Noah's Ark

Noah and his wife had three sons, and each son had a wife. Noah and his family were very good people.


Everyone else on Earth was mean and selfish. God decided to flood the Earth and start again. But he wanted to save Noah and his family.


“It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights,” God told Noah. “The entire world will flood, but you and your family will live.”
He told Noah to build an enormous boat called an ark. “The ark must be big enough to hold two of each animal on Earth.”




Noah and his family got to work building the ark. They had lots to do and it took a very long time.
People laughed at them. “Why are you building that big boat? You don’t even live near the sea.”


Noah told people that a giant flood was coming, but they didn’t listen.


When the ark was ready, Noah and his family gathered two of each kind of animal. They gathered big animals, medium-sized animals, and small animals. There were even animals that were so tiny they were
hard to see.




Two by two, the animals went into the ark. They came from all over the Earth.


There were animals from the jungles and
the deserts, the meadows, and the mountains. There were animals from the sea and
from the sky.


At last, the ark was filled with two of every animal on Earth. There was also plenty of food.




A moment later, big raindrops began to fall from the sky.
Thunder crashed and lightning flashed.


The floodwater covered the Earth so that the land became an ocean. Noah and his family—along with two of each animal—sailed away in their ark.
The rain became heavier and heavier.


The floodwater rose higher and higher and higher. Water covered the trees . . .
and the hills . . .


and even the mountains.
Soon, the only thing above the floodwater was Noah’s ark!




At last, the rain stopped. Noah and his
wife went out onto the deck of the ark. Some animals squeezed onto the deck, too. They all smiled at what they saw.
After 40 days and 40 nights of rain, the sun was shining again.


As Noah’s ark drifted along beneath the bright sunshine, the floodwater slowly began to dry up.


One day, Noah saw land! The land was the top of a mountain called Mount Ararat.
Noah anchored the ark there.


As the weeks passed, the floodwater became lower and lower and lower. Noah sent a dove to fly away and find dry land to live on.


The first week, the dove found no dry land.
The second week, the dove returned with an olive branch.
The third week, the dove did not return at all.


Soon, Noah found the dove and plenty of dry land. He stepped off the ark and onto the land. Two by two, the animals followed.


Noah prayed to God. “Thank you for saving us from the great flood.”


The animals found new homes and soon started having babies.


Noah’s sons and their wives had babies, too! The babies grew up and had more babies, and so on, and so on. After many years,
the Earth was full of people again.
God was pleased.




God promised that he would never flood the entire Earth again. Every so often, he sends a glorious rainbow across the sky to remind us of his promise.