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fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son's wives with thee.

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him,

into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth and the ark went upon the face of the

waters.

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

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And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven

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were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains

seen.

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day in the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second. month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living

thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply:

bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the

cloud and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah and of them was the whole earth overspread.

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years and he died.

Questions and Explanations.

Question.-What are we to understand "by the sons of God taking wives of the daughters of men?" Answer. The meaning probably is that some of the descendants of Seth, those to whom the knowledge of God had been given, married some of the descendants of Cain, who were heathens. The "giants" and "men of renown" spoken of, were, perhaps, men of great strength and of violent disposition. In other parts of Scripture mention is made of warriors of great size among those who fought against the chosen people, especially Og, king of Bashan, and the giant Goliath. Q. What was the size of the ark, and of what wood was it made?

A. The word "cubit" is used to express several different measures of length, sometimes meaning a length of about five feet nine inches; but the common cubit was equal to about eighteen inches. Portions of the human body have commonly been taken as means of measurement, and the cubit was the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger of a tall man. We may suppose, then, that the ark was about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It was not quite so long as the famous Great Eastern steamship, which is the largest vessel ever built. "Gopher" means a resinous wood, probably cypress.

Q.-How was it possible that the ark could contain two of every sort of living things? A.-There were not nearly so many varieties of animals then as now, and perhaps, of the larger and more ferocious kinds, only the very young were taken. Some writers suppose that of some kinds of birds and insects

the eggs only were taken. The largest of creatures are those which inhabit the sea, and of course they were not taken into the ark.

Q. It is said that "clean" beasts were to be taken by sevens. What is to be understood by that? A.-" Clean" animals were those fitted for food and for sacrifices. As it was necessary to provide food for those in the ark, and after they left it until the animals again increased, more clean animals were taken than of unclean, or those not fitted for food. There is reason to believe that of the seven of each kind, one was to be reserved for sacrifice, leaving three pairs for other purposes.

Q.-What is the rainbow?

A. We are all familiar with the beautiful arch of many colours seen in the clouds when rain is falling in the region of the sky opposite the sun. It is really a circle, but only a portion of it is visible to us. It is produced by refraction of the sun's rays, refraction meaning the turning of a ray of light from its previous course in entering a denser medium, such as a mist, or cloud. The text does not positively say that the Lord created the rainbow after the deluge, but as, no doubt, it had been conspicuous during the flood, He pointed it out and commanded Noah and his children to remember, whenever it was seen, the promise He then made. Q.-Has the promise of the Lord been kept? A.-It has; seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, have never failed to succeed in regular order; and we know that we may depend upon the providence of God.

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