During this period _according to all that God commanded Noah, so did he_. Though the things, of which he was warned, _were not yet seen_ (Heb. xi. 7), nay, must have seemed to the men of his generation in the extremest degree improbable, _moved with fear_ he yet persevered in his awful task, and by this act of faith, as well as by his own works, continued to warn his fellowmen of what was to come. But his warnings fell on unheeding ears. The men of his generation set at naught all his counsel and mocked at his reproofs: they _did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage_ (Matt. xxiv. 38; Lk. xvii. 26, 27), until the day of Doom arrived. On the seventeenth day of the second month of the 600th year of Noah’s life he and his family entered into the Ark, and _the Lord shut them in_. Then, after a solemn pause of seven days, the elements of destruction were bidden to do their work. _The fountains of the great deep were broken up, the windows of heaven were opened_, and the rain descended, till the waters covered the highest hills, _and all flesh wherein was the breath of life died, of fowl, of cattle, of wild beast, and of every creeping thing which creepeth upon the earth, and every man_. In these simple but impressive words the Sacred Narrative describes the appalling catastrophe. Written for a far higher purpose, it paints no scenes as a human writer would have done. “We see nothing of the death-struggle; we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the frantic agony of husband and wife, of parent and child, as they fled in terror before the rising waters. Not a word is said of the sadness of the one righteous man who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction, which he could not avert. But one impression is left upon the mind with peculiar vividness, from the very simplicity of the narrative, and it is that of utter desolation[8].” All flesh died, Noah only was left, and they that were with him in the ark. For 150 days the waters prevailed, till at length on the 17th day of the 7th month the Ark rested on one of the peaks of Ararat. From this time the waters gradually decreased till the first day of the 10th month, when the tops of the mountains having begun to appear, Noah sent forth a raven, which returned not to the Ark. A week afterwards he sent forth a dove, to see if the waters were abated from the lower and more level country. But the dove finding _no rest for the sole of her foot_ returned unto the Ark. Again he waited seven days, and once more sent her forth, when she returned with a fresh olive-leaf _pluckt off in her mouth_, a sign that the waters had still further subsided. Yet again, after a similar interval, Noah sent her forth. This time, however, she did not return, having found on the earth _a rest for the sole of her foot_, and then he knew that the awful Judgment had indeed come to a close, and at the Divine command left the Ark, and set foot on the dry land[9] (Gen. viii. 1–19).