*Sacred Scripture* Noah’s Sacrifice After the Deluge – Castiglione

After the waters of the Great Flood finally recede, Noah and his family offer sacrifice to God. Artwork by B. Castiglione

Gn7:6-24

The Great Flood.

6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came upon the earth.

7Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.^c

8Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that crawls on the ground,

9two by two, male and female came to Noah into the ark, just as God had commanded him.^d

10When the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: on that day

All the fountains of the great abyss^* burst forth,

and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

12For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.

13On the very same day, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of Noah’s sons had entered the ark,

14together with every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, every kind of crawling thing that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird.

15Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life came to Noah into the ark.

16Those that entered were male and female; of all creatures they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

17The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

18The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

19Higher and higher on the earth the waters swelled, until all the highest mountains under the heavens were submerged.

20The waters swelled fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains.

21All creatures that moved on earth perished: birds, tame animals, wild animals, and all that teemed on the earth, as well as all humankind.^e

22Everything on dry land with the breath of life in its nostrils died.

23The LORD wiped out every being on earth: human beings and animals, the crawling things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

24And when the waters had swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days,

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/7

Gn 8:1-22

1God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

2The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back.

3Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished

4that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.^*

5The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

6At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch of the ark that he had made,

7^* and he released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.

8Then he released a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.

9But the dove could find no place to perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water over all the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark.

10He waited yet seven days more and again released the dove from the ark.

11In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had diminished on the earth.

12He waited yet another seven days and then released the dove; but this time it did not come back.

13^* In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground had dried.

14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15Then God said to Noah:

16Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives.

17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.^a

18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives;

19and all the animals, all the birds, and all the crawling creatures that crawl on the earth went out of the ark by families.

20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, the LORD said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.^b

22All the days of the earth,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

Summer and winter,

and day and night

shall not cease.^c

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/8

Gn 9:1-17

Covenant with Noah.

1^* God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.^a

2^* Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.

3^b Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

4^c Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.^*

5Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.^d

6^* Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being,

by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed;

For in the image of God

have human beings been made.^e

7Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.^f

8^* God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

9See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you^g

10and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark.

11I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.^h

12God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:

13ⁱ I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

15I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.^j

16When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth.

17God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/9