Noah built the ark at God’s command and survived the flood with his family. His father, Lamech, named him Noah while speaking of the comfort his son would bring to people toiling on ground under a curse. After reaching five hundred, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. His wife and his sons’ wives later joined him in the ark.
During Noah’s life, human wickedness grew and the earth was filled with violence. God saw that the plans of the human heart were continually evil and announced the destruction of people and land creatures. Noah found favor with God. Genesis describes him as righteous and blameless among the people of his time, walking with God.
God warned Noah of a flood and commanded him to build a large ship, the ark. He was to make it of wood, seal it inside and outside with pitch, divide it into rooms, and build three levels with a door in the side. It would measure three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high. A cubit was a unit of length used at the time. God promised to establish a covenant with Noah, who would enter with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law.
Birds, livestock, and creatures moving along the ground were to enter the ark as male and female to preserve their lives. Noah also had to gather food for his household and the creatures. He did everything God commanded.
God told Noah and his household to enter the ark. He was to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals, as well as seven males and seven females of the birds. God announced that rain would begin in seven days and continue for forty days and nights. Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, Japheth, their wives, and the creatures entered, and God shut him in.
The flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month in Noah’s six hundredth year. The fountains of the deep burst open, the sky’s windows opened, and rain fell for forty days and nights. The rising water lifted the ark. Genesis describes the waters rising fifteen cubits higher and covering the mountains. People, birds, livestock, wild animals, and crawling creatures that breathed on dry ground died. Only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. The waters flooded the earth for one hundred fifty days.
God remembered Noah and the creatures in the ark and sent a wind over the earth. The water subsided, the fountains of the deep and the sky’s windows closed, and the rain stopped. After one hundred fifty days, the waters receded. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark rested in the mountains of Ararat. The mountain peaks appeared on the first day of the tenth month.
After forty days, Noah opened the window and released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried up. He also released a dove, which found nowhere to rest and returned. Noah reached out and brought it into the ark. After seven days, he sent it again. It returned that evening with a fresh olive leaf, and Noah knew the water had fallen. He waited seven more days and released the dove again. It did not return.
In Noah’s six hundred and first year, the waters dried from the ground on the first day of the first month. Noah removed the covering and saw that the ground’s surface was dry. On the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry. God commanded him to leave with his family and every creature. Noah went out with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law, and the creatures came out by their kinds.
Noah built an altar to God and offered clean animals and birds as burnt offerings, sacrifices burned on the altar. God said that although the human heart was evil from youth, he would not again curse the ground because of humanity or strike down every living thing as he had done. Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night would continue while the earth remained.
God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Animals, birds, crawling creatures, and fish would fear people. He gave living creatures as food, as he had given plants, but forbade eating flesh with its lifeblood. God would require an accounting from an animal or person that took human life. He said that whoever shed human blood would have his blood shed by people, because God had made humanity in his own image.
God established a covenant with Noah and his sons, their descendants, and every creature that had left the ark. A flood would never again destroy all living things or the earth. He set the rainbow in the clouds as the covenant’s sign. When he saw it, God would remember the everlasting covenant between himself and all living creatures on earth.
After the flood, Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank wine, became drunk, and was uncovered inside his tent. Ham saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth carried a garment on their shoulders and walked backward to cover their father. They turned their faces away and did not look at him.
When Noah awoke and learned what his son had done, he said that Canaan would be a servant of servants to his brothers. Ham was the son involved in the incident; Canaan was Ham’s son. Noah praised the God of Shem and said that Canaan would serve him. He also asked God to enlarge Japheth, let him live in Shem’s tents, and make Canaan his servant.
Genesis says that people spread across the earth from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah lived another three hundred fifty years after the flood. He died at nine hundred fifty.