Noah's Ark (Hebrew: תיבת נח, Teyvat Noaḥ in Classical Hebrew) is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis (chapters 6–9) and the Quran (surahs Hud and Al-Mu’minoon). These narratives describe the construction of a large, seagoing ark by the Patriarch Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.
In the narrative of the ark, God sees the wickedness of man and is grieved by his creation, resolving to send a great flood to cleanse the Earth. However, God chooses a man named Noah and "counted it righteous to him" to live and preserve mankind through Noah's family. God then proceeds to give Noah detailed instructions on how to build the ark. When Noah and the animals are safe on board, God sends the Flood, which rises until all the mountains are covered and all life on Earth is destroyed. At the height of the flood, the ark rests on mountaintops, before the waters recede and dry land reappears. Noah, his family, and the animals leave the ark to repopulate the Earth. God places a symbolic rainbow in the sky and makes a covenant with Noah and all living things, by which he vows to never again send a flood to destroy the Earth.
Noah ( /ˈnoʊ.ə/; or Noé, Noach; Hebrew: נֹחַ, נוֹחַ, Modern Noaẖ Tiberian Nōăḥ; Arabic: نُوح Nūḥ; Ancient Greek: Νῶε) was the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The story of Noah and the ark is told in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, which is followed by the story of the Curse of Ham. Outside Genesis his name is mentioned in Ezekiel, Isaiah and Chronicles. He was the subject of much elaboration in later Abrahamic traditions, including the Qur'an.
Noah was the tenth of the pre-Flood Patriarchs. His father Lamech named him nûaḥ (the final ḥ is a more gutteral sound than the English h), saying, "This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh from the ground which the LORD hath cursed." This connects the future patriarch's name with nāḥam, "comfort", but it seems better related to the word nûaḥ, meaning "rest", and is more a play on words than a true etymology.
In his five hundredth year Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. In his six hundredth year God, saddened at the wickedness of mankind, sent a great deluge to destroy all life, but because Noah was "righteous in his generation" God instructed him to build an ark and save a remnant of life. After the Flood Noah offered a sacrifice (the word nihoah, describing the "pleasant" odour of the sacrifice, is yet another pun on Noah's name) and entered into a covenant with God regulating the shedding of blood (i.e., mankind's permnission to kill under regulated circumstances). After this he became "the first tiller of the soil", planted a vineyard, and drank the wine, and fell asleep naked; Noah's son Ham saw his father naked and told his brothers, and Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan.