1Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. 2You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. 3Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 4In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
5Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. 8Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 10After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. 11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— 14they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. 16Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in. 17The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. 18The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. 19The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. 20The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. 21All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. 23Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. 24The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.
| Dispensation | Opening event | Responsibility | Failure | Judgment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Innocence | Creation | Obey God — Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:15-17 | Disobedience — Gen 3:1-6 | Curse and death — Gen 3:7-19 |
| Conscience | The fall | Do good and offer blood sacrifice — Gen 3:5, 7, 22; Gen 4:4 | Wickedness — Gen 6:5-6, 11-12 | The flood — Gen 6:7, 13; Gen 7:11-14 |
| Human government | The flood | Scatter and multiply — Gen 8:15–9:7 | Did not scatter — Gen 11:1-4 | Confusion of languages — Gen 11:5-9 |
| Promise | Tower of Babel | Dwell in Canaan — Gen 12:1-7 | Dwelt in Egypt — Gen 12:10; Gen 46:6 | Egyptian bondage — Exod 1:8-14 |
| Law | Exodus | Keep the whole law — Exod 19:3-8 | Broke the law — 2 Kgs 17:7-20; Matt 27:1-25 | Worldwide dispersion — Deut 28:63-66; Luke 21:20-24 |
| Church age | Dispersion and regathering of Israel — Ezek 36:16-19; Ezek 36:20-24 | Faith in Jesus; keep doctrine pure — John 1:12; Rom 8:1-4; Eph 2:8-9 | Impure doctrine — John 5:39-40; 2 Tim 3:1-7 | Apostasy and false doctrine — 2 Thess 2:3; 2 Tim 4:3 |
| Millennial reign | Armageddon | Obey and worship Jesus — Isa 11:3-5; Zech 14:9, 16 | Final rebellion — Rev 20:7-9 | Satan loosed and eternal judgment — Rev 20:11-15 |
The accompanying diagram locates the last fulfilled event at Matt 27:50-51, the rapture of the saved at 1 Thess 4:13-18, and the return of Christ in glory at Rev 19:11-16. It also shows the seven-year tribulation between the church age and the millennial reign, followed by the great white throne and eternity future.