The Shadow of Lent

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened. ¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ That same day Noah, with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ three wives, went into the ark. ¹⁴ They and every kind of animal—every kind of livestock, every kind that crawls on the ground, every kind of bird ¹⁵ they came to Noah and entered the ark, two of every creature that breathes. ¹⁶ Male and female of every creature went in, just as God had commanded him. Then the LORD closed the door behind them. ¹⁷ The flood remained on the earth for forty days. The waters rose, lifted the ark, and it rode high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and spread out over the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ The waters rose even higher over the earth; they covered all of the highest mountains under the sky. ²⁰ The waters rose twenty-three feet high, covering the mountains. ²¹ Every creature took its last breath: the things crawling on the ground, birds, livestock, wild animals, everything swarming on the ground, and every human being. ²² Everything on dry land with life’s breath in its nostrils died. ²³ God wiped away every living thing that was on the fertile land—from human beings to livestock to crawling things to birds in the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left. ²⁴ The waters rose over the earth for one hundred fifty days.