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There were big, strong fighting men
1 The people on the earth kept on having lots of kids, and those kids grew up and kept on having more kids, so after some time there were lots of people on the earth. And some people had very pretty daughters.
2 There were some men that everyone called the Sons of God. They looked at the pretty young women, then they picked out the women they wanted, and they married them.
3 God looked at everything that was happening. He said, “I gave people their breath, but I will not let it stay in them for ever. They are just people. They will live for only 120 years.”
4 Those men that were called the Sons of God, they slept with the pretty women, like men usually sleep with their wives, and then those women had kids called Nefalim. Those Nefalim kids grew up to be big, strong fighting men. They were the great fighters in the stories from a long time ago.
People kept on doing bad things
5 God looked at the people on the earth, and he saw them doing lots of bad things. He knew the way they were thinking. They were thinking bad things all the time. God saw that the people were very bad.
6 So God was feeling sad. He really felt no good inside. He thought to himself, “I should not have made all these people.”
7 And God said, “These people keep on doing bad things, and that makes me really sad. I’m sorry that I made them. I’m sorry I made everything on the earth. I want to finish up everything. I want to kill all the people I made, and I want to kill all the animals on earth, the big animals, and the little animals, and even the animals that crawl around on the ground, and I want to kill all the birds that fly in the sky.”
8 But God looked at the man called Noah, and Noah made God happy.
The story about Noah
9 This is the story about Noah and his family. Noah was a good man. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was God’s friend, and he spent a lot of time with God.
10 He had 3 sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Jafeth.
11-12 Everyone on the earth kept on doing bad things. They were doing wrong to each other, and fighting and hurting each other. God looked down and saw all the bad things that were going on. The people were always doing things that were really bad.
13 So God said to Noah, “Look, everyone is doing bad things and hurting each other. I’m going to kill everyone, and I will finish up everything on the earth.”
God told Noah to build a big boat
14 Then God said to Noah, “Make a really big boat for yourself. Make it out of that strong wood called cypress. Make some rooms in the boat. And get some tar, and paint the inside of the boat, and paint the outside too. That will keep the water out of the boat.
15 Listen, this is how big I want you to make the boat. It has to be 140 metres long, and 23 metres wide, and 13½ metres high.
16 I want you to make a roof for that boat, but leave ½ a metre between the top of the walls and the roof, all around the top of the boat. And put a door in the side of the boat. And make 3 floors in the boat, one floor on the bottom and the other 2 floors upstairs.
17 You see, soon I will bring a lot of flood water, and it will cover the earth, and everything that is on the earth will die. Everything that breathes air will die, wherever they live.
18 But don’t worry. I’m making a strong promise to you, that I will look after you. I will look after you, and your wife, and all your kids, and their wives too. You all have to go into that boat.
19 And you have to bring lots of animals into that boat too. Every sort of animal that is on the earth has to go into that boat, so that they will stay alive in the big flood. Get one male and one female of each sort of those animals, and take them into the boat with you. You see, you have to keep those animals alive.
20 And you have to do the same thing for all those different sorts of birds. Get one male and one female of all of those birds. And you have to do the same thing for all those animals that crawl around on the ground. You have to get one male and one female of all those animals too. I will get 2 of every sort of animal to come to you, so you can keep them alive.
21 And you have to gather up lots of food, all the sorts of food that people eat, and all the things that animals eat too. You have to put it all in the boat, so that you will all have enough food.”
22 Then Noah did all of that. He did everything that God told him to do.