Part 178 (1/2)

and if thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door: and to thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”

And it came to pa.s.s, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain, ”Where is Abel thy brother?”

And he said, ”I know not: am I my brother's keeper?”

And he said, ”What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; {23} when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth.”

And Cain said to the Lord, ”My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it shall come to pa.s.s, that whosoever findeth me will slay me.”

And the Lord said to him, ”Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him.

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THE STORY OF THE FLOOD.

_How the First s.h.i.+p, ”The Ark,” Weathered the Storm_.

THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WORLD.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, ”I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and birds of the air; for I repent that I have made them.”

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

THE BUILDING OF ”THE ARK.”

Noah was a righteous man, and Noah walked with G.o.d. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and j.a.pheth. And the earth was corrupt before G.o.d, and the earth was filled with violence. And G.o.d saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all life had corrupted itself upon the earth.

And G.o.d said to Noah, ”The end of all life is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence; and, behold, I will destroy life on the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt {25} pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is how thou shalt make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A roof shalt thou make to the ark; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all life from under heaven; everything that is in the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.”

Thus did Noah; according to all that G.o.d commanded him, so did he.

THE GREAT FLOOD.

And the Lord said to Noah, ”Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female; of the birds also of the air, seven and seven, male {26} and female: to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the ground.”

And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons'

wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of birds and of everything that creepeth upon the ground, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as G.o.d commanded Noah. And it came to pa.s.s after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and j.a.pheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind. And they went in with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as G.o.d commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

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[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE END OF THE FLOOD.