6
Genesis

The Flood

Genesis 6:1-8:22
1And it happened, when mankind began to multiply upon the surface of the ground, that daughters were born to them. 2And the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves from among all whom they chose. 3And the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with mankind forever, because he too is flesh; and his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 4The Nephilim were in the land in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God would come to the daughters of mankind and they would bear children for them. They were the mighty men of ancient times, men of renown. 5And the LORD saw that mankind’s evil was great in the land, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long. 6And the LORD regretted that he had made mankind in the land, and he was grieved in his heart. 7And the LORD said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I created from the surface of the ground, from humans to animals, to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I regret that I made them.” 8And Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man of integrity among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11And the land was corrupted before God, and the land was filled with violence. 12And God saw the land, and behold, it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the land. 13And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the land is full of violence because of them; and look, I am going to destroy them with the land. 14Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make cells in the ark, and coat it inside and outside with pitch. 15And this is how you shall make it: the ark’s length shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit at the top; set the ark’s entrance in its side, and make it with lower, second, and third levels. 17And I, behold, I am going to bring the flood of water upon the land to destroy all flesh that has the breath of life in it from under the heavens. Everything in the land will die. 18And I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19And from all that lives, from all flesh, bring two of each into the ark to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20From the birds according to their kind, and from the animals according to their kind, and from every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of each will come to you to be kept alive. 21And you, take for yourself some of every food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; it will be food for you and for them.” 22And Noah did according to everything God commanded him; so he did.
Chapter 7
1And the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2From every clean animal take for yourself seven by seven, a male and his female; and from the animals that are not clean, two, a male and his female. 3Also from the birds of the sky, seven by seven, male and female, to keep offspring alive upon the surface of all the land. 4For in seven more days I will send rain upon the land for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out every living thing that I made from the surface of the ground.” 5And Noah did according to everything the LORD commanded him. 6And Noah was six hundred years old, and the flood of water was upon the land. 7And Noah entered the ark, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, because of the floodwaters. 8From the clean animals and from the animals that were not clean, and from the birds, and from all that moves upon the ground, 9two by two they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10And it happened after the seven days that the floodwaters were upon the land. 11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12And the rain was upon the land for forty days and forty nights. 13On that very day Noah entered the ark, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them: 14they and every living thing according to its kind, and all the animals according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the land according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird with every kind of wing. 15And they came to Noah into the ark, two by two, from all flesh that had the breath of life in it. 16And those that entered, male and female from all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. 17And the flood was upon the land for forty days, and the water increased and lifted the ark, and it rose above the land. 18And the water prevailed and increased greatly upon the land, and the ark moved upon the surface of the water. 19And the water prevailed very greatly upon the land, and all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. 20The water prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21And all flesh moving upon the land died: the birds, the animals, the living things, and all the swarming things that swarm upon the land, and all mankind. 22All those whose nostrils held breath, the breath of life, among all that was on dry ground, died. 23And he wiped out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humans to animals, to creeping things and to birds of the sky; and they were wiped out from the land. And only Noah remained, and those with him in the ark. 24And the water prevailed upon the land for a hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8
1And God remembered Noah and every living thing and every animal with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the land, and the water abated. 2And the springs of the deep and the windows of the heavens were stopped up, and the rain from the heavens was restrained. 3And the water steadily receded from the land, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the water had decreased. 4And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 5And the water continued to decrease until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible. 6And it happened at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. 7And he sent out the raven, and it went out, continuing to go out and return until the water had dried up from the land. 8And he sent the dove out from him to see whether the water had abated from the surface of the ground. 9And the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, and it returned to him into the ark, because water was upon the surface of all the land. And he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it to himself into the ark. 10And he waited anxiously for another seven days, and again sent the dove out from the ark. 11And the dove came to him at evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth; and Noah knew that the water had abated from the land. 12And he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him again. 13And it happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water had dried up from the land. And Noah removed the ark’s covering and saw, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry. 15And God spoke to Noah, saying, 16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you, from all flesh, the birds and the animals and every creeping thing that moves upon the land, so that they may swarm in the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the land.” 18And Noah came out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19Every living thing, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything moving upon the land, came out of the ark according to their families. 20And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took from every clean animal and from every clean bird, and offered whole burnt offerings on the altar. 21And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma, and the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil because of mankind, though the intention of mankind’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again strike down all that lives as I have done. 22Throughout all the days of the land, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn, and day and night will not cease.”

Key words in this passage

Cross-references

Study notes

The account confronts the spread of human corruption that fills the earth with violence and moves the LORD to grief and the resolve to blot out all flesh. At the same time it singles out Noah as the one who finds favor and receives detailed instructions for an ark that will carry his household and pairs of every living kind through the waters. The narrative tracks the flood’s rise and recession through exact intervals and repeated acts of obedience, then records the exit from the ark, the first altar, and the LORD’s inward declaration that the regular cycles of seedtime and harvest will never again be interrupted by universal destruction. The burden lies in how judgment and preservation rest on the same divine word, leaving human evil acknowledged yet life sustained by covenant commitment rather than by any change in human character.

What is The Flood about?

Genesis 6 opens with the multiplication of people across the land and the marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of man. These unions produce the Nephilim and the mighty men of renown. The LORD then declares that his Spirit will not strive with man forever and sets a limit of one hundred and twenty years." The text states that every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually, prompting the LORD to express grief over having made man and to announce the blotting out of man, beast, creeping thing, and bird. Noah alone finds favor in the LORD’s eyes. The account therefore centers on the question of how any human life can continue when the earth has become filled with violence and corruption. These opening verses establish the immediate crisis that the following chapters address through the construction of the ark, the preservation of Noah’s household, and the eventual recession of the waters.

Where does this passage sit in Genesis?

The flood narrative follows directly from the closing notice in chapter five that Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. That genealogy traces the line from Adam onward; the present account then shows what happens once the population has multiplied and the earth has become filled with violence. The formula “These are the generations of Noah” at 6:9 therefore marks the start of a new section within the book’s recurring pattern of genealogical headings, yet the verses before it already introduce the crisis that will define Noah’s story.

Within the immediate sequence the commands given to Noah in 6:14–21 and the repeated statements that he carried them out create a steady forward movement from announcement to construction. The same pattern appears again when the LORD tells Noah to enter the ark and he obeys without recorded delay. After the waters rise and then recede, the account closes with the LORD’s inward resolve never again to strike down every living creature. That statement sits immediately before the covenant language of chapter nine, so the flood episode ends by opening the next phase of divine dealings with the earth.

The chronological notices scattered through chapters seven and eight further tighten the block: the 150 days of prevailing waters, the resting of the ark on the mountains of Ararat, and the gradual drying of the ground all keep the reader inside one extended episode. At the same time the sending of the raven and the dove, followed by the release from the ark and the altar built from clean animals, supply the concrete actions that move the story from judgment to a new beginning on the same ground that had been cursed earlier.

How is the passage structured?

The account opens with a rapid sequence of human increase and the taking of wives by the sons of God, followed at once by the LORD’s limit of one hundred and twenty years and the notice of the Nephilim. That opening movement shifts without pause into the LORD’s observation of continual evil in every human thought, his grief, and the direct announcement that he will blot out man, beast, creeping thing, and bird. The single counter-statement that Noah found favor interrupts the judgment sentence and supplies the pivot on which the rest of the narrative turns.

From that point the text moves into detailed instructions for the ark, given in measured stages of dimensions, decks, and provisions, each met by Noah’s compliance. The command to enter the ark then repeats with added precision about clean and unclean animals, after which the flood itself arrives on a fixed timetable of seven days, forty days, and one hundred fifty days. The waters’ steady rise is tracked by the ark’s elevation above the mountains and the death of all flesh outside it.

A reversal begins when God remembers Noah. The fountains and windows close, a wind blows, and the waters recede on another measured calendar that records the ark’s resting, the appearance of mountain tops, and three successive sendings of the dove separated by seven-day waits. Only after the ground is dry does God speak again, this time ordering exit and repopulation. Noah’s altar and the burnt offerings produce the final divine statement that never again will every living thing be struck down, closing the arc that began with the decision to blot out.

Speeches therefore mark each major turn: the initial limit and grief, the building commands, the entry command, the exit command, and the final resolve in the LORD’s heart. Between these speeches the narrative lingers on exact durations, repeated acts of obedience, and the incremental testing of the waters’ subsidence, so that the movement from universal judgment to renewed earth is paced by concrete intervals rather than summary declaration.

What is the historical background?

Ancient length units shape the scale of the vessel God directs Noah to build. The instructions call for an ark three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with lower, second, and third decks and a single door set in the side. A cubit measured the distance from elbow to fingertip, a standard that appears across Mesopotamian and Levantine records for both boats and buildings.

The command to take seven pairs of clean animals alongside one pair of unclean ones assumes categories already familiar to the audience. These groupings later govern Israelite food laws, yet the story places them in the time before Sinai, indicating that the distinction belonged to older custom rather than to legislation given at the mountain.

When the waters finally recede, the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat. This name points to the highland region north of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, an area known in later Assyrian texts as Urartu. The same terrain supplied the timber and pitch mentioned for sealing the ark.

After the family and animals leave the vessel, Noah constructs an altar and presents burnt offerings from every clean animal and bird. The LORD smells the pleasing aroma and responds with a promise never again to curse the ground in the same way. Burnt offerings of this kind formed part of worship across the ancient Near East, where the rising smoke was understood to reach the deity.

The covenant announced in these chapters follows patterns of agreement attested in second-millennium treaties. God binds himself to the continuation of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. The sign attached to this commitment is the regular return of these cycles rather than a written tablet or carved monument.

The description of waters bursting from the fountains of the great deep and descending through the windows of the heavens reflects a shared ancient picture of the world bounded by waters both above and below the visible sky. The narrative draws on that picture to portray the reversal of creation’s order.

What does this passage teach about God?

The LORD responds to the earth’s corruption by declaring both an end and a continuation. When every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually, the LORD expresses grief and resolves to blot out man along with beast, creeping thing, and bird. This judgment arises directly from what God sees rather than from an external standard imposed later. At the same time the text records that Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD, and God proceeds to instruct him to build the ark and to enter it with his household. The favor does not remove the reality of widespread destruction; it marks the single line through which life will pass.

God’s speech to Noah makes the preservation of life part of the same divine purpose that brings the flood. The command to bring two of every kind, and seven pairs of clean animals, shows that the coming judgment is not total annihilation but a measured act that leaves room for repopulation. When the waters rise and the LORD shuts Noah in, the same voice that announced destruction now guarantees survival for those inside. After the waters subside, God remembers Noah and all the beasts with him, sends a wind, and closes the fountains and windows. The sequence presents divine initiative at both the onset and the ending of the catastrophe.

The covenant announced before the flood receives its first concrete expression in the promise spoken after the offerings on the altar. The LORD declares in his heart that he will never again curse the ground because of man or strike down every living creature, even while acknowledging that the intention of man’s heart remains evil from his youth. The stability of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night is therefore grounded not in human improvement but in God’s own resolve. Noah’s obedience in building and entering the ark, together with the later act of worship, stands as the human response that meets this divine commitment. The passage therefore presents judgment and mercy as held together by the same speaker, with the survival of Noah’s family serving as the concrete sign that God’s word both ends and sustains the created order.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

The opening verses leave the identity of the sons of God unresolved. They see the daughters of man as pleasant and take wives from them, producing the Nephilim and the mighty men of renown. The account records these events without further explanation of who the sons of God are or how their action contributes to the spread of violence. Readers must weigh whether the phrase points to divine beings, to rulers descended from Seth, or to another group, yet the text itself supplies no additional markers.

The statement that the LORD’s Spirit shall not strive with man forever, setting his days at one hundred and twenty years, raises a separate question of timing. The limit appears immediately after the marriages and before the declaration that every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually. Whether the one hundred and twenty years measures the remaining span of human life in general or marks the interval until the flood begins is not stated.

A further silence concerns the distinction between clean and unclean animals. When Noah is told to take seven pairs of clean animals and a pair of those that are not clean, the categories are already in use. The narrative gives no prior account of how these distinctions arose or what ritual significance they carried at that point.

The covenant announced in 6:18 is established before the waters come, yet its precise content is not elaborated until after the flood. God remembers Noah in 8:1 and later declares in his heart that he will never again curse the ground because of man, even while acknowledging that the intention of man’s heart remains evil from his youth. The passage therefore presents both the preservation of one family and the restraint of future judgment without reconciling how these commitments stand alongside the continuing reality of human corruption.

The dates supplied for the flood’s rise and recession, along with the specific actions of sending out the raven and the dove, fix the chronology but leave open how the ark accommodated every living thing of all flesh and how the family sustained them for the full duration. These details remain outside the narrative’s focus.

Movement by movement

Human Multiplication and Divine Sorrow6:1-8

When the man began to multiply upon the face of the land and daughters were born, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were pleasant and took wives for themselves from all whom they chose. The account places the Nephilim on the earth in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them, the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The LORD responds by declaring that his Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is also flesh, and sets his days at one hundred and twenty years." The LORD then sees that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This sight moves the LORD to grief that he had made man on the earth, a grief felt to his heart, so that he declares he will blot out man whom he has created from the face of the land, from man to beast to creeping thing and to bird of the heavens, for he is sorry that he has made them. The single exception interrupts the sentence: Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Noah's Righteousness and the Ark Command6:9-22

Noah stands out immediately as a righteous man, blameless in his generation, who walked with God. The notice of his three sons follows at once, yet the next verses turn to the earth itself, now corrupt in God’s sight and filled with violence because all flesh had corrupted its way. God addresses Noah directly with the announcement that the end of all flesh has come before him on account of that violence, and that he is about to destroy them with the earth. The command to build then begins without delay: an ark of gopher wood fitted with rooms and sealed inside and out with pitch, three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high, finished with a roof, a side door, and three decks. God states that he himself is bringing the flood of waters to destroy every living thing that has the breath of life. At the same time he promises to establish his covenant with Noah, so that Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives will enter the ark. Pairs of every kind of living thing, male and female, are to come in as well, along with stores of every kind of food. Noah did according to all that God commanded him.

Entering the Ark7:1-16

The LORD opens this movement by directing Noah to enter the ark with his entire household because he alone is seen as righteous in his generation. The instruction then specifies seven pairs of every clean animal along with one pair of those that are not clean, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens, so that offspring may continue after the coming rain. Noah responds by doing all that the LORD commanded him. Seven days later the flood waters arrive, and on the very day the fountains of the deep burst and the windows of the heavens open, Noah, his three sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives go inside. Every kind of living creature enters two by two, male and female, exactly as God had directed. Once they are all aboard, the LORD himself shuts the door behind Noah, sealing the vessel as the rain begins its forty days and nights.

The Waters Prevail and Recede7:17-8:14

The flood continued forty days on the earth, the waters increasing until they bore up the ark and lifted it high above the land. They prevailed and increased greatly, covering every high mountain under the heavens and rising fifteen cubits above them. All flesh that moved on the earth died, birds, livestock, beasts, swarming creatures, and mankind, everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left. The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. God remembered Noah and all the beasts and livestock with him, making a wind blow over the earth so the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens closed, the rain from the heavens restrained. The waters receded continually until, at the end of one hundred and fifty days, they had abated. In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to abate until the tenth month, when the tops of the mountains were seen. Noah opened the window and sent out a raven that went to and fro until the waters dried up. He sent a dove that returned at first because the waters still covered the ground, then returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf, and finally did not return at all. In the six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the face of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth had dried out.

Leaving the Ark and the New Order8:15-22

God addresses Noah with the order to exit the ark together with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law. The command extends to every living thing aboard, requiring that birds, animals, and creeping things be released so they can swarm across the earth and increase. Noah steps out with his household, and the creatures follow by families. He builds an altar to the LORD, selects from the clean animals and birds, and offers burnt offerings. The LORD detects the pleasing aroma and resolves in his heart never again to curse the ground on account of man, acknowledging that the intention of man’s heart stays evil from his youth, and never again to destroy all life as before. The promise ties the continuation of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night to the enduring existence of the earth. This declaration follows directly from the offering rather than from any change in human character, marking a shift from the earlier resolve to blot out all flesh to a settled pattern of preservation amid ongoing evil.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse in the reader for the committee's word-level decisions.

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