God sent a flood to cover the earth
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1 Then Yahweh said to Noah, “I have seen that of all the people who are now living, you alone are living a righteous life. So you and all your family go into the boat. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of animal that I have said I will accept for sacrifices. Take seven males and seven females. Also take a male and a female from every kind of animal that I have said I will not accept for sacrifices. 3 Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird from all over the earth to keep them alive. 4 Do this because seven days from now I will cause rain to start falling on the earth. It will rain constantly for forty days and nights. In that way I will destroy everything that I have made that is on the earth.”5 Noah did everything that Yahweh told him to do. 6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood came on the earth. 7 Before it started to rain, Noah and his wife and his sons went into the boat to escape from the flood water. 8 Pairs of animals, those that God said he would accept for sacrifices and those that he would not accept for sacrifices, pairs of birds and pairs of all the kinds of creatures that move along close to the ground, 9 males and females, came to Noah and then went into the boat with him, just as God told him that they would do. 10 After seven days had ended, it started to rain, and a flood began to cover the earth. 11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month of that year all the water that is under the surface of the earth burst forth, and it began to rain so hard that it was as though a dam in the sky burst open. 12 Rain fell on the earth constantly for 40 days and nights. 13 On the day that it started to rain, Noah went into the boat with his wife and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. 14 There were already in the boat some of every kind of wild animal and every kind of livestock and every kind of bird and of every other creature that has wings. 15 Pairs of all living creatures had come to Noah and entered the boat. 16 There was a male and a female of each creature that came to Noah, just as God had said they would do. After they were all in the boat, God shut the door.
17 It rained for 40 days and nights, and the flood increased. It flooded until the water lifted the boat above the ground. 18 As the water rose higher and higher on the earth, the boat floated on the surface of the water. 19 The water rose all over the earth until it covered all the mountains. 20 Even the highest mountains were covered by more than 20 feet of water. 21 As a result, every living creature on the surface of the earth died. That included birds and livestock and wild animals and other creatures that scurry across the ground, and all the people. 22 On the land, every living thing died. 23 God detroyed every living creature on the earth: People and animals and creatures that crawl and birds. Only Noah and those who were in the boat with him remained alive. 24 The water of the flood remained like that on the earth for 150 days.