BIBLE STORIES

  Once, a long, long time ago, there was a good man called Noah. He had a wife and three children. They were all boys, and their names were Shem, Ham and Japheth. God liked Noah and  his family, but he was angry with all the other people in the world. They were always fighting and didn’t take any notice of God.

 

  “I must make the world a good place again. I will send a great flood to wash away everything that is bad.” God said. He spoke to Noah “You must build a big boat, called an ark for yourself and your family. Make it really strong. Use the very best wood you can find. Give it a roof and fill it with rooms.” He then told Noah that he would have to bring animals on board, two of every kind of animal, bird and insect. That meant that the boat had to be really big!

 

  Noah worked on the boat for ages. He worked very hard, every day. Days, weeks, months and years passed. His neighbours thought that he was mad. “Why are you building such a big boat?” They would ask him. “There’s no water here!” But Noah carried on working on the ark. When it was finished, he loaded all the animals on board, two by two. There were all sorts of animals. There were monkeys, tigers, kangaroos, cats, mice, pandas and animals from all over the world. The ark was completely full up. Noah loaded food onto the boat, enough for everyone.

 

  Then it started to rain. The sky became dark with clouds very quickly. It rained and rained and didn’t stop. As it rained, the water rose and the ark began to float. The rain continued for forty days. When it stopped, Noah went up on to the deck. All that he could see was water. It was everywhere. He thought to himself, “I’ll send my dove up to see if there is any dry land.” The dove flew away and when she came back, she had a little olive leaf in her beak. That made Noah happy. He knew that the flood was nearly over.

 

  A few days later, Noah’s ark landed on dry land. He opened the doors and all the birds, animals and insects came running out. Noah thanked God for making sure that they were safe. God promised Noah that he would never flood the earth again. And as a sign that he would keep his promise, he put a rainbow in the sky.

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NOAH’S ARK