Young Folks' Bible in Words of Easy Reading. Josephine Pollard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ No-ah did as God told him. And when he and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, and the birds and the beasts, both small and great, had passed through the great door of the ark, God shut them in.

      At the end of a week the rain set in, and did not stop for more than a month. The rain seemed to pour out of the sky, and all the springs, the large and small streams, and the great seas, rose up and swept through the length and breadth of the land. They came to where the ark was, and went round and round it, and rose so high that the ark was borne from its place and set a-float on the great wide sea.

      Then those who had paid no heed to No-ah, but had kept on in their sins, were in a sad plight. The flood had come, and they knew now that all that he had told them was true. How glad they would have been to go with him in the ark. But it was too late. They ran in wild haste to the tops of the hills in hopes to find there a safe place. But still the floods rose and rose till there was no place for them to go, and all those not in the ark were drowned, and there was not a bit of dry land in the whole wide world.

      But God took care of No-ah, and those who were with him, and kept them safe till the floods went down. At the end of five months the sea had gone down so much that the ark stood high and dry on a mount known as Ar-a-rat. It stood there for at least two months, and at the end of that time the sea had gone down so that tops of high hills could be seen here and there.

      And No-ah sent forth a ra-ven, and the bird flew this way and that, but came not back to the ark.

      Then No-ah sent forth a dove, that he might find out if the ground was yet dry. And the dove flew here and there in search of green things, but found not a tree in sight, and naught but cold hard rock, and so she flew back to the ark and No-ah put out his hand and took her in.

      At the end of a week No-ah sent out the dove once more, and at the close of the day she came back with a leaf in her mouth.

       THE RE-TURN OF THE DOVE.

      As soon as No-ah saw the leaf he knew that the waves had gone down or the dove could not have found it. And he knew that God had sent the dove back to him that he might know the ground would soon be dry.

      In a few days he sent the dove out for the third time, but she did not come back; and No-ah was sure then that the ground was dry, and that God meant that for a sign that he should leave the ark in which he had been shut up so long.

      And God spoke to No-ah and told him to come out of the ark, and to bring out all that had been in there with him. And No-ah did so, and he built up a heap of stones as A-bel had done, on which he laid beasts and birds, and burnt them, which was the way in which man gave thanks to God in those days.

      And No-ah's heart was full of praise to God, who had kept him, and those who were near and dear to him, safe from the flood, while all the rest of the world was drowned.

      And God told No-ah and his sons that they should rule on the earth, and might kill the beasts and use the flesh for food. Up to this time those who dwelt on the earth had lived on the fruits of trees and such things as grew out of the ground, and did not know the taste of meat.

      And God told No-ah that he would send no more floods to drown the world as this one had done. And he gave No-ah a sign that he would keep his word, so that when No-ah saw it he would have no fear of a flood. And this sign was the rain-bow, which God set up in the sky as a bow of hope to No-ah and to all the world.

      No-ah lived for years and years af-ter the flood, and died at a ripe old age.

      The tribes of No-ah grew so fast that the world was quite well filled once more.

       NO-AH'S SAC-RI-FICE.

      And you would think they would have been glad to serve God, and to do right in his sight. But their hearts were full of sin, and they went on as those had done who were drowned in the flood.

       HE-BREWS, AND THEIR MODE OF TRAV-EL-ING.

      At this time all those who dwelt on the earth spoke but one tongue; that is, they used the same kind of speech.

      Now these tribes did not stay in one spot all the time, but would pack up their tents and move from place to place as they chose.

      And as they went to the east they came to a plain in the land of Shi-nar. And they said, Let us make brick and build a high tow-er that shall reach up to the sky. And let us make a name, so that when we go from this place it will be known what great men were here, and what great deeds they could do.

       BUILD-ING THE TOW-ER OF BA-BEL.

      And they set to work to build it. God, who read their hearts, knew that sin was at work there, and that the tow-er they meant to build was not to serve him in, or to add to his praise. So he was not pleased with their work, and chose a strange way to stop them. He made them all at once speak in strange tongues. This one could not tell what that one said, and they made such a noise that it grew to be just a ba-bel of sound. And that is why it was called the tow-er of Ba-bel.

CHAPTER III.

       Table of Contents

      ABRAHAM: THE MAN OF FAITH.

      There dwelt in the land of Ur a man whose name was A-bra-ham. And in that land the men did not serve the true God, but had set up false gods to whom they paid their vows.

      And God told A-bra-ham to leave his home and go to a land which he would show him. A-bra-ham did not know where the land was, but he had great faith, and knew that God would take care of him and bring him to the land he had told him of.

      So A-bra-ham took Sa-rah, his wife, and his bro-ther's son, whose name was Lot, and they set out for the land which God had said he would show him.

      A-bra-ham was a rich man, and so was Lot, and they had a great wealth of flocks, and of herds, and of tents. And they each had a large force of herds-men. And these herds-men were at strife.

      And A-bra-ham told Lot it was best that they should part; and he said to him, Choose where thou shalt go. If thou wilt take the left hand I will go to the right, and if thou wilt go to the right hand then I will go to the left.

      So Lot looked round and saw that the plain of Jor-dan was rich in grass, and would be a fine place for him and his herds to dwell in; so he made his choice at once, and went to live there.

      Two large towns were on this plain, Sod-om and Go-mor-rah. The men in Sod-om were full of sin, yet Lot, though a good man, went to live there that he might have a chance to add to his wealth.

      As soon as Lot had gone, the Lord told A-bra-ham that he would give to him and his heirs all that land as far as he could see it. And the tribe of A-bra-ham would be so great that no one could count them.

      Now Sa-rah A-bra-ham's wife, had a hand-maid—that is, a maid-of-all-work—whose name was Ha-gar; and she came from E-gypt. Ha-gar did Sa-rah a great wrong, and Sa-rah drove her from the СКАЧАТЬ