d to make the ship, for God should destroy them for their
sin, but if they left it. And they mocked him and said that he raved
and was a fool, and gave no faith to his saying and continued in their
sin and wickedness. Then, when the ark was perfectly made, God bade him
to take into it of all the beasts of the earth, and also of the fowls of
the air, of each two, male and female, that they may live. And also of
all the meats of the earth that be comestible, that they may serve and
feed thee and them. And Noah did all that our Lord commanded him. Then
said our Lord to Noah: Enter thou and all thy household into the ark,
that is to say thou and thy wife and thy three sons and their three
wives. I have seen that thou art rightful in this generation. Of all
beasts that be clean thou shalt take seven, and of unclean beasts but
only two. And of the birds seven and seven, male and female, that they
may be saved on the face of the earth. Yet after seven days I shall rain
upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and shall destroy all the
substance that I made on the earth. And Noah did all things that our
Lord commanded him.

He was six hundred years old when the flood began on the earth. And then
Noah entered in and his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons, all
into the ark to eschew the waters of the flood. Of all the beasts and
the fowls, and of all that moved and had life on earth, male and female,
Noah took in to him as our Lord had bidden. And seven days after they
were entered, the water began to increase. The wells of the abysms were
broken, and the cataracts of heaven were opened, that is to say the
clouds, and it rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. And the
ark was elevate and borne upon the waters on height above the mountains
and hills, for the water was grown higher fifteen cubits above all the
mountains, that it should purge and wash the filth of the air. Then was
consumed all that was on the earth living, man, woman, and beast and
birds. And all that ever bare life, so that nothing abode upon the
earth, for the water was fifteen cubits above the highest mountain of
the earth. And when Noah was entered he shut the door fast without
forth, and limed it with glue.

And so the waters abode elevate in height an hundred and fifty days from
the day that Noah entered in. And our Lord then remembered Noah and all
them that were in the ark with him, and also on the beasts and fowls,
and ceased the waters