When men increased upon the land

When men increased upon the land And daughters fair were found, The sons of God took wives by hand While violence filled the ground. Each thought of man was bent on ill, Continual and strong; The Lord beheld, was grieved at will, For hearts had turned so wrong. “I’ll blot out flesh from earth,” He said, “Both beast and creeping thing.” But Noah walked where God had led, And found grace with the King. A just man in a crooked age, With Shem and Ham beside, And Japheth too to face the rage Of judgment’s rising tide. “Make thee an ark of timber stout, With pitch within, without; Three hundred cubits round about, Three stories raised in height. A window set, a single door, And rooms for beast and bread; For floods shall rise and oceans roar Till all but thee be dead. With thee My covenant shall stand; Thy sons and wives come in. Bring beasts by twos from every land, Male, female, kith and kin. Of clean take seven, unclean two, Of fowl that cleave the sky; Store food for all the voyage through— For rain shall not pass by.” Six hundred years had Noah seen When clouds began to break; The fountains of the deep were torn, The very hills did shake. Forty days the torrents fell, Forty nights they poured; The Lord shut fast the ark and well Secured them by His word. The waters swelled above the fields, Above the tallest height; Fifteen cubits o’er the hills They drowned the world from sight. All flesh that breathed on dry, firm land— Both bird and beast and man— Lay silent by the Maker’s hand; So passed the ancient span. A hundred fifty days they rode The heaving, trackless main; Till God remembered those He’d stowed And sent a drying wind. The deep was stayed, the rain withdrew, The restless surges slowed; On Ararat the vessel true Upon the mountains rode. After days full forty told, A raven first took wing; It wandered over waters cold With no sure resting thing. A dove was sent, but back she came For no dry ground was found; Again she flew, and olive came— Green promise newly crowned. Seven days more and forth she sped, And came no more again; The earth lay bare where floods had fled From valley, field, and plain. “Come forth,” said God, “and fill the earth; Let life abound anew.” From ark they stepped to second birth Beneath a sky washed blue. An altar rose; clean beasts were laid; The savor pleased the Lord. “No more shall curse like this be made, Nor flood sweep with the sword. While earth remains, let seasons turn— Seedtime and harvest sure; Cold and heat in order burn, Day and night endure. Be fruitful, multiply the land; All creatures dread your name. But blood, the life, at My command Ye shall not eat the same. Who sheds man’s blood, by man shall fall, For God made man His sign.” Thus justice stood above them all In covenant divine. “My bow I set in clouded sky, A token bright and broad; When storms arise and tempests cry, I’ll look and think on God. No flood again shall sweep away All flesh from shore to shore.” The rainbow arched its pledge that day— Sure mercy evermore. Noah tilled the waiting ground And planted vine and field; From wine he drank, was naked found Within his tent concealed. Ham beheld and spoke in scorn; His brothers, walking back, Covered him till shame was gone And hid their father’s lack. “Cursed be Canaan,” Noah cried, “A servant low shall be.” “Blessed be Shem where God shall bide, And Japheth dwell in thee.” Three hundred years and fifty more He lived beyond the wave; Nine hundred fifty all his score— Thus ends the flood He gave.