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b. Noah's Ark
 And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of
all which they chose. And the Lord said, "My spirit shall not
always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days
shall be an hundred and twenty years." There were giants in
the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,
the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and
it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, "I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Both man, and
beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth
me that I have made them." But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord.
These
are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon
the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted
his way upon the earth.
And
God said unto Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before me;
for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold,
I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood;
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and
without with pitch. And this is the 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 fesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and
every thing that is in the earth shall die. But of every living
thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall 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 did
according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
And
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon
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 femme, 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 rain was
upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day
entered Noah, and Shem and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and
Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the
ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after
their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every
sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all
flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went
in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the
Lord shut him in. 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. 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.
(Genesis 6-7)
After
the flood, Noah's sons moved about to live and multiply in different
places. Generations later, the various nations of ancient world
came into being. And among all the nations, the Old Testament concentrated
on one¡ªthe Hebrews belonging to the Semitic tribe.
As
the legend goes, around 1900 BC. there lived a descendent of Noah
in Ur by the name of Abraham. God told Abraham that he and his people
should not worship so many divinities as their neighbours did but
to obey and worship him, Yahweh, as the only true God. And as a
reward, God promised them the land of Canaan. Thus, Abraham led
the Hebrews to the Promised Land, which roughly corresponds to the
present-day Palestine. From then on they gave up trading and turned
to raising sheep and growing wheat, figs and olives. Unfortunately
a serious drought occurred about a hundred years later, which drove
the Hebrews to Egypt. About six hundred years later, the descendents
of the once welcomed guests in Egypt were forced into slavery, degraded
and persecuted in every possible way. Around 1300 BC. Moses, the
famous Hebrew leader, went to see the pharaoh of Egypt, telling
him that Yahweh wanted the pharaoh to end Hebrew slavery and let
the Hebrews leave Egypt. With this began the Exodus, which lasted
forty years.
The
forty years in the wilderness in and around the desert made the
Hebrews tough and strong, welding them into a great nation. When
the wandering tribes left the desert and entered the mountainous
Sinai, Moses climbed to the top of the mountain to receive from
God message, which came to be known as the Ten Commandments.
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