Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Yesterday we read about the genealogy of Noah and his family and how he built the ark.
Today we'll get to read about the great flood and the promise that God makes with Noah afterwards.
Let's begin.
Today's reading is Genesis 7 and 8.
Genesis 7, then the Lord said to Noah, come into the ark, you and all your household,
because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each
of animals that are unclean, male and female, also seven each of birds of the air, male
and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.
For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth, forty days and forty
nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.
And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters were on the earth.
So Noah with his sons, his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters
of the flood, of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds and of everything
that creeps on the earth.
Two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, seventeenth day of the
month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows
of heaven were opened, and the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and
the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark.
They and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
And they went into the ark of Noah two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of
life.
So those that entered, male and female, of all flesh, went in as God commanded him, and
the Lord shut him in.
Now the flood was on the earth forty days.
The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the
surface of the waters.
And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole
heaven were covered.
The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered, and all flesh
died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth, and every man.
All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life.
All that was on the dry land died.
So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle,
creeping thing and bird of the air.
They were destroyed from the earth, only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained
alive.
And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8 Then God commanded Noah and every living thing,
and all the animals that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over
the earth.
And the waters subsided, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also
stopped.
And the rain from heaven was restrained, and the waters receded continually from the earth.
At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased, and then the ark rested
in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month.
In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
So it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which
he had made.
Then he sent out a raven which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from
the earth.
He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of
the ground, but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned
into the ark to him.
For the waters were on the face of the whole earth.
So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself.
And he waited yet another seven days.
And again he sent the dove out from the ark.
Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was
in her mouth.
And no one knew the waters had receded from the earth.
So he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove which did not return again to
him anymore.
And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first
day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth.
And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground
was dry.
And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
Then God spoke to Noah saying, 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 of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth and be
fruitful and multiply on the earth.
So Noah went out and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him.
Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird and whatever creeps on the earth according
to their families went out of the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean
bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the Lord smelt a soothing aroma.
Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake.
Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy
every living thing as I have done.
While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day
and night shall not cease.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.