Gen. VIII.

water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered. And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of all creeping things that creep upon the earth: and all men. And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the earth died. And it destroyed all the substance that was upon the earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and 1-19. all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated. The fountains also of the deep, and the flood-gates of heaven, were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days. And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia. And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

And after that forty days were passed, Noe, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven : which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth. He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth. But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark; for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. And she came to him in the evening carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him. Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried. In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.

And God spoke to Noe, saying: Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee. All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls

as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it. So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

Noe's Sacrifice.-And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and Gen. VIII, taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts* 20-22. upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and

said I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

And God blessed Noe and his sons. And He said Gen. IX. to them: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth. And let the 1-7. fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand. And every thing that moveth and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat. For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man. Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God. But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth, and fill it.

8-19.

God's Covenant with Noe. Thus also said God to Noe, Gen. IX. and to his sons with him: Behold I will establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds, as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth. I will establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth. And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I give between Me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations. I will set My bow in the clouds, and Holocausts, or whole burnt offerings, in which the whole victim was consumed by fire upon God's altar, and no part was reserved for the use of priest or people.' DOUAY BIBLE.

6

This is the first instance of God making a covenant or agreement with those who served Him. The rainbow was an outward sign or pledge of His promise.

Gen. XI. 1-4.

Gen. XI.

5-9.

it shall be the sign of a covenant between Me and between the earth. And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, My bow shall appear in the clouds. And I will remember My covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh and there shall no more be waters of a flood, to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth. And God said to Noe: This shall be the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the earth.

:

And the sons of Noe, who came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, and Japheth and Cham is the father of Chanaan. These three are the sons of Noe:* and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth.

SECT. VI. THE TOWER OF BABEL.

And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech. And when they removed from the east, they found a plain B.C. 2204. in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it. And each one said to his neighbour: Come, let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar. And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.

The Confusion of Tongues.-And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building. And He said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech. And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

*S. Peter, in his Second Epistle, chap. ii., calls Noe a preacher of justice; and S. Paul says: By faith Noe, having received an answer concerning those things which as yet were not seen, moved with fear, framed an ark for the saving of his house. Heb. xi. The ark was a type of the Church which God would hereafter set up, to save His chosen servants from destruction with the wicked.

SECT. VII. THE CALL of ABRAHAM

And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Gen. x1. Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot. And Aran died be- 27-32. fore Thare his father, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nachor married wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai: and the name of Nachor's wife, Melsha, the daughter of Aran, father of Melsha, and father of Jescha. And Sarai was barren, and had no children. And Thare took Abram, his son, and Lot the son of Aran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan and they came as far as Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Thare were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran.

B.C. 1921.

1-7.

The Call of Abraham.--And the Lord said to Abram: Go Gen. XII. forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed.

So Abram went out* as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran. And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Canaan.†

And when they were come into it, Abram passed through the country unto the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale : now the Canaanite was at that time in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

*This is referred to by S. Paul as a proof of Abraham's faith: By faith he that is called Abraham obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance: and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise. For he looked for a city that hath foundations: whose builder and maker is God. Heb. xi.

†The land was called after Canaan, the fourth son of Cham, the son of Noe. His descendants had settled in the land God promised to Abraham, and had increased into seven nations. They all went by the general name of Canaanites, but one of them who settled near the Lake of Generaseth had no other name.

Gen. XII.

Abraham's Sacrifice.-And passing on from thence to a 8-20. mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon His name. And Abram went forward, going, and proceeding on to the south.

Gen. XIII.

And there came a famine in the country: and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there for the famine was very grievous in the land. And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beautiful woman and that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they will say She is his wife and they will kill me, and keep thee. Say, therefore, I pray thee, that thou art my sister that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.

And when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful. And the princes told Pharao, and praised her before him and the woman was taken into the house of Pharao. And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? For what cause didst thou say she was thy sister, that I might take her to my wife? Now, therefore, there is thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharao gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all 1-18. that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

And he was very rich in possession of gold and silver. And he returned by the way that he came, from the south to Bethel, to the place where before he had pitched his tent between Bethel and Hai, in the place of the altar which he had made before; and there he called upon the name of the Lord.

But Lot also, who was with Abram, had flocks of sheep, and herds of beasts and tents. Neither was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, and they could not dwell together. Whereupon also there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and of Lot. And at that time the Canaanite and the Pherezite dwelled in that country. Abram therefore said to Lot: Let there be no

* 'This was no lie; because she was his niece, being daughter to his brother Aran, and therefore, in the style of the Hebrews, she might he called his sister, as Lot is presently called his brother.' DOUAY BIBLE,