Noah's Ark
The flood and the promise
This story describes a worldwide flood in which almost all of humanity perishes. It is told plainly, without graphic detail.
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- A verse number shows the Bible’s exact words.
- An underlined word shows what it means.
Story
What happened?
Tap a verse number, like , to read the Bible’s exact words.
Who’s who and what came beforePeople, places, and the story so far. Open it anytime.
Scene Card
Cast
- Noah: A man who walked with God. He was 600 years old when the flood came (7:6).
- The LORD: God. LORD in capital letters stands for God's personal name. Jewish readers traditionally don't say it aloud, out of respect.
- Noah's family: Noah's wife, their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the three sons' wives. Genesis does not tell us the women's names.
- The animals: Birds, livestock, wild animals, and creatures that crawl on the ground.
Setting
- The earth, long ago. Then a huge wooden ark floating on the water. Then the mountains of Ararat.
When
- Long ago, near the beginning of the Bible's story. Genesis does not give a date we can match to our calendar.
Before the Story
God made a good world. God made everything, and he called it very good (1:31).
Then people turned away from God. The first people disobeyed God (Genesis 3). Soon Cain killed his own brother, Abel (4:8).
Violence kept spreading. Many generations passed. By Noah's time, the earth was full of violence (6:11).
Here's what you know that almost nobody in this story knows: God will not give up on his world. This story ends with a promise that still stands today.
Map of the Story
| Scene | Verses | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1. A world full of violence | 6:5-7, 6:11-12 | God grieves over what people have become |
| 2. Noah | 6:8-10 | God's favor rests on Noah |
| 3. Build an ark | 6:13-16 | God tells Noah to build a huge boat |
| 4. God's promise to Noah | 6:17-22 | God promises to keep Noah's family and the animals alive |
| 5. Into the ark | 7:1-9 | Noah's family and the animals go in |
| 6. The LORD shut him in | 7:10-16 | The flood begins. God closes the door |
| 7. The waters rise | 7:17-24 | Everything on dry land dies |
| 8. God remembered Noah | 8:1-5 | The water goes down. The ark rests |
| 9. The raven and the dove | 8:6-12 | Noah sends out birds. A dove brings a leaf |
| 10. Out of the ark | 8:13-19 | The ground is dry. Everyone comes out |
| 11. Noah's altar | 8:20-22 | Noah worships. God makes a promise in his heart |
| 12. A new start | 9:1-7 | God blesses Noah's family |
| 13. The rainbow | 9:8-17 | God makes a covenant and gives a sign |
Plain Retelling
Scene 1 of 13A World Full of Violence
God looked at the earth. Everywhere, people were hurting each other. The earth was ruined and full of violence.
The LORD saw how wicked people had become. Every plan and every thought in their hearts was evil, all the time. In the Bible, the heart means the inside of a person: their thoughts, plans, and choices.
The LORD was sorry that he had made people. "He was grieved in His heart" (6:6). Grieved means deeply sad and hurt.
So the LORD said he would wipe people off the face of the earth. The animals, the crawling creatures, and the birds would be wiped out too.
Scene 2 of 13Noah
But there was one man God looked at differently. "Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD" (6:8). Favor means kindness and love that God gives freely.
Genesis tells us about God's favor first. Then it tells us what kind of man Noah was.
Noah was righteous, which means right with God. He was blameless among the people of his time. "Noah walked with God" (6:9). This is a comparison. It means Noah lived close to God every day, like two friends walking side by side.
Noah had three sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Scene 3 of 13Build an Ark
God spoke to Noah. God said the end had come for all living creatures, because they had filled the earth with violence. God said he would destroy them along with the earth.
Then God gave Noah a job. "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood" (6:14). An ark is a huge wooden box that floats, like a giant boat. Nobody today knows for sure what gopher wood was.
Noah was to build rooms inside the ark. He was to coat it inside and out with pitch. Pitch is a thick, sticky tar that keeps water out.
God gave Noah the size. The ark was to be about 450 feet long, about 75 feet wide, and about 45 feet high. That is longer than a football field, end zones included.
It would have a roof and a door in its side. Inside, it would have three decks, or floors.
Scene 4 of 13God's Promise to Noah
God told Noah what was coming. "I will bring floodwaters upon the earth" (6:17). Everything on the earth that breathed would die.
Then God made Noah a promise. "But I will establish My covenant with you" (6:18). A covenant is a promise that binds two sides together.
Noah would go into the ark with his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives.
Noah was to bring two of every kind of living creature, a male and a female. God would keep them alive with him. Noah was also to store every kind of food, for his family and for the animals.
"So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him" (6:22).
Scene 5 of 13Into the Ark
Then the LORD told Noah to go into the ark with his whole family. The LORD said he had found Noah righteous among the people of his time.
This time the LORD gave more detail about the animals. Noah was to take seven pairs of every kind of clean animal. He was to take one pair of every kind of unclean animal. He was to take seven pairs of every kind of bird.
The LORD said that in seven days, the rain would begin. It would fall for forty days and forty nights.
Noah did everything the LORD commanded.
The animals came to Noah. They went into the ark two by two, male and female, as God had said.
Scene 6 of 13The LORD Shut Him In
After seven days, the flood came. It was the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's 600th year.
"All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened" (7:11). This is picture language. Water burst up from under the earth and poured down from the sky.
Rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
That same day, Noah went into the ark. His wife went in. So did Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their three wives. That was eight people in all. Every kind of animal and bird went in with them.
Then "the LORD shut him in" (7:16). Noah did not close the door. God did.
Halfway thereThis is a good place for a break. Your spot is saved on this device.
Scene 7 of 13The Waters Rise
The water rose and rose. It lifted the ark high above the ground. The ark floated on top of the water.
The water covered even the high mountains. It rose about 22 feet above the mountaintops.
Everything on dry land that breathed died. Birds died. Animals died. People died.
Genesis says it plainly. "Only Noah and those with him in the ark remained" (7:23).
The water stayed high for 150 days. That is about five months.
Genesis does not describe the deaths in detail. But it does not hide them either. Christians have struggled with this passage for a long time.
Scene 8 of 13God Remembered Noah
"But God remembered Noah" (8:1). God also remembered all the animals in the ark. In the Bible, when God remembers, he acts on his promise.
God sent a wind over the earth. The water under the earth stopped bursting up. The rain stopped falling. Slowly, the water began to go down.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest. It stopped on the mountains of Ararat.
The water kept going down. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.
Scene 9 of 13The Raven and the Dove
Forty days later, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. He sent out a raven, a large black bird. It flew back and forth until the earth dried up.
Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water had gone down.
The dove found no place to rest her feet. Water still covered the ground. She flew back to the ark. Noah reached out his hand and brought her inside.
Noah waited seven more days. He sent the dove out again.
That evening she came back. In her beak was a fresh olive leaf. Now Noah knew the water had gone down.
Noah waited seven more days. He sent the dove out one more time. This time she did not come back.
Scene 10 of 13Out of the Ark
On the first day of the first month of Noah's 601st year, Noah took the covering off the ark. He looked out. The ground was dry.
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry. Noah's family had been in the ark for about a year.
Then God spoke to Noah. "Come out of the ark" (8:16).
God told Noah to bring out every animal and bird. They would spread out over the earth and have young ones and fill it again.
So Noah came out with his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives. Every animal and every bird came out too, kind by kind.
Scene 11 of 13Noah's Altar
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. An altar is a raised place for giving offerings to God.
Noah took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird. He offered them as burnt offerings. A burnt offering was a gift to God, burned whole on the altar.
The LORD smelled the pleasing smell. Then the LORD made a promise in his heart. This means the LORD said it to himself.
"Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth" (8:21). The LORD also said he would never again destroy all living creatures as he had done.
At the start of the story, the LORD saw that people's hearts were evil (6:5). Now, after the flood, God said the same thing about people's hearts. But this time he made a promise anyway.
God said the seasons would keep coming. "Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease" (8:22).
Scene 12 of 13A New Start
God blessed Noah and his sons. He said, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (9:1). This means have children and let your families grow. God had given the first people the same blessing (1:28).
God said the animals would now be afraid of people. He gave people animals for food, as he had given them green plants. But they must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
God also said that every human life matters to him. He would hold anyone who killed another person responsible. Whoever killed a person would lose their own life by human hands. God gave the reason. "In His own image God has made mankind" (9:6).
Then God blessed them again. He told them to have children and spread out across the earth.
Scene 13 of 13The Rainbow
God spoke to Noah and his sons. "Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you" (9:9). Descendants are your children, grandchildren, and everyone who comes after them.
The covenant was also with every animal that came out of the ark.
God promised, "Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth" (9:11).
God gave a sign to go with the promise. "I have set My rainbow in the clouds" (9:13).
God said that when clouds came and the rainbow appeared, he would remember his promise. It was a promise to every living creature, for all time.
The story began with God grieving over a violent world. It ends with God making a promise he will always keep. The promise does not depend on people's hearts being good. It depends on God.
God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth" (9:17).
The clouds still come. The rainbow still appears. God is still keeping that promise.
Meaning
What does it mean?
Read It
What Does This Mean?
| The text says | It means |
|---|---|
| "He was grieved in His heart" (6:6) | God cares about his world. The violence in it hurt him. |
| "Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD" (6:8) | Favor is God's kindness, given freely. Genesis tells us about God's favor before it tells us about Noah's goodness. |
| "Noah walked with God" (6:9) | This is a comparison. Noah lived close to God, the way friends walk side by side. |
| "I will establish My covenant with you" (6:18) | Before the rain ever fell, God had already promised to keep Noah's family safe. |
| "The LORD shut him in" (7:16) | God closed the door himself. The family was safe because God kept them, not because they kept themselves. |
| "God remembered Noah" (8:1) | God had not forgotten. In the Bible, "remember" means God acts on his promise. |
| "Even though every inclination of his heart is evil" (8:21) | God's promise does not wait for people to become good. It rests on God. |
| "In His own image God has made mankind" (9:6) | Every person is made to show something of who God is. That is why every human life is precious to God. |
| "I have set My rainbow in the clouds" (9:13) | The rainbow is a sign. This is a comparison: a rainbow points to God's promise, the way a wedding ring points to a promise. |
Back Then
A cubit was about 18 inches, the length from the elbow to the fingertips. So the ark was about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. (BSB footnotes on 6:15-16)
Gopher wood is named only here in the Bible. No one knows for sure what tree it was. Many think it was cypress. (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
Pitch was bitumen, also called asphalt. It is thick, black, and sticky, and it was found in pits near the Dead Sea. People used it to coat boats. (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
Clean and unclean animals. Later, in the law God gave Israel, some animals were called clean and could be eaten (Leviticus 11). Offerings to God came from clean animals (Leviticus 1). Noah offered clean animals and birds (8:20).
Ararat was the name of a country in the high mountains of Armenia. Genesis says "the mountains of Ararat" (8:4), not one single peak. (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
Other ancient peoples told flood stories too. One was written on clay tablets made for Ashurbanipal, a king of Assyria. They were copies of much older records. (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
Literal Reader Alert
Two of each, or seven pairs? Genesis gives two numbers. First God said to bring "two of every living creature" (6:19). Later the LORD said to take "seven pairs of every kind of clean animal" and a pair of every unclean animal (7:2). It's okay to notice things like this. Careful readers have asked about it for centuries. Some readers say the second command added detail to the first. The extra clean animals and birds were needed for Noah's offering (8:20). Many scholars think Genesis joins together two older tellings of the flood, and it kept both numbers. The Hebrew words in 7:2 can also mean "seven of each," so some Bibles say seven, not seven pairs. Both groups of readers agree on what the story teaches.
Why did God send the flood? Genesis gives its reason: the earth was full of violence and evil (6:11-13). It does not explain more than that. Children and animals died too, and Genesis does not explain that either. Christians have struggled with this passage for a long time. It's okay to feel sad, upset, or confused about it. Genesis shows God grieving, not glad (6:6). Luther taught that when God seems hidden or frightening, we should look to Jesus. Jesus is the clearest picture of who God is. Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). And the Gospel of John says, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:17).
Are floods and storms today God's punishment? No one can say that a flood or storm is God punishing the people it hurts. God promised never again to destroy all life with a flood (9:11). Once a tower fell and killed eighteen people. Jesus asked if the people who died were "more sinful than all the others" (Luke 13:4). He said no (Luke 13:5). If you have lived through a flood, a fire, or a storm, it was not your fault. It's okay to be scared of storms. If this story brings up big feelings, talk with a parent, pastor, or trusted adult.
Does 9:6 mean people should get revenge? No. God is saying that a human life is so precious that taking one is a terrible wrong. It is not permission for anyone to pay someone back. Later, God's law said a person accused of killing must stand trial before the community (Numbers 35:12). Christians disagree about what this verse means for laws today. The ELCA's 1991 social statement on the death penalty opposes the death penalty.
Did God make a mistake? Genesis says the LORD "regretted that He had made man" (6:6). The Bible uses human words to show God's real feelings. Other verses say God does not change his mind the way people do (Numbers 23:19). Genesis wants us to see how much the violence hurt God. It does not say God made a mistake in making people.
Did the flood cover the whole world? Genesis says all the high mountains were covered (7:19). Many Christians read this as the whole earth. Others read it as a huge flood described the way people back then saw their world. Christians in both groups believe God is speaking through this story.
Did Noah really live that long? Genesis says Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (7:6). People in the early chapters of Genesis live very long lives. Christians understand these numbers in different ways.
Does God need a rainbow to help him remember? No. God does not forget. In the Bible, "remember" means God acts on his promise (8:1). A rainbow forms when sunlight shines through raindrops. God chose something that comes with the rain as the sign that the rain would never destroy all life again.
How People Feel
| Who | Feeling | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The LORD | Grieved | People had filled his world with violence (6:6, 6:11) |
| Noah | Trusting | He built the ark and did all God commanded, before any rain fell (6:22, Hebrews 11:7) |
| Noah's family | The Bible doesn't say | Genesis never tells us how they felt inside the ark for about a year |
| Noah | Likely thankful | The first thing Genesis tells us he did outside the ark was worship God (8:20) |
| The LORD | Merciful | He promised never again to destroy all life, even though people's hearts had not changed (8:21) |
For you
What does it mean for me?
Your Turn
What part of this story stays with you? Tap one.
The people who died
That is heavy. Christians have struggled with it for a long time. You can bring your questions to God, and to a pastor or trusted adult. Jesus shows us God's heart. He came to save the world, not to condemn it (John 3:17).
Shut in the ark
Noah's family waited about a year, not knowing when it would end. God did not forget them. He remembered Noah (8:1). He remembers you too.
The dove's olive leaf
It was a small sign that the water was going down. Sometimes hope starts with something small. God was at work the whole time.
The rainbow promise
God made that promise to every living creature. He is still keeping it. His promises to you in Jesus stand too.
It's really bad right now
You don't have to carry it alone. Please tell a trusted adult today. If you are in danger, call 911 or your local emergency number. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 any time, day or night. Outside the U.S., findahelpline.com lists free helplines.
You Might Have Heard
"Noah was saved because he was a good man. Be like Noah, and God will save you too."
What's true: Noah walked with God and did what God told him (6:9, 6:22). The letter to the Hebrews praises his faith (Hebrews 11:7).
What the story is mainly about: What God does. God's favor came to Noah first (6:8). God made the covenant (6:18). God shut the door (7:16). God remembered Noah (8:1). After the flood, God said people's hearts were still evil (8:21). He made his promise anyway. The rescue and the promise both rest on God, not on how good people are.
Where Jesus is: The flood shows how seriously God takes the violence and evil that ruin his world. On the cross, Jesus took that judgment on himself. "Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
Good News
The letter called 1 Peter, which begins with Peter's name, remembers Noah. "In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water" (1 Peter 3:20). Then it says, "And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also" (1 Peter 3:21). It says this happens "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21).
In Baptism, God is the one who acts. God closed the door of the ark. In the same way, Baptism is God's work, not ours. Paul says we were "buried with Him through baptism into death" so that we may "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). This means we live a new life. Some Christians also think of Noah's dove when they read that the Spirit came down on Jesus at his baptism "like a dove" (Mark 1:10).
Later, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah and pointed back to his promise to Noah. These words were first spoken to Israel, and Christians hear them too. "When I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you" (Isaiah 54:9).
God shut Noah in and kept him safe. In Baptism, God makes you his own, and his promise does not depend on how good your heart is.
Big Idea
God grieved over a violent world, kept Noah's family safe through the water, and made a lasting promise to every living creature.
If this story brings up big feelings, talk with someone you trust, like a parent, pastor, or counselor.
For leaders and parentsLuther, church readings, and notes for teaching.
From Luther
In his service for Baptism (1523, revised 1526), Luther wrote a prayer called the Flood Prayer. It remembers how God judged the unbelieving world by the flood. It also remembers how God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark, eight people in all. It also remembers how God led Israel through the Red Sea. Luther said these were pictures of Baptism. Lutheran baptism services today still thank God for saving Noah and his family through the waters of the flood.
Luther's Small Catechism asks what baptizing with water means. It answers that the old sinful self in us should be drowned every day. This is picture language. It happens as we are sorry for sin and turn back to God. And every day a new person should come out and rise up, to live before God forever, right with him and pure.
In Church
Many churches follow the Revised Common Lectionary. It reads Genesis 9:8-17 on the First Sunday in Lent in Year B. The same Sunday reads 1 Peter 3:18-22 and the story of Jesus's baptism (Mark 1:9-15). The flood story is also one of the readings at the Easter Vigil, the night service before Easter morning. Some churches read parts of Genesis 6 to 8 in late spring or early summer of Year A (Lectionary 9).
We quote Luther for what he got right about grace. He also wrote terrible things about Jewish people. Read our note on that.
Memorize
How do I keep it?
One line from this story to learn by heart. Practice a little now. It will come back later so it sticks.
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
How did that feel?