
Modern
reconstruction of Noah's Ark |
The Great
Flood:
mythological
story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are
several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The
possibility that there is a historical
event behind the story (a local
flood in southern Babylonia
in the twenty-eighth century BCE) can not
be
excluded.
Genesis 6
When men began to
multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the
sons of God [1] saw that the
daughters of
men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Then
YHWH said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he
is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." The
Nephilim [2] were on the
earth in those days, and also afterward, when
the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children
to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
YHWH saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. And YHWH was sorry that he had made man
on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
So YHWH said, "I will blot out man whom I
have created from the
face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the
air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But
Noah found favor in the eyes of YHWH.
These
are the Records of Noah.
Noah was
a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with
God. And
Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. Now
the earth was corrupt in God's sight,
and the earth was filled with violence. And
God saw the earth, and behold, it was
corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And
God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh;
for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will
destroy them with the earth. Make
yourself an ark of gopher wood; make
rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This
is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred
cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make
a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the
door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third
decks. For
behold, I will bring a flood of waters
upon
the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from
under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. But
I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the
ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And
of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every
sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and
female. Of
the birds according to their kinds, and
of
the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the
ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you,
to keep them alive. Also
take with you every sort of food that
is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for
them."
Noah
did this; he did all that God
commanded him.
Note
1:
The expression, bene
elohim, can also mean "the sons of the gods".
Note
2:
Giants.
|
|