The Lord sent rain from heaven, and likewise let the springs from every source rush upon the world far and wide, [let] the dark ocean-streams burst forth in 1375 tumult:  the seas rose up over the boundaries of the shore.  Strong and stern was He who ruled the waters, for he covered and shrouded with wan waters the accursed wickedness of the sons of the earth and devastated the 1380 land and homes of men:  the Lord wreaked [his fury] upon men for their offences.  The sea cruelly gripped the wretched folk for forty days, and nights as many bitter was the suffering then, cruelly fateful to men.  The waves of the King of Glory drove the souls of the 1385 vicious ones forth from their bodies.  The flood covered everything; turbid under the sky [it covered] the high mountains over the broad earth, and on its crest raised the Ark aloft from the ground, and its noble crew with it, [the Ark] which the Lord Himself, our Creator, blessed, 1390 when he locked the ship.  Thereafter this best of ships rode widely under the skies over the circle of the sea, fared [forth] with its freight:  the terrors of the flood 1395 would have seized them with violence in the sea-traver-sing vessel, but the Holy God led and preserved them.  Fifteen ells deep, by man’s measure, stood the deluge over the hills.  That is a memorable occurrence:  there 1400 was nothing at hand for [the Ark] but destruction, except that it was raised aloft into the upper air when the inundation killed all creatures upon earth other than those whom the Lord of Heaven saved on board the Ark, when the Holy God everlasting, the steadfast King, let 1405 [the flood] rise up with ever-increasing[18] stream.

XVII.

Then God, Wielder of Victory, was mindful of those floating on the deep, the son of Lamech and all his 1410 family, whom the Source of Light and Life had locked up against the water in the bosom of the ship.  The Lord of mankind led the heroes by his Word over far lands.  Soon the flood began to abate; the deluge ebbed, dark under the sky:  the true God had turned back again 1405 the foaming waves, for his children; the Glorious One [had] stilled the cataracts of rain.  For 150 nights under the skies the foamy ship floated, from the time when the well-nailed sides of this best of boats first arose upon the flood until this number of days of dire time 1420 had passed.  Then the Ark of Noe, greatest of ocean-homes, settled on high with its burden on the hills which are called Armenia:  there the pious son of Lamech 1425 awaited the sure promises for a long time, when the Keeper of Life, the Almighty King, gave him relief from the perilous chances which he had long undergone, when the dark waves bore him abroad on the deep over 1430 far countries.