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God told Noah to get ready for a flood
1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “You are the only man alive today that lives the right way. It is time for you to take your family into the really big boat called the Ark. 2 And take every kind of animal with you. There are 2 groups of animals that I want you to take into the boat. In the first group there are animals that I call clean animals. Those clean animals are the animals that you can kill and burn to show me respect. Take 7 boy ones and 7 girl ones of those clean animals into the boat.
But the second group of animals, I call them unclean. You are not allowed to kill them and burn them to show me respect. Take only 1 boy one and 1 girl one of those unclean animals. 3 Take 7 boy ones and 7 girl ones of each kind of bird from all over the world with you into the boat.
All those animals and birds will be safe with you. That way, after the flood, there will always be animals and birds living on the earth.
4 You see, in 7 days time I am going to make rain fall down from the sky. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights so that everything I made will die and be washed away.”
5 So Noah did everything the Lord said to him.
The flood water came
6-7 Noah was 600 years old when he and his wife, his 3 sons and their wives all went into the boat to be safe from the floodwaters. 8-9 A lot of animals came to Noah. There were boy and girl animals of every kind and Noah took them into the boat too. There were clean and unclean animals, as well as birds and small animals that move along the ground. Noah did everything that God said.
10 Then 7 days later, the flood water came. 11-16 Noah was 600 years old at the time that the flood water came. And it came on the 17th day of the 2nd month of that year.
On the same day that the rain started, Noah and his wife, and his sons, Shem, Ham and Jay-feth, and their wives went into the boat. All the animals went with them into the boat. There were wild animals and quiet animals, big animals and small animals. All the birds went into the boat too. Just like God told Noah, there were boys, and girls of every kind of animal, and they went in 2 at a time. When the last animal went into the boat with Noah and his family, God shut the door.
And it rained really hard for 40 days and 40 nights. It was just like God opened up a big window in the sky to let all the water out. Spring water came up from deep down under the ground too. 17-18 The flood water kept getting higher and higher for 40 days, and the boat started to float on the water, high above the ground.
19 The water got so high that it covered all the really big hills everywhere. 20 It covered the tops of those hills with about 7 metres of water. 21 Every living thing that was outside the boat died. The flood water killed all the birds, all the wild animals, all the quiet animals, all the little animals that move along the ground and every living person. + 22 Yes, everything that breathed air and lived on the earth died. 23 There was nothing left alive on the earth. There were no birds, big animals, little animals, or people. God killed them all and washed them away. Noah, his family and all the animals and birds inside the boat were the only ones that were still alive.
24 The flood water covered the earth for 5 months.
+ 7:21 Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 2 Peter 3:6