Generations after Eden, Genesis describes a world filled with corruption and violence. Against that setting Noah is introduced as a righteous man who walks with God. God tells Noah that judgment is coming and commands him to build an enormous ark, giving instructions for its construction and for preserving his household and representatives of animal life.

Noah acts on the command. He, his family, and the animals enter the ark. Rain falls, waters rise, and the flood overwhelms the land. The narrative emphasizes both the scale of the judgment outside the ark and the preservation of life within it.

After the waters prevail for a long period, Genesis says that God remembers Noah. The waters begin to recede, and the ark comes to rest in the mountains of Ararat. Noah sends out birds to determine whether the land is becoming habitable. A dove eventually returns with a fresh olive leaf, and later does not return.

When God tells Noah to leave, the family and animals emerge into a changed world. Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices. God responds with a promise concerning the regular rhythms of the earth and then establishes a covenant with Noah, his descendants, and living creatures.

The rainbow is given as the sign of that covenant. The flood story therefore combines human violence, divine judgment, preservation, worship, and covenant. It also functions as a kind of new beginning, though the chapters that follow make clear that the human problem exposed before the flood has not simply disappeared.