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When people had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born,
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some of the heavenly beings saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked.
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Then the LORD said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."
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In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.
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When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time,
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he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret
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that he said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them."
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But the LORD was pleased with Noah.
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This is the story of Noah. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God,
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but everyone else was evil in God's sight, and violence had spread everywhere.
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God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.
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God said to Noah, "I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds.
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Build a boat for yourself out of good timber; make rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out.
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Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
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Make a roof for the boat and leave a space of 18 inches between the roof and the sides. Build it with three decks and put a door in the side.
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I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die,
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but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives.
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Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive.
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Take along all kinds of food for you and for them."
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Noah did everything that God commanded.
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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.
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Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal.
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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.
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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."
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And Noah did everything that the LORD commanded.
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Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth.
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He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood.
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A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean,
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went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded.
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Seven days later the flood came.
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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,
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and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights.
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On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.
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With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird.
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A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah,
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as God had commanded. Then the LORD shut the door behind Noah.
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The flood continued for forty days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float.
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The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface.
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It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains;
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it went on rising until it was about twenty-five feet above the tops of the mountains.
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Every living being on the earth died---every bird, every animal, and every person.
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Everything on earth that breathed died.
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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.
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The water did not start going down for a hundred and fifty days.
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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.
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The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped,
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and the water gradually went down for 150 days.
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On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range.
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The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.
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After forty days Noah opened a window
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and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone.
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Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down,
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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.
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He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again.
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It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down.
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Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.
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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.
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By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
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"Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives.
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Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth."
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So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives.
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All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius; Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip was ruler of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias was ruler of Abilene,
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and Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests. At that time the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.
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So John went throughout the whole territory of the Jordan River, preaching, "Turn away from your sins and be baptized, and God will forgive your sins."
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As it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: "Someone is shouting in the desert: 'Get the road ready for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!
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Every valley must be filled up, every hill and mountain leveled off. The winding roads must be made straight, and the rough paths made smooth.
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The whole human race will see God's salvation!' "
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Crowds of people came out to John to be baptized by him. "You snakes!" he said to them. "Who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send?
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Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins. And don't start saying among yourselves that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham!
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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."
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The people asked him, "What are we to do, then?"
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He answered, "Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it."
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Some tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what are we to do?"
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"Don't collect more than is legal," he told them.
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Some soldiers also asked him, "What about us? What are we to do?" He said to them, "Don't take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely. Be content with your pay."
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People's hopes began to rise, and they began to wonder whether John perhaps might be the Messiah.
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So John said to all of them, "I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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He has his winnowing shovel with him, to thresh out all the grain and gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."
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In many different ways John preached the Good News to the people and urged them to change their ways.
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But John reprimanded Governor Herod, because he had married Herodias, his brother's wife, and had done many other evil things.
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Then Herod did an even worse thing by putting John in prison.
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After all the people had been baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened,
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and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you."
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When Jesus began his work, he was about thirty years old. He was the son, so people thought, of Joseph, who was the son of Heli,
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the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
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the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,
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the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
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the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
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the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
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the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,
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the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
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the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
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the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,
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the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,
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the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
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the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,
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the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
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the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Kenan,
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the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
