Lost Books of the Bible (80 page)

15 You shall raise up offspring, and your children with you, in the midst of the earth; and Noah went and took a wife, and he chose Naamah the daughter of Enoch, and she was five hundred and eighty years old.

16 And Noah was four hundred and ninety-eight years old, when he took Naamah for a wife.

17 Naamah conceived and gave birth to a son, and he called his name Japheth, saying, God has enlarged me in the earth; and she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and he called his name Shem, saying, God has made me a remnant, to raise up descendants the midst of the earth.

18 And Noah was five hundred and two years old when Naamah gave birth to Shem, and the boys grew up and went in the ways of the Lord, in all that Methuselah
and Noah their father taught them.

19 Lamech the father of Noah, died in those days; yet verily he did not go with all his heart in the ways of his father, and he died in the hundred and ninety-fifth year of the life of Noah.

20 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy years, and he died.

21 All the sons of men who knew the Lord, died in that year before the Lord brought evil on them; for the Lord willed them to die, so as not to behold the evil that God would bring on their brothers and relatives, as he had so declared to do.

22 In that time, the Lord said to Noah and Methuselah, Stand forth and proclaim to the sons of men all the words that I spoke to you in those days, perchance they may turn from their evil ways, and I will then repent of the evil and will not bring it.

23 And Noah and Methuselah stood forth, and said in the ears of the sons of men, all that God had spoken concerning them.

24 But the sons of men would not listen, neither would they incline their ears to all their declarations.

25 It was after this that the Lord said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me on account of their evil deeds, and behold I will destroy the earth.

26 And take with you gopher wood, and go to a certain place and make a large ark, and place it in that spot.

27 Thus shall you make it; three hundred cubits in length, fifty cubits broad and thirty cubits high.

28 And you shall make a door, open at its side, and to a cubit you shall finish above, and cover it within and without with pitch.

29 And behold I will bring the flood of waters on the earth, and all flesh will be destroyed; from under the heavens all that is on earth shall perish.

30 You and your household shall go and gather two couple of all living things, male and female, and shall bring them to the ark, to raise up offspring from them on earth.

31 Gather to you all food that is eaten by all the animals, that there may be food for you and for them.

32 You shall choose for your sons three maidens from the daughters of men, and they shall be wives to your sons.

33 And Noah rose up, and he made the ark, in the place where God had commanded him, and Noah did as God had ordered him.

34 In his five hundred and ninety-fifth year Noah commenced to make the ark, and he made the ark in five years, as the Lord had commanded.

35 Then Noah took the three daughters of Eliakim, son of Methuselah, for wives for his sons, as the Lord had commanded Noah.

36 It was at that time Methuselah the son of Enoch died; he was nine hundred and sixty years old at his death.

CHAPTER 6

1 At that time, after the death of Methuselah, the Lord said to Noah, Go with your household into the ark; behold I will gather to you all the animals of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and they shall all come and surround the ark.

2 You shall go and seat yourself by the doors of the ark, and all the beasts, the animals, and the fowls, shall assemble and place themselves before you, and such of them as will
come and crouch before you, you shall take and deliver into the hands of your sons, who will bring them to the ark, and all that will stand before you you shall leave.

3 And the Lord brought this about on the next day, and animals, beasts and fowls came in great multitudes and surrounded the ark.

4  Noah went and seated himself by the door of the ark, and of all flesh that crouched before him he brought into the ark, and all that stood before him he left on earth.

5 A lioness came with her two whelps, male and female, and the three crouched before Noah;  the two whelps rose up against the lioness and struck her, and made her flee from her place, and she went away, and they returned to their places and crouched on the earth before Noah.

6 And the lioness ran away, and stood in the place of the lions.

7 And Noah saw this and wondered greatly, and he rose and took the two whelps and brought them into the ark.

8 Noah brought into the ark from all living creatures that were on earth, so that there was none left but those which Noah brought into the ark.

9 Two and two came to Noah into the ark, but from the clean animals and clean fowls, he brought seven couples as God had commanded him.

10 And all the animals, and beasts, and fowls were still there, and they surrounded the ark at every place, and the rain had not descended till seven days after.

11 On that day the Lord caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun darkened, and the foundations of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently, and the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, and all the fountains in the earth were broken up, such as was not known to the inhabitants before; and God did this mighty act in order to terrify the sons of men, that there might be no more evil on earth.

12 And still the sons of men would not return from their evil ways, and they increased the anger of the Lord at that time, and did not even direct their hearts to all this.

13 At the end of seven days, in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, the waters of the flood were on the earth.

14 All the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

15 And Noah and his household, and all the living creatures that were with him, came into the ark on account of the waters of the flood, and the Lord shut him in.

16 All the sons of men that were left on the earth became exhausted through evil on account of the rain, for the waters were coming more violently on the earth, and the animals and beasts were still surrounding the ark.

17 And the sons of men assembled together, about seven hundred thousand men and women, and they came to Noah to the ark.

18 They called to Noah, saying, Open for us that we may come to you in the ark--and wherefore shall we die?

19 And Noah, with a loud voice answered them from the ark, saying, Have you not all rebelled against the Lord, and said that he does not exist?  Therefore the Lord brought on you this evil, to destroy and cut you off from the face of the earth.

20 Is not this the thing that I spoke to you of one hundred and twenty years back, and you would not listen to the voice of the Lord, and now do you desire to live on earth?

21 They said to Noah, We are ready to return to the Lord; only open for us that we may live and not die.

22 And Noah answered them, saying, Behold now that you see the trouble of your souls, you wish to return to the Lord; why did you not return during these hundred and twenty years, which the Lord granted you as the determined period?

23 But now you come and tell me this on account of the troubles of your souls, now also the Lord will not listen to you, neither will he give ear to you on this day, so that you will not now succeed in your wishes.

24 The sons of men approached in order to break into the ark, to come in on account of the rain, for they could not bear the rain on them.

25 And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals that stood around the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from that place, and every man went his way and they again scattered themselves on the face of the earth.

26 The rain was still descending on the earth, and it descended forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailed greatly on the earth; all flesh that was on the earth or in the waters died, whether men, animals, beasts, creeping things or birds of the air, and there only remained Noah and those that were with him in the ark.

27 The waters prevailed and they greatly increased on the earth, and they lifted up the ark and it was raised from the earth.

28 And the ark floated on the face of the waters; it was tossed on the waters so that all the living creatures within were turned about like pottage in a cauldron.

29 Great anxiety seized all the living creatures that were in the ark, and the ark was like to be broken.

30 And all the living creatures that were in the ark were terrified: the lions roared, and the oxen lowed, and the wolves howled, and every living creature in the ark spoke and lamented in its own language, so that their voices reached to a great distance, and Noah and his sons cried and wept in their troubles; they were greatly afraid that they had reached the gates of death.

31 And Noah prayed to the Lord, and cried to him on account of this, and he said, O Lord help us, for we have no strength to bear this evil that has encompassed us, for the waves of the waters have surrounded us, mischievous torrents have terrified us, the snares of death have come before us; answer us, O Lord, answer us, light up your countenance toward us and be gracious to us, redeem us and deliver us.

32  The Lord listened to the voice of Noah, and the Lord remembered him.

33 And a wind passed over the earth;  the waters were still and the ark rested.

34 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

35 And the waters decreased in those days, and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.

36 Noah then opened the windows of the ark, and Noah still called out to the Lord at that time and he said, O Lord, who did form the earth and the heavens and all that are therein, bring forth our souls from this
confinement, and from the prison wherein you have placed us, for I am much wearied with sighing.

37 And the Lord listened to the voice of Noah, and said to him, When you have completed a full year you shall then go forth.

38 And at the revolution of the year, when a full year was completed to Noah's dwelling in the ark, the waters were dried from off the earth, and Noah put off the covering of the ark.

39 At that time, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry, but Noah and his sons and those that were with him did not go out from the ark until the Lord told them.

40 And the day came that the Lord told them to go out, and they all went out from the ark.

41 They went and returned every one to his way and to his place, and Noah and his sons lived in the land that God had told them;  they served the Lord all their days, and the Lord blessed Noah and his sons on their going out from the ark.

42 And he said to them, Be prolific and fill all the earth; become strong and increase abundantly in the earth and reproduce therein.

CHAPTER 7

1 And these are the names of the sons of Noah: Japheth, Ham and Shem; and children were born to them after the flood, for they had taken wives before the flood.

2 These are the sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras, seven sons.