What was noah

Furthermore, there were at least two occasions when the ark was not in the open sea. As she sat on the Plains of Shinar, her first encounter with the deluge would most likely have been a mountainous tidal wave or flash flood or both, smashing her to pieces just as easily as it uprooted "entire forests.

Ararat and battered a few more days by the violently receding waters. There were other hazards as well. Volcanic ash and molten boulders filled the air, while at least in the early stages of the storm vegetation rafts and the debris of civilization shot through the water like torpedoes. For most of the time, the ark was the only object projecting above the sea's surface, and, as such, it must have been subject to a continuous barrage of lightning, producing fires, splitting beams, and electrocuting soaked animals.

Then we have the puzzling currents of the flood, which flowed hither and yon, burying some places one week and uncovering them the next. For example, creationists tell us that the Llano Uplift of Texas remained a haven for men and dinosaurs while eight thousand feet of sediment was being deposited nearby John Morris, , pp. Hence the ark should have also encountered swift-moving, riverlike currents and whirlpools, with frequent collisions against the outcrops that broke the surface.

Noah neglected putting any kind of steering mechanism on the ship, leaving it completely at the mercy of the savage storm Segraves, p. In what must be a first, creationists Balsiger and Sellier actually conducted an experiment pp. They had a scale model of the ark tested in a hydraulics lab and concluded from this that it could have withstood waves of over two hundred feet before capsizing.

But even higher seas must have been commonplace in that fateful gale, quickly sending the boat to the bottom. It's a moot issue, however, since the entire test is vitiated by overlooking the ship's excessive size, which would have rendered it unsound in any weather. Arkeologists cannot have their cake and eat it; they can't have a cataclysm of the magnitude of the biblical flood and still expect the ark to survive.

Each year approximately two thousand ships succumb to the forces of the sea, in conditions that are like the horse latitudes compared to the deluge. These include structurally sound steel freighters larger than the ark, some of which have vanished so fast in a "mere" hurricane that people have even suggested a paranormal force behind their destruction cf. Kusche, pp. Who can forget the , ton supertanker, Amoco Cadiz, which ran aground off Brittany in March and was quickly broken in two by swells that were calm compared to those lashing Mt.

Yet the ark was adrift, without rudder or sail, for days Genesis in a storm that would make "hundreds of hydrogen bombs" seem insignificant! But mere survival is hardly the proper criterion of the voyage's success. The animals, many of them so sensitive that they have never yet been kept in zoos, had to make it through in good enough condition to reproduce and to spread over the earth. Hirst tells us that "wild animals should be subjected to a minimum of jolting and rolling during transport.

Rapid acceleration, sharp cornering, and sudden deceleration are to be avoided at all times" p. Broken legs and necks, bruises, and cuts are important considerations in even short hauls by truck, not to mention the panic most of the overcrowded creatures would experience. Even fish in tanks are severely affected by sloshing and jolting Van den Sande.

If indeed the ship avoided being reduced to toothpicks, anything on board larger than a grasshopper would have been pounded into a bloody, shapeless mass long before the last tidal wave crashed against the creaking hull. Assuming that the chaos outside could somehow be drastically reduced, what special problems did the cargo pose? According to the time periods given in Genesis and , based on the Hebrew Lunar Year of days, the inhabitants of the ark remained there days.

How did Noah and his family take care of their charges during this long stay? Our Bible-believing biologists have devised a clever mechanism for easing Noah's task: hibernation. LaHaye and Morris tell us that the ability to hibernate is an "almost universal tendency" among animals and that, faced with "adverse conditions" and "extreme stress" they would slip into this state and hence be easily manageable p. Henry Morris agrees, attributing this behavior to "divinely ordered genetic mutations," and asserts that this is the best explanation available for these abilities today , p.

This "solution" is apparently an ad hoc idea into which none of its advocates even bothered to delve. If they had, they would have found that hibernation is far from "universal.

These are all small creatures; larger animals, including bears, are too big for true hibernation Mount, p. Most fish, birds, and invertebrates do not become dormant in any sense, and other forms of torpor, such as reptilian estivation, are physiologically dissimilar to winter sleep and could not occur in the same environment. Furthermore, animals respond to "extreme stress" with panic and flight—not hibernation, which is a response to lack of food or cold temperatures.

Crowded into the ark like sardines with every other species all about, tossed and slammed against their cages with the ear-splitting roar of the upheaval outside, quiet inactivity is the last thing one would expect to happen.

Many animals are so nervous that they are difficult to keep in an ordinary zoo; if even true hibernators like bats are aroused by touching, what chance is there that any specimen would quietly curl up for a year-long nap?

Hibernation is not a simple siesta. Rather, "during the period prior to hibernation, an animal must make a considerable number of gradual physiological and metabolic adjustments" Mayer, p. These include an increase of fat deposition, gradual readjustment of body temperature, heart rate, and metabolism, preparation of the den and storage of food, and so on. Frogs and salamanders frequently overwinter in large aggregates; other amphibians sleep only under forest litter or in a few inches of icy water; lungfishes construct a mud cocoon.

Timing is also vital, for, if exposed to cold at the wrong time of year, a hibernator will increase its activity in order to keep warm. What opportunities did the migrating hoards have to prepare themselves and their cages for the long rest? Were the ark's spartan stalls provided with cozy dens and burrows? Newly arrived from near and far, the animals were stampeded, still exhausted from their march, into strange, frightening cells and, only a week later, were violently jolted onto their wild ride Genesis , Finally, hibernation is a risky affair, rather than the refreshing nap portrayed by creationists.

The animal loses about 40 percent of its body weight during the winter; prorated into the days on board the ark, each would have been reduced to little more than a skeleton by the time the door opened. Even bones and teeth deteriorate, and the young frequently starve Yalden and Morris, pp. In snakes, the mortality rate may be as high as 30 to 50 percent Shaw and Campbell, p. On page , W. Mayer concludes:. The hibernator apparently is balanced on a very narrow line between the maintenance of life at a level that makes recovery from hibernation possible and a reduction of metabolism to a level that will lead to death.

Evidence obtained from tissues indicates that the process of hibernation is a precarious method of survival at best and one from which many animals do not awaken. As a mechanism of species survival, hibernation seems effective; for the survival of the individual, however, it is an uncertain and dangerous process.

Yet on the ark, there were only individuals, hibernating in extremely adverse conditions for more than double the time that any animal normally is dormant. We must conclude that the animals on the ark did not experience any type of dormancy in any way resembling these phenomena in nature; the "divine mutations" produced a state closer to suspended animation, a sort of celestial cryonics Segraves, pp.

This supernatural quiescence has a curious twist, however, for the Bible plainly informs us that Noah was to take food on the voyage for the animals Genesis Hibernators do awaken from time to time to eat, and apparently these supersleepers did so also.

If the Lord was going to perform such a substantial modification of natural physiology as this impossible hibernation involved, why not make the miracle complete and dispense with the storage space for the food and the inconvenience to the crew of the feedings?

This is especially pertinent when the magnitude of the task is examined. For the total number of creatures on the ark, if each one received but one feeding during the voyage, and if all eight of the crew worked sixteen hours per day at the chore, each animal would wind up with just Some would have their meal on the first day, while others waited until they were nearly starved. The poor attendants would have to carry out their chores in the violently pitching vessel and in inky darkness since lanterns could easily drop and start a fire.

They would have to find the correct food and somehow locate the right cage in the mind-numbing maze. When they found it, they would have to arouse an animal that could sleep through the raging chaos; the food could not be left in the troughs for it would spoil or spill. Then it's back down the slippery corridor to the storage bins for the next meal—on a perfect schedule, without duplicated efforts or mistakes—all in less than a minute!

Unfortunately, many animals are not physiologically capable of surviving on an occasional meal, however large, and a meal once a year—or once a week—would mean death. Some birds eat continuously during daylight and suffer when taken to regions with short winter days National Research Council, , p.

Rodents, cud chewers, and insectivores are others in the "continuous feeder" class Gersh, p. Thus it appears that the "hibernation model," cleverly concocted to relieve Noah of an unmanageable work load, is vitiated by the simple scriptural requirement of providing food for the voyage. There are many other problems associated with the feeding. The first concerns the carnivores: where did Noah get the huge quantities of fresh meat required by these animals?

The creationist response is that God miraculously altered them so that they could thrive on a vegetarian diet during the voyage. Although some aver that the eating of meat never occurred anywhere until after the flood, Whitcomb and Morris discuss at length the change from herbivorous to carnivorous physiology, which they date to the Fall of Adam pp.

Thus these animals were originally vegetarian, then became meat-eaters after the Fall, vegetarians again for the year of the flood, finally returning to their carnivorous ways afterwards. Three times the Lord magically changed the physiology and anatomy of a substantial proportion of the animal kingdom.

And if this is true of carnivorous mammals, it must also be so for insect-eating birds, amphibians, reptiles, for the multitudes that live on fresh fish and other aquatic creatures, and for arthropods which eat other invertebrates. Were the slender, sticky tongues of tamanduas, pangolins, and other anteaters, so difficult to feed in zoos, altered to eat hay?

Were vampire bats and mosquitos able to substitute tomato juice for fresh blood? Did the whales adapt to kelp instead of krill? And what of our ever-troublesome parasites?

Were tapeworms and leeches content to spend a year sucking on an old log? God was remodeling digestive systems right and left! Even if everyone ate only plants, there were still enormous obstacles.

Many animals have highly specialized diets: koalas eat only certain types of Eucalyptus leaves; the giant panda eats bamboo shoots; three-toed sloths so prefer Cecropia leaves that they are almost impossible to keep in captivity. Primates need fresh fruit; many birds develop cramps and spasms if they don't get sufficient calcium; desert rodents are poisoned by excessive protein; and the list goes on cf. Wallach and Flieg; Fiennes. How did Noah know what foods to get, how much and where to get them?

How were the stores kept from rotting during the lengthy voyage? Even hay rapidly becomes moldy and unusable. Young insists that feeding troughs be cleaned daily and uneaten food removed to prevent decay p. Giraffes and moose must have their troughs high or they can't reach them, while animals with large antlers can't get their mouths into a basket placed against a wall.

Carnivores deprived of bones to chew develop peridontal disease Bush and Gray ; rodents, too, need to gnaw or their teeth will overgrow Orlans, p. The tearing beak of eagles, the seed-cracking beak of parrots, the bill strainer of flamingos also overgrow if unused National Research Council, , p.

Many animals, from fish to snakes, penguins to bats, will only eat living food because they must see it move to seize it Fiennes; Gersh.

Even praying mantises eat only live food and will eat each other if nothing else is available. Did Noah know this? Where did Noah find room for all these provisions? Even if the animals ate only a few times during the voyage, these must have been hearty meals and a lot of feed was required. Elephants consume three hundred pounds of hay per day, hippos eighty to one hundred pounds. A large walrus eats forty pounds of fish daily, a lion sixteen pounds of meat; what would be the equivalent in grain?

Whales consume several tons of krill per day when feeding Lockley, pp. Neubuser says that in the Frankfurt Zoo each year "sixty tons of horse, cattle, and whale meat are required to satisfy the demands of the carnivores.

The boxes of cereals and oil seed, each containing about a hundredweight, if put end to end, would stretch for a distance of over half a mile. The annual consumption of fruit, vegetables, roots, and green clover would fill fifty freight trains; hay and straw, thirty-five goods wagons" p.

Lest these burdens start to overwhelm us, we find Rehwinkel discussing a theory that Noah possessed a "mysterious oil" of supernutrative powers—one drop of which would sustain life p. In the creationist Land of Oz, why not? Although water was the most abundant substance around, it was muddy, salty, and full of volcanic pollutants.

Even the water falling from the skies would have been useless, since the tremendous level of volcanism would have turned it to poisonous acid rain. For his animals, Noah needed large quantities of fresh, clean water, kept in troughs and inspected frequently. Where did this come from? How was it stored and distributed? Conditions being what they were, it must have splashed out of the troughs shortly after they were filled, mixed with food and waste to form a stinking, slippery swamp all over each deck, while the reserves were rapidly choked with algae to form an undrinkable swill.

The mention of waste brings attention to that problem. All authorities on animal care insist on the cleanliness of the stalls, urging the daily removal of waste and soiled bedding. Neubuser remarks that "the removal of zoo waste presents almost insuperable difficulties" p. Creationists Balsiger and Sellier suggest that the bottom deck was used to store slurry, which accumulated to tons during the voyage. However, a single adult elephant could produce 40 tons during this time Coe , and there were many creatures even larger.

Our average animal, the sheep, produces 0. Multiplying the number of vertebrates by 0. Of course, hibernation would greatly reduce this quantity, while the invertebrates and dinosaurs would add to it. Whatever the total, it would have been an awesome amount on the overcrowded boat, a breeder of infinite numbers of pathogens, and a source of noxious, choking fumes. A comparison with Lamoureux's Guide to Ship Sanitation is instructive.

Complex plumbing systems of pipes and pumps, air-gaps and back-flow valves, filters and chemical treatments are necessary to provide potable water and dispose of sewage. Waste is treated and dumped overboard, not discharged to the bilge as on the ark.

Such technology was clearly beyond Noah's ability and the maintenance capabilities of his tiny crew; yet, if ever it was needed on a voyage, this was it. Heinz Hediger of Zurich Zoo, introducing us to a host of additional headaches with which Noah would have to deal.

Many animals would not survive long in barren stalls but would need to have elements of their natural environment present. Squirrels and sloths need trees to climb; the latter are almost helpless on the ground.

Armadillos, viscachas, and others require soil in which they can scrape and burrow; capybaras and tapirs must have pools of water for bathing; and otters require running water. The extremely delicate platypus would have to be maintained with a device consisting of a water tank, a nest, and tunnels with rubber gaskets to squeeze water out of the platypus's fur to prevent the nest getting wet and the animal developing pneumonia.

Ungulates in transport should be made to stand up hourly to revive circulation in their limbs. Elephants and hippos develop dermatitis unless they can bathe frequently cf.

Crandall; Hirst; Neubuser. Wading birds develop leg weakness and should be transported in special stockings; peacocks and long-tailed pheasants may need their tails splinted and wrapped in bandages. Woodpeckers' cages would need a special coating, and many other animals, from termites to rodents, would gnaw through a normal stall.

Excessive moisture is "extremely deleterious" to most reptiles Kaufield , while low humidities would prove fatal to many amphibians.

Burrowing invertebrates, such as worms, crabs, and clams, will perish without proper substrate. Perhaps the greatest difficulties arise with marine organisms. Most of them are extremely sensitive to slight changes in temperature, salinity, pH value, and other factors, and their aquaria require constant monitoring. Many need large, round tanks to prevent them from knocking against the sides, and some tanks must have a polyurethane foam to guard against injury from rubbing.

Complex filtering systems—unavailable on the ark—are necessary to remove waste; most fish require a high degree of cleanliness. Hadal dwellers must be kept in special high-pressure tanks cf. Backhaus; Hawkins.

Of course, a system of active aeration is necessary or the fish will suffocate—yet a fragile jellyfish can be damaged by an oxygen bubbler. Some sharks will sustain tissue damage from lying still as little as five minutes and may have to be stimulated by an attendant when in a captive environment Gruber and Keyes, p.

Even humble planarian worms are likely to die if their water becomes "even slightly contaminated" Orlans, p. The National Research Council concludes: "Despite the best care and equipment, some marine species will not tolerate capture and transport" , p. Ventilation would have been another major concern. The Bible tells us that Noah placed a window one cubit square at the top of the vessel Genesis Creationists, basing themselves on "eyewitnesses" who have seen the ark in modern times, enlarge this to a row of windows along a catwalk on top of the ship and postulate a "wind-deflecting system" to get the air below decks Schmich.

In any case, the window s had shutters, for Noah opened them to release the raven and dove. Considering the mountains of water constantly washing over the ship, they were probably closed most of the time to prevent swamping.

Open or shut, the arkeologists' enthusiasm is premature. Sainsbury and Sainsbury give a number of equations and tables for calculating the ventilation of barns p.

This would be particularly acute in the densely packed, three-tiered ark: virtually no fresh air could reach the lower decks. The result would be a rising concentration of dust and microorganisms, condensation on bedding and floors, and resultant chilling, loss of appetite, and susceptibility to respiratory disease. The lack of ventilation would produce particularly dire consequences with respect to the tons of waste accumulating in the no-man's-land of the bottom deck.

Besides being a nursery for every conceivable pathogen, it would also unleash large quantities of such toxic gases as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane. Hydrogen sulfide, for example, leads to appetite loss and hyperexcitability at concentrations as low as twenty parts per million—yet agitation of stored slurry, incessant on the ark, can elevate levels to ppm Sainsbury and Sainsbury, p.

These gases also pose the potential for an explosion. Methane, which composes roughly 55 percent of typical landfill gas, is highly explosive at concentrations of 5 to 15 percent oxygen Emcon Associates, p. At this ratio, even a few hundred tons of waste would rapidly convert the ship into a floating bomb, needing only a flash of lightning, a glowing volcanic cinder, or the inadvertent lighting of a lantern to blast the vessel and its priceless cargo to the bottom of the sea.

In the depths of the ship, far from its tiny, shuttered windows, with thick cumulo-nimbus and dense layers of volcanic ash above, the darkness must have reminded many of the cavernicoles of the black tunnels they had recently vacated. Lanterns, as we have mentioned, posed too much of a fire hazard to be used—this was a danger in even ordinary sailing conditions Thrower, p.

Yet animals deprived of light, particularly the young ones which creationists wish to put aboard, often have poor vision and even suffer deterioration of optice nerves and retinae King, pp. Aquatic creatures, too, are sensitive to even slight variations in the quality of light Backhaus, p. Fish are also highly sensitive to temperature, and separate tanks at carefully regulated levels are necessary for successful aquaria Atz.

How did Noah accomplish this? As his boat sat in the sweltering Shinar tropics waiting for the rain, the heat inside must have become suffocating to many. Polar animals could not have made it through. Chinchillas, snow leopards, and many others—even frogs—are also apt to perish in hot conditions.

Reptiles not only require an optimum temperature level, dangerous if exceeded, but must have it reduced cyclically to simulate diurnal and seasonal rhythms Peaker. As the flood progressed, the temperature may have remained high due to volcanism; alternatively, it may have begun declining with the lack of sunlight remember, the Ice Age followed immediately afterward.

Either way, as the ark sat perched at fourteen thousand feet on Mt. Ararat and the seas slowly subsided, air pressure and temperature declined until the luckless lowlanders found themselves in thin alpine air and the first snows of the new dispensation as they waited to disembark.

If you endured the oven at the beginning, you froze at the end! It is useless to continue discussing the animals. We must pass over the problem of exercise for the beasts and birds and not even contemplate the broken limbs, bruises, lacerations, and concussions from the nightmarish ride. The diseases, too, were far beyond Noah's veterinary competence.

And what about reproduction? Some creationists deny that it took place; others say it did. Segraves suggests a kind of divine birth control p. In either case, we can feel confident that flies, mosquitos, and all sorts of vermin multiplied astronomically even if no higher species did. Yet even with the miracle of hibernation, the task facing Noah and his crew was absolutely insuperable, barring yet another titanic intervention by Jehovah.

A random sampling of over one hundred zoos from the International Zoo Yearbook showed a ratio of At this ratio, the great boat would have needed a staff of , to care for every creature aboard! Noah had eight. Still other chores awaited our harried helmsman. Although he was fortunate not to have had to navigate or to manage engines that might break down, some maintenance would still have been necessary. Boat rot is present in every wooden vessel and is enhanced by moisture and poor ventilation.

Duffett recommends a thorough inspection from stem to stern, with flashlight, awl, and hammer, every two months p. There would have been trouble with teredos, tiny, wormlike mollusks that eat their way through wood and riddle planks and timbers with small holes, which makes them the "greatest hazard to wooden hulls" Noel, p. Then, too, in this awesome storm, there would undoubtedly have been major breakage and splintering of stalls, beams, floors, and myriads of other accidents which normally entail substantial time in drydock—all of which would have had to be located in the dark and somehow patched well enough to last until the ship made Ararat.

We have already noted how leaky were large, overburdened wooden ships, and, in these mountainous seas, continuous pumping would have been essential to keep the ark afloat. Smaller, better-built vessels can take on a foot or more of water an hour; therefore, "crews could become so completely exhausted by pumping as to be barely capable of working the ship" Thrower, pp.

A much larger, more experienced crew would be necessary for maintenance alone, not counting the impossible zoological chores. Balsiger and Sellier talk about the life of leisure aboard the ark, even mentioning the "woman's touch" in the family quarters p.

Segraves speaks of an entire deck devoted to "recreational facilities" p. Such is not the picture that emerges from our study. Seafaring life was never easy in olden times: food was monotonous and rationed and often spoiled; water was scarce; sanitary conditions were incredibly bad; fire and storms posed constant threats; and diseases, such as cholera, yellow fever, and malaria, often decimated entire crews Pohjanpalo, pp.

On long voyages, scurvy was a constant terror, and extra men were always taken because many died or became too ill to work. The "romance of the sea" was so unattractive that, despite poverty and high unemployment, no nation ever had enough sailors to crew her ships Phillips-Birt, pp. Thrower concludes:. The conditions of life for the ordinary sailor must have been little short of grim throughout the history of sail. Think what these ships were like.

Then there were the bugs, the rats, and the cockroaches. What was grim for these poor souls must have been pure hell on board the ark. It is a wonder that anyone limped off the sacred ship except the flies. Finally one day, a typically gargantuan wave sent the ark crashing into the cliffs on Mt. Ararat, and the long voyage was through.

But Noah's luck was still running badly, for he had literally gone from the frying pan into the fire, landing on an active volcano. LaHaye and Morris tell us that Mt. Ararat more than doubled its height during the flood, and they know of lava from these very eruptions that is hot yet today p. Imagine what life was like during the days between the ark's grounding and the animals' release Genesis Constant rumblings, earthquakes, and landslides threatened destruction; fumaroles vented hot steam and sulfurous gases on all sides; occasional showers of ash and perhaps even lava added to the misery; and thunderstorms, with lightning, hail, rain, and snow, made many nostalgic for the open sea.

Before he set the animals free, Noah devised a scheme to determine if the land was dry. He went to the ravens' cage, and later to the doves', and, without a second thought, aroused them from a dormancy that all the chaos of the deluge had been unable to disturb. Out the window they went: the raven never returned; the dove came back twice, then she too disappeared. Noah concluded that the earth was safe once again Genesis After the dove failed to return, Noah decided that it was just about time to disembark.

Instead of simply opening the door, he "removed the covering" of the ark Genesis Balsiger and Sellier indicate that this means that Noah tore holes in the top deck, which modern visitors to the wreck claim to have seen. Noah did indeed have his eccentricities! For fifty-six more days they remained on the ark while the earth dried, waiting for God to sound the liberty call—time enough to allow rain, snow, and mudslides to cascade through the holes in the roof and torture the miserable animals inside.

Hirst advises, "The release site should be level, free of holes, large stones, and low shrubs, and should have adequate visibility" p. A more different location for the ark's survivors would be hard to imagine. Tired and weak, battered and bruised, nearly blind from a year's darkness, they began their exodus by clambering up through the roof and leaping forty-five feet to the rocks below.

From here it was a perilous trek across hoof-splitting fields of jagged lava, through rushing, boulder-strewn streams and icy snowbanks, and onto the mud flats far below.

Landslides and volcanic hot spots were ever-present dangers. Modern-day Ararat has often bested experienced mountaineers; what were the chances for the miserable wretches from the ark? They should have panicked in the radically unfamiliar terrain and stampeded over the nearest cliff. While the descent was difficult enough for most animals, for some it was simply impossible. Tree-dwelling sloths, eyeless cavernicoles, tropical snails, the legless caecilians of Seychelles—these and countless others should have seen the sun set on their species on the harrowing heights of Ararat.

And the myriads of aquatic creatures, from starfish to sharks, had to be crated and hauled down the mountain by the eight aching crew members and deposited in the nearest river in the hopes that, before they died, they could somehow swim to waters suitable for each. How they managed this with hundred-ton whales is just one more mystery for the creationists to ponder.

It is evident once more that supernatural assistance was required in this phase of the journey. The animals had just endured the longest, most severe hibernation ever known and would have expected to awaken to a springlike world with abundant food.

Instead they were treated to a landscape like that of Mt. Helens-only worse. As we have seen, plant seeds lay beneath thousands of feet of sediment and lava and the surface was barren except for one miraculous olive tree, which was no doubt chewed to the stump immediately. But it came back having found nowhere to perch. After seven days, Noah sent it back out and it came back with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth.

And Noah knew the ground was drying Genesis — And bring the animals with you so they can be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings to the Lord on it. I agree to the current Privacy Policy. You're almost done! Please follow the instructions we emailed you in order to finish subscribing. An attraction of Answers in Genesis. All rights reserved. Weather provided by OpenWeatherMap cc-by-sa.

Email Using: Gmail Yahoo! Outlook Other. Noah waited another seven days, and again, he sent forth the dove. The bird came back in the evening, carrying in its mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf. Noah again waited seven days and sent forth the dove a third time.

This time the dove did not return. Noah looked and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. Several weeks later when the earth was dry, God told Noah that they should all go out: he, his family, and all the living creatures.

Noah built an altar to God and offered a thanksgiving sacrifice. I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh Genesis — Noah became a tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.

He drank the wine that he made from the grapes, until he lay uncovered in his tent, totally intoxicated. Ham went into the tent and saw his father naked. He went outside and told his brothers; Shem and Japheth took a cloth, and walking backward, entered the tent, and covered their father, taking care to turn their faces the other way so as not to see his nakedness.