Bible Stories and Religious Classics | Page 9

of the earth, and also of
the fowls of the air, of each two, male and female, that they may live.
And also of all the meats of the earth that be comestible, that they may
serve and feed thee and them. And Noah did all that our Lord
commanded him. Then said our Lord to Noah: Enter thou and all thy
household into the ark, that is to say thou and thy wife and thy three
sons and their three wives. I have seen that thou art rightful in this
generation. Of all beasts that be clean thou shalt take seven, and of
unclean beasts but only two. And of the birds seven and seven, male
and female, that they may be saved on the face of the earth. Yet after
seven days I shall rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and
shall destroy all the substance that I made on the earth. And Noah did
all things that our Lord commanded him.
He was six hundred years old when the flood began on the earth. And
then Noah entered in and his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons,
all into the ark to eschew the waters of the flood. Of all the beasts and
the fowls, and of all that moved and had life on earth, male and female,
Noah took in to him as our Lord had bidden. And seven days after they
were entered, the water began to increase. The wells of the abysms
were broken, and the cataracts of heaven were opened, that is to say the
clouds, and it rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. And the
ark was elevate and borne upon the waters on height above the
mountains and hills, for the water was grown higher fifteen cubits
above all the mountains, that it should purge and wash the filth of the
air. Then was consumed all that was on the earth living, man, woman,
and beast and birds. And all that ever bare life, so that nothing abode
upon the earth, for the water was fifteen cubits above the highest
mountain of the earth. And when Noah was entered he shut the door
fast without forth, and limed it with glue.
And so the waters abode elevate in height an hundred and fifty days
from the day that Noah entered in. And our Lord then remembered
Noah and all them that were in the ark with him, and also on the beasts
and fowls, and ceased the waters. And the wells and cataracts were
closed, and the rains were prohibited, and forbidden to rain no more.

The seventh month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the ark rested
on the hills of Armenia. The tenth month, of the first day of the month,
the tops of the hills appeared first. After these forty days after the
lessing of the waters, Noah opened the window and desired sore to
have tidings of ceasing of the flood. And sent out a raven for to have
tidings, and when he was gone he returned no more again, for
peradventure she found some dead carrion of a beast swimming on the
water, and lighted thereon to feed her and was left there. After this he
sent out a dove which flew out, and when she could find no place to
rest ne set her foot on, she returned unto Noah and he took her in. Yet
then were not the tops of the hills bare. And seven days after he sent
her out again, which at even returned, bearing a branch of an olive tree,
burgeoning, in her mouth. And after other seven days he sent her again,
which came no more again.
Then in the year of Noah six hundred and one, the first day of the
month, Noah opened the covering of the ark and saw that the earth was
dry, but he durst not go out, but abode the commandment of our Lord.
The second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, our Lord said
to Noah: Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of
thy sons. He commanded them to go conjointly out which disjointly
entered, and let go out with them all the beasts and fowls living, and all
the reptiles, every each after his kind and gender, to whom our Lord
said: Grow ye and multiply upon the earth. Then Noah issued out and
his wife, and his sons with their wives, and all the beasts, the same day
a year after they entered in, every one after his gender. Noah then
edified an altar to our Lord and took of all the beasts that were clean
and offered sacrifice unto our Lord; and