

Waited another week. Sent her out again.

Replying to @noah

She’s not coming back. She’s found somewhere to land.

Took the covering off the ark. Looked out. The ground is dry.

Replying to @noah

Not until he says.

He said it. Out of the ark, all of you. Bring every animal out with you, so they can spread out, have young and fill the earth.

First thing on dry ground: an altar to the LORD. Burnt offerings from every clean animal and every clean bird.

God blessed us today, me and the boys. Have children, lots of them, and fill the earth.

Replying to @noah

Everything that lives and moves, the way he gave us the green plants. Just not with the blood still in it.

He was serious about this part. He’ll hold everyone to account for a human life. If anyone sheds a person’s blood, people will shed his. Because God made people in his own image.

Then the covenant he promised me before any of this. With us, with our children after us, and with every animal that came out of the ark. A flood will never wipe out all life on the earth again.

And the sign of it: his rainbow in the clouds. Whenever clouds come over the earth and the bow shows up, he’ll see it and remember his promise. To us, and to every living thing.