（1）

　　This is the story of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, the one blameless man of his time；he walked with God. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now God saw that the whole world was corrupt and frll of violence. In his sight the world had become corrupted, for all men had lived corrupt lives on earth. God said to Noah, ‘The loathsomeness of all mankind has become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of violence. I intend to destroy them, and the earth with them. Make yourself an ark with ribs of cypress；cover it with reeds and coat it inside and out with pitch. I intend to bring the waters of the flood over the earth to destroy every human being under heaven that has the spirit of life；everything on earth shall perish. But with you I will make a covenant, and you shall go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons'wives with you. And you shall bring living creatrues of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. two of each kind, a male and a female；two of every kind of bird, beast, and reptile, shall come to you to be kept alive. See that you take and store every kind of food that can be eaten；this shall be food for you and for them. 'Exactly as God had commanded him, so Noah did.

　　And so, to escape the waters of the flood, Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons'wives. And into the ark with Noah went one pair, male and female, of all beasts, clean and unclean, of birds and of everything that crawls on the ground, two by two, as God had commanded. Towards the edn of seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the year when Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that very day, all the springs of the great abyss broke through, the win-dows of the sky were opened, and rain fell on the earth for fortydays and forty nights…The flood continued upon the earth for forty days, and the waters swelled and lifted up the ark so that it rose high above the ground. More and more the waters increased over the earth until they covered all the high mountains everywhere under heaven. The waters increased and the mountains were covered to a depth of fifteen cubits. Everything died that had the breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land. God wiped out every living thing that existed on earth, man and beast, reptile and bird；they were all wiped out over the whole earth, and only Noah and his company in the ark survived.

　　（2）

　　After forty days Noah opened the trap-door that he had made in the ark , and released a raven to see whether the water had subsided, but the bird continued flying to and fro until the water on the earth had dried up. Noah waited for seven days, and then he released a dove from the ark to see whether the water on the earth had subsided fruther. But the dove found no place where she could settle, and so she came back to him in the ark, because there was water over the whole surface of the earth. He waited another seven days and again released the dove from the ark. She came back to him towards evening with a newly plucked olive leaf in her beak. Then Noah knew for certain that the water on the earth had subsided still further. He waited yet another seven days and released the dove, but she never came back. And so it came about that, on the first day of the first month of his six hundred and first year, the water had dried up on the earth, and Noah removed the hatch and looked out of the ark. The surface of the ground was dry.

　　By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the whole earth was dry. And God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife, yoursons and their wives. Bring out every living creature that is with you, live things of every kind, bird and beast and every reptile that moves on the ground, and let them swarm over the earth and be fruitful and increase there. 'So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons'wives. Every wild animal, all cattle, every bird, and every reptile that moves on the ground, came out of the ark by families. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took ritually clean beastsand birds of every kind, and offered whole-offerings on the altar. When the Lord smelt the soothing odour, he said within himself, 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, however evil his inclinations may be from his youth upwards. I will never again kell every living creature, as I have just done. '

　　挪亞方舟

　　（一）

　　下面是挪亞的故事。挪亞是一個正直的人，在當(dāng)時是一個完人。他追隨上帝行事。他有三個兒子：閃、含、和雅弗。上帝看見整個世界腐朽了，到處都是暴力。他認為世界充斥著罪惡，因為所有世上的人都過著邪惡的生活。上帝對挪亞說：“人類的可憎我再清楚不過了，他們使這世界充滿了仇殺。我有意要毀滅他們，也毀滅掉同他們一起的這個世界。你要為自己造一艘方舟，用絲柏木做船架，覆蓋上蘆葦，再在里外兩面涂上樹脂。我要使洪水泛濫全世界，消滅天下所有活著的人，地上萬物也要消滅光。但我要與你立約。你到時就帶著你的妻子、兒子、兒媳們一起進入方舟。你還要把各種飛禽、走獸、爬蟲，每樣兩只，雌雄各一帶上，和你一道登舟，在船上喂養(yǎng)好。此外還要帶上各種吃的東西，儲存在船上，作為你們和動物的食糧。”挪亞遵照上帝的話，一一辦到了。

　　這樣，為了躲避洪水，挪亞和他的妻、子及兒媳們都上了方舟。和他一起上船的還有那些動物：潔凈的和不潔凈的牲畜，每種都是雌雄一對；所有的鳥類和地上的爬蟲，也是一對一對的，按上帝的吩咐那樣都上了船。第七天結(jié)束的時候，洪水降臨到大地。那年挪亞是六百歲，二月十七日那天，大深淵的所有泉源一齊噴發(fā)起來，天穹洞開，大雨傾盆，不停地下了四十個晝夜。……洪水泛濫了四十天，大水漲起來把方舟托起，高高地升離地面之上。落在地面的水越來越多，淹沒了天下所有的高山。水一直漲到浸沒高山十五腕尺之深。一切有氣息的生物，所有生活在陸地上的東西，全都沒有了。上帝清除了世上的生物，人也好，獸也好，爬蟲也好，飛鳥也好，全部從地面上消滅干凈，惟獨挪亞和在方舟上的他一起的妻子兒媳、鳥獸爬蟲活了下來。

　　（二）

　　四十天后，挪亞打開了他方舟上的天窗，放出一只烏鴉去看看水退了沒有，但烏鴉飛來飛去，到地面上的水都快干涸也沒回來。挪亞等了七天，再從舟上放出一只鴿子去看看地上的水是否再退了些。但因為地面全部都是水，鴿子沒落腳的地方，就飛回挪亞的方舟那里。挪亞又等了七天，再次從舟上放出那鴿子去。傍晚時分，鴿子回來了，嘴里銜著一片剛啄下的橄欖葉。挪亞就知道地面上的水退得差不多了。但他又多等了七天，然后放那鴿子出去。這回它再也沒有回來了。這樣，在挪亞六百零一歲那年的正月初一，地上的水終于退了，挪亞打開艙口蓋，從方舟上向外探望，地面已經(jīng)完全干了。

　　二月二十七日，大地全都干了。上帝對挪亞說：“你和你的妻子，你兒子兒媳們都從方舟上出來吧。把你帶上方舟去的各種地上生物，鳥獸爬蟲都放出來吧，讓它們滋生繁衍，遍布全世界吧。”挪亞就同他的妻子、兒子兒媳們從方舟上走出來。各種地上生物：野獸、牲畜、鳥類和爬蟲都是雌雄配對的，也都下了船。接著，挪亞為天主修了一座祭壇。他選了各種各樣潔凈的鳥獸作為供品，放在祭壇上奉獻給天主。天主聞到了供品的香味，心里想道：“我再也不會因人類而使大地遭到災(zāi)禍了。不論人從小就有多少邪念，我都不會象這次那樣殺死一切生靈了。”

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