Noah, Genesis 5 – 9 is discussed

Methusaleh was the oldest man to ever live, living to 969 years old. His son was Lamech, and his son was Noah. See, Methusaleh was Noah’s grandfather.

By the time Noah was born, the human race had grown tremendously. But people had stopped paying attention to G-d. They stopped praying and started only doing the things that they wanted as they followed their selfish ways. Their hearts turned evil.

The Lord saw how the human race was overtaken with wickedness and regretted that he made humans. The Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” So G-d decided to start over and thus end the entire human race.

But there was one man Noah, who never strayed. He was faithful to G-d, prayed to G-d and taught his family to be observant “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Because G-d saw that the earth had become corrupt, he said to Noah that he was going to destroy all the people. He told Noah to build an ark and put all the animals on it, in pairs, one male and one female. G-d told Noah he would show him how to do this and that Noah and his wife and sone will stay on the ark; when the Earth floods, Noah would be safe.

G-d told Noah to build the ark of out of cypress wood and he gave Noah explicit instructions on how to build the ark. He instructed Noah to build rooms in the ark. The rooms were for Noah's family and stalls for the animals. G-d told Noah he was going make it rain and wipe out the human race and “every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish."

G-d told Noah he will make a covenant with him. “You will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.  You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.” G-d instructed Noah to bring every kind of food and store it the ark. G-d said bring “seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,  and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female.”

G-d informed Noah that in one week he would bring on the great flood, make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights; that the flood will kill every living, absent those on the ark.

Noah , 1645 depiction by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Photo Source: public domain

Noah did as G-d commanded, and when the ark was completed, he bought into the every kind of animals in pairs, two by two, lions and parrots and bears and monkeys and all of them came in pairs. And then his family went in. They closed up the ark and they waited.

One week later, drip, drip, drip it started to rain and then the deluge came; it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The ark floated above the waters. “Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. The earth was covered with water, even the great mountains were submerged. “Only Noah was left, and those with him on the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.”

Then G-d sent a great wind over the earth to make the waters recede. The ark sat upon the mountains of Ararat. Noah tested the waters and sent a raven out, and it flew until the water had dried up. Noah then sent out a dove from the ark to see if the water receded enough for him to leave the ark. But the dove could not find anywhere to land and returned to the ark. Noah waited seven more days, and the sent the dove back out. This time, the dove returned with an olive branch, indicating the water had receded. Once again, Noah waited seven more days. He sent the dove out and this time the dove did not return. The land was now dry.

G-d instructed Noah to open the ark, let his family out, and then release the animals so they could replenish the land. The animals marched out of the ark in pairs, two by two. ”Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.” The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: He told Noah that never gain he would destroy all the humans and animals on the earth.

G-d told Noah to be fruitful, increase in number and fill the earth. G-d made a covenant with Noah and his descendants. And then G-d made a rainbow appear as a sign of the covenant. The rainbow will serve as a reminder of the covenant between “God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

When the flood was over, and Noah, Noah’s wife, Shem, Ham and Japheth departed the ark and it was Shem whose children were the descendants of Abraham, the first Jew. The Hebrews descend from Shem. Noah lived to be 950 years old.