THE BIBLICAL FLOOD

STORY GENESIS 6:5 - 8:22

THE YAHWIST (J) [God is Yahweh] THE PRIESTLY WRITER (P) [God is Elohim]

(5) And Yahweh saw that the evil of humans was great
on the earth and all the inclination of the thoughts of
their heart was only evil all the day (6) And Yahweh
regretted that he had made humans in the earth, and he
was grieved to his heart (7) And Yahweh said, "I shall
wipe out the humans which I have created from the face
of the earth, from human to beast to creeping thing to
bird of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them"
(8) But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.
(9) These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations.
Noah walked with God (10) And Noah sired three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth (11) And
the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with violence (12) And God
saw the earth, and here it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth (13)
And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them, and here I am going to destroy them with the earth (14) Make
yourself an ark of Gopher wood, make rooms with the ark, and pitch it outside and inside with
pitch (15) And this is how you shall make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty
cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height (16) You shall make a window for the ark, and you
shall finish it to a cubit from the top, and you shall make an entrance to the ark in its side. You
shall make lower, second, and third stories for it (17) and here I am bringing the flood, water
over the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under the heavens.
Everything which is on the land will die (18) And I shall establish my covenant with you. And
you shall come to the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you (19)
And of all the living, of all flesh, you shall bring TWO to the ark to keep alive with
you, they shall be male and female (20) Of the birds according to their kind and
of the beasts according to their kind and of all the creeping things of the earth
according to their kind, TWO of each will come to you to keep alive (21) And you,
take for yourself of all food which will be eaten and gather it to you, and it will be for you and
for them for food" (22) And Noah did according to all that God commanded him--so he did.
 GENESIS CHAPTER SEVEN

(J) (P)

(1) And Yahweh said to Noah, "Come, you and all your
household, to the ark, for I have seen you as righteous before
me in this generation (2) Of all the clean beasts take
yourself SEVEN PAIRS, man and his woman; and of
the beasts which are not clean, TWO, man and his
woman (3) Also of the birds of the heavens SEVEN
PAIRS, male and female, to keep alive seed on the
face of the earth (4) For in seven more days
I shall rain on the earth forty days and forty nights,
and I shall wipe out all the substance that I have made from
upon the face of the earth" (5) And Noah did according to all
that Yahweh had commanded him.
(6) And Noah was six hundred years old, and the flood was on the earth
(7) And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives
with him came to the ark from before the waters of the flood
(8) Of the clean beasts and of the beasts which were not clean,
and of the birds and of all those which creep upon the earth, (9)
TWO of each came to Noah to the ark, male and female, as God had
commanded Noah(10) And seven days later the waters of the flood were on
the earth (11) In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, in the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of
the heavens were opened
(12) And there was rain on the earth, forty days
and forty nights
(13) In this very day, Noah and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah,
and Noah's wife and his sons' three wives with them came to the ark, (14)
They and all the living things according to their kind, and all the
beasts according to their kind, and all the creeping things that
creep on the earth according to their kind, and all the birds
according to their kind, and every winged bird (15) And they came to
Noah to the ark, TWO OF EACH, of all flesh in which is the breath of life
(16) And those which came were male and female, some of all flesh came, as
God had commanded him.
 (J) (P)

And Yahweh closed it for him (17) And the flood was on the
earth for forty days and forty nights, and the waters
multiplied and raised the ark, and it was lifted from the earth
(18) And the waters grew strong and multiplied greatly on the
earth, and the ark went on the surface of the waters (19) And
the waters grew very very strong on the earth, and they
covered all the high mountains that are under all the heavens
(20) Fifteen cubits above, the waters grew stronger, and they
covered the mountains
(21) And all flesh, those that creep on the earth, the birds, the
beasts, and the wild animals, and all the swarming things that swarm
on the earth, and all the humans expired
(22) Everything that had the breathing spirit of life in
its nostrils, everything that was on the dry ground, died
(23) And he wiped out all the substance that was on the
face of the earth, from human to beast, to creeping thing,
and to bird of the heavens, and they were wiped out from
the earth, and only Noah and those who were with him in
the ark were left
(24) and the waters grew strong on the earth a hundred fifty days

GENESIS CHAPTER EIGHT

(1) And God remembered Noah and all the living, and all the beasts
that were with him in the ark, and God passed a wind over the earth,
and the waters were decreased (2) And the fountains of the deep
and the windows of the heavens were shut
and the rain was restrained from the heavens
(3) and the waters receded from the earth continually,
and the waters were abated at the end of a hundred fifty days (4)
and the ark rested, in the seventh month, in the seventeenth
day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat (5) And the waters
continued receding until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on
the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
 (J) (P)

(6) And it was at the end of forty days, and Noah opened
the window of the ark which he had made
(7) And he sent out a raven, and it went back and forth until the
waters dried up from the earth
(8) And he sent out a dove from him to see whether the
waters had eased from the face of the earth (9) And the dove
did not find a resting place for its foot, and it returned to him
to the ark, for waters were on the face of the earth, and he
put out his hand and took it and brought it to him to
the ark (10) and he waited seven more days, and he
again sent out a dove from the ark (11) and the dove came to
him at evening time, and here was an olive leaf torn off in its
mouth, and Noah knew that the waters had eased from
the earth (12) and he waited seven more days, and he
sent out a dove, and it did not return to him ever again.
(13) And it was in the six hundred and first year, in the first
month, on the first of the month, the waters dried from the
earth And Noah turned back the covering of the ark and looked,
and here the face of the earth had dried. (14) And in the second
month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth
dried up (15) And God spoke to Noah, saying, (16) "Go out from the
ark, you and your wife and your sons' wives with you (17) All the living
things that are with you, of all flesh, of the birds, and of the beasts,
and of all the creeping things that creep on the earth, that go out with
you, shall swarm in the earth and be fruitful and multiply in the
earth" (18) And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives
went out (19) All the living things, all the creeping things and all the
birds, all that creep on the earth, by their families, they went out of
(20) And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took the ark.
some of each of the clean beasts and of each of the
clean birds, and he offered sacrifices on the altar
(21) And Yahweh smelled the pleasant smell, and Yahweh
said to his heart, "I shall not again curse the ground on man's
account, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from their
youth, and I shall not again strike all the living as I have done
(22) All the rest of the days of the earth, seed and harvest, and
cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall
not cease."
Adapted from Who Wrote the Bible, by Richard Elliot Friedman