Genesis 7; Genesis 8; Genesis 9; Matthew 3

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Genesis 7

1 The Lord said to Noah, "Go into the boat with your whole family; I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right.
2 Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal.
3 Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird. Do this so that every kind of animal and bird will be kept alive to reproduce again on the earth.
4 Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all the living beings that I have made."
5 And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth.
7 He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood.
8 A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean,
9 went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded.
10 Seven days later the flood came.
11 When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened,
12 and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights.
13 On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.
14 With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird.
15 A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah,
16 as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.
17 The flood continued for forty days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float.
18 The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface.
19 It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains;
20 it went on rising until it was about twenty-five feet above the tops of the mountains.
21 Every living being on the earth died - every bird, every animal, and every person.
22 Everything on earth that breathed died.
23 The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth - human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat.
24 The water did not start going down for a hundred and fifty days.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Genesis 8

1 God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down.
2 The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped,
3 and the water gradually went down for 150 days.
4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range.
5 The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window
7 and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone.
8 Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down,
9 but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in.
10 He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again.
11 It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down.
12 Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.
13 When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked around, and saw that the ground was getting dry.
14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 God said to Noah,
16 "Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives.
17 Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth."
18 So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives.
19 All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.
20 Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.
21 The odor of the sacrifice pleased the Lord, and he said to himself, "Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.
22 As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Genesis 9

1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.
2 All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power.
3 Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food.
4 The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.
5 If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life.
6 Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.
7 "You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth."
8 God said to Noah and his sons,
9 "I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants,
10 and with all living beings - all birds and all animals - everything that came out of the boat with you.
11 With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.
12 As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings,
13 I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world.
14 Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears,
15 I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings.
16 When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth.
17 That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings."
18 The sons of Noah who went out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)
19 These three sons of Noah were the ancestors of all the people on earth.
20 Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to plant a vineyard.
21 After he drank some of the wine, he became drunk, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his tent.
22 When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked, he went out and told his two brothers.
23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it behind them on their shoulders. They walked backward into the tent and covered their father, keeping their faces turned away so as not to see him naked.
24 When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done to him,
25 he said, "A curse on Canaan! He will be a slave to his brothers.
26 Give praise to the Lord, the God of Shem! Canaan will be the slave of Shem.
27 May God cause Japheth to increase! May his descendants live with the people of Shem! Canaan will be the slave of Japheth."
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years
29 and died at the age of 950.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Matthew 3

1 At that time John the Baptist came to the desert of Judea and started preaching.
2 "Turn away from your sins," he said, "because the Kingdom of heaven is near!"
3 John was the man the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he said, "Someone is shouting in the desert, "Prepare a road for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!' "
4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair; he wore a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5 People came to him from Jerusalem, from the whole province of Judea, and from all over the country near the Jordan River.
6 They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.
7 When John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him to be baptized, he said to them, "You snakes - who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send?
8 Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins.
9 And don't think you can escape punishment by saying that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham!
10 The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.
11 I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the one who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He is much greater than I am; and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals.
12 He has his winnowing shovel with him to thresh out all the grain. He will gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."
13 At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14 But John tried to make him change his mind. "I ought to be baptized by you," John said, "and yet you have come to me!"
15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires." So John agreed.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water. Then heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and lighting on him.
17 Then a voice said from heaven, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.