PICTURE 1. Only a few generations after God created Adam and Eve, man had multiplied, spreading over the face of the earth. People grew more evil every day, fighting and killing one another, until violence filled the world. God grieved as He looked upon their sinfulness, and said, "I will destroy men from the face of the earth; for it sorrows Me that I have created them."

PICTURE 2. In the land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, there lived a just and righteous man, Noah, who loved God and his fellow man. Even wild animals and birds trusted Noah and his family. One day a light from Heaven shone on Noah, and he heard the voice of God: "The earth is filled with violence. Behold, I bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh." God told Noah to build an ark of gopher wood, and described how it should be built. He added: "With thee will I establish My covenant; 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."

 PICTURE 3. And Noah obeyed the voice of God. On a clay tablet he drew a plan of the ark for his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Even the birds and animals seemed interested as Noah explained: "The ark will be 300 cubits* long, 50 cubits wide, and three stories high." "Let us arise and go to the forest, and cut the largest trees for timber," said Japheth, stroking an inquisitive squirrel. *A cubit was about 18 inches.

PICTURE 4. The three brothers journeyed to the forested hill country. Japheth felled trees with his ax; Ham split the logs with a wedge; and, after they were split, Shem shaped them into timber with an adz. Later the men used oxen to drag the timber down to their home valley.

PICTURE 5. Noah and his sons labored many years to build the ark, which was 450 feet long by modern measurement—as large as many of today's ocean- going ships. When it was built they smeared it with pitch to make it watertight. The pitch was asphalt, which they dug from the ground.

PICTURE 6. God told Noah to warn the world that the flood was coming. Anyone who believed in God could join Noah's family in the ark and be saved. As the days passed and the ark grew, Noah repeatedly lifted up his voice and warned the people. But nobody believed him. Travelers passing by ridiculed the labor of Noah and his sons. "Where will these madmen find water to float their ship?" Mr Viewmaster asked. And they laughed in scorn.

PICTURE 7. While the men built the ark, their wives gathered food for the family, and for the animals that would be taken with them into the ark. One day Noah's wife was sorting dates, Japheth's wife picking grapes. Ham's wife binding grain, and Shem's wife gathering spices. A little rabbit came hopping up to them. Noah's wife offered it a date to eat, but it twitched its nose in refusal. Ham's wife laughed at it. "Come here and I will give you some grain!" she called.