God saw that human wickedness had grown great and that the earth was filled with violence. He grieved that he had made humanity. Noah, however, found favor with God. He was righteous among his generation, lived with integrity and walked with God. God told Noah that he would send a flood to destroy the creatures on earth that breathed.
God instructed Noah to build an ark, a large vessel made of gopher wood. He was to divide it into rooms, seal it inside and out with pitch, and give it a roof, a door and three decks. Noah, his wife, their three sons and their sons’ wives would enter it. Animals would come by their kinds so their lives could be preserved, and Noah was to store food for everyone aboard. Noah did everything God commanded.
In Noah’s six hundredth year, the fountains of the deep burst open and the windows of the heavens opened. Rain fell for forty days. The rising water lifted the ark, covered the mountains, and overwhelmed every land creature that breathed. Only Noah, his family, and the creatures with him in the ark remained. The waters prevailed for one hundred fifty days.
God remembered Noah and every creature in the ark. A wind passed over the earth, the waters began to recede, and the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a raven and later a dove. The dove first returned because it found nowhere to land. Seven days later it returned with a fresh olive leaf. After another seven days Noah released it again, and it did not return.
When the ground was dry, God told Noah to leave the ark with his family and every animal. Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices. God said he would not again curse the ground because of humanity or destroy every living creature as he had done. As long as the earth remained, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night would continue.
God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to multiply. He established a covenant with them, their descendants, and every living creature. Never again would a flood destroy all life. God placed the rainbow in the clouds. It became the sign of the lasting covenant between God and every living creature on earth.