Genesis 7

Genesis 7 is the account of the global flood.

God commanded Noah to enter the ark with his family (wife, three sons, and their wives) because He found Noah righteous. God instructed Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals, plus seven pairs of birds, to preserve their species.

Noah was told that, in seven days, God would send rain for forty days and nights to destroy all living creatures on earth. Noah, at 600 years old, followed God's instructions completely, bringing his family and the animals into the ark.

On the seventeenth day of the second month "were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Rain fell for forty days and forty nights, causing waters to rise and lift the ark above the earth. The waters prevailed so mightily that they covered even the highest mountains by more than twenty feet.

Every living thing on dry land — humans, animals, birds, and creatures that move on the ground — perished in the flood. Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived.

The waters flooded the earth for 150 days.