1The LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ship with your whole family because I have seen that you alone are righteous among the people of today. 2Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal (a male and a female of each) and one pair of every kind of unclean animal (a male and a female). 3Also, take seven pairs of every kind of bird (a male and a female of each) to preserve animal life all over the earth after the flood. 4In seven days I will send rain to the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. I will wipe off the face of the earth every living creature that I have made." 5So Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.

6Noah was 600 years old when the flood came to the earth. 7Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives went into the ship to escape the floodwaters. 8Clean and unclean animals, birds, and creatures that crawl on the ground 9came to Noah to go into the ship in pairs (a male and female of each) as God had commanded Noah. 10Seven days later the flood came on the earth. 11On the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah's life, all the deep springs burst open. The sky opened, 12and rain came pouring down on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

13On that same day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as well as Noah's wife and his three daughters-in-law went into the ship. 14They had with them every type of wild animal, every type of domestic animal, every type of creature that crawls on the earth, and every type of bird (every creature with wings). 15A pair of every living, breathing animal came to Noah to go into the ship. 16A male and a female of every animal went in as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD closed the door behind them.

17The flood continued for 40 days on the earth. The water increased and lifted the ship so that it rose high above the ground. 18As the water rose and became very deep, the ship floated on top of the water. 19The water rose very high above the earth. It covered all the high mountains everywhere under the sky. 20It rose 23 feet above the mountaintops. 21Every creature that crawls on the earth died, including birds, domestic and wild animals, and everything that swarms over the earth, along with every human. 22Everything on dry land (every living, breathing creature) died. 23Every living creature on the face of the earth was wiped out. Humans, domestic animals, crawling creatures, and birds were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ship were left. 24The floodwaters were on the earth for 150 days.