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Noah builds the Ark

Going into the Ark

The Flood/Deluge

Safe in the Ark

Leaving the Ark

Building an Altar

The Drunken Noah

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Noah builds the Ark

Going into the Ark

The Flood

It's the End of the World!!

Noah was a good man in a corrupt world. He walked with God. He had a wife, three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and three daughters-in-law.

God saw the corruption and depravity of the world, and regretted creating people. But what He had created, He could destroy. Noah would be an exception. God would spare him and his family. He told Noah what He was about to do, and directed him to build an ark. In the ark he was to put pairs of all the animals and birds on the earth. 

Noah was a contrarian. Despite the jeers of the people around him, Noah built the ark, collected the animals and birds, and prepared for the worst. It came. God opened the heavens and flooded the earth. Nothing and no-one was spared. Except every living creature in the Ark. And the fish, of course.

Noah and his family, locked inside the ark, were safe. Eventually the rain stopped. A wind, the breath of God, blew over the waters and they began to recede. Noah sent out birds to see what they would do. At first they could find nowhere to perch, but then one of them, a dove, failed to come back to the ark, and Noah knew it had found a branch on which to perch. When the earth was finally dry, God told Noah to leave the ark, freeing all the animals and birds as well.

The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar of thanksgiving to God. God made Noah a promise: that He would never again destroy all living creatures, as He had just done. As a sign of His promise, He made a rainbow across the sky.

Noah became the first tiller of the soil. He planted, among other things, a vineyard. When the grapes ripened he made wine, but he drank too much and became drunk. While he was drunk he threw off all his clothes and fell down, naked, on the ground. 

His son Ham came in and saw him, and went off to get his brothers, so that they could see too. But they were more respectful towards their father, and shielded their eyes while they covered him.

When Noah woke up and heard what had happened, he was angry. He cursed Ham for his lack of respect. Ham was the father of Canaan, who was the forefather of the Canaanites, traditional enemies of the Hebrew people.

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Noah's Story in the Bible

The Wickedness of People, Genesis 6:5-8 

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
⁶And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 
⁷So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ 
⁸But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord.

Command to build an Ark, Genesis 6:9-22 

9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 
¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 
¹²And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 
¹³And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 
¹⁴Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 
¹⁵This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 
¹⁶Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 
¹⁷For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 
¹⁸But 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. 
¹⁹And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 
²⁰Of 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 kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 
²¹Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.’ 
²²Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

The Great Flood, Genesis 7:1-24

1Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 
²Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 
³and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 
⁴For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.’ 
⁵And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 
⁷And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 
⁸Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 
⁹two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 
¹⁰And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
11 In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 
12The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. 
13On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark, 
14they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. 
15They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 
¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 
18The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 
19The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 
20the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 
21And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 
22everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 
23He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 
24And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

The Flood Subsides, Genesis 8:1-19

1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 
2the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 
3and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; 
⁴and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 
⁵The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 
⁷and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 
⁸ Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 
⁹but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 
¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 
¹¹and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 
¹² Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 
¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 
¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, 
¹⁶‘Go 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 of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ 
¹⁸So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 
¹⁹And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families. 

God’s Promise to Noah, Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. 21And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,  shall not cease.’ 

The Covenant with Noah, Genesis 9:1-17

9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. ³Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
⁶ Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
   by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image   God made humankind.
⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ 
¹² God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ 
¹⁷ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

Noah the First Farmer, Genesis 9:18-29

18 The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 
19These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 
²¹He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. 
²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 
²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 
²⁵he said,
‘Cursed be Canaan;
   lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’
²⁶He also said,
‘Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
   and let Canaan be his slave.
²⁷May God make space for Japheth,
   and let him live in the tents of Shem;
   and let Canaan be his slave.’
28 After the flood Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. 
29All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. 

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Bible Art: Paintings and Artworks from the Old and New Testament: Noah, the Great Flood or Deluge, the First Farmer - Bible Study Resource

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