Book of Jasher

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An apocryphal Book of Jasher, translated from a Hebrew book Sepir Ha Yasher, meaning "Book of the Upright", contains an account of the flood (Jasher 5-6) which generally follows the Mosaic account, though it does not tell of sending the raven and dove, nor of the sacrifice made afterwards.

All who followed the Lord died in those days, before they saw the evil which God declared to do upon the earth; Only Nethesulah and Noah were left. And God said to them, "Proclaim to the sons of men, saying, Thus saith the Lord, quit your evil ways and forsake your works, and the Lord will repent of the evil that he declared to do to you. I give you 120 years; if you turn to me, then I also will turn away from the evil which I told you." Noah and Methuselah spread the words of the Lord day after day, but none would hearken to them.

Noah refrained from taking a wife in those days, seeing how God would destroy the earth. But the Lord told him to marry and raise children, and he took Naamah for a wife, and they had sons named Japheth and Shem.

And the Lord told Noah, "On account of their evil deeds, I will destroy the earth. Build an ark of gopher wook at a certain spot. Make it 300 by 50 by 30 cubits, with a door at its side, covered within and without with pitch. And choose three maidens to be wives to thy sons." And Noah did as God had commanded, and he completed the ark after five years in his 600th year. And Methuselah died in that year.

After Methuselah's death, the Lord told Noah to take his household into the ark and seat himself by the doors. The Lord brought all the beasts and fouls to surround the ark, and Noah brought them in in pairs, but of the clean animals and fowls, he brought seven couples. When a lioness came with her two whelps, male and female, the whelps rose against her and forced her away.

The earth shook, the sun darkened, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and all the fountains in the earth were broken up. And still the sons of men would not turn from their evil ways. And rain fell for forty days and forty nights.

The sons of men assembled, about 700,000 of them, and called to Noah, saying, "Open for us, that we may come to thee, lest we die." And Noah answered, "Have you not all rebelled against the Lord? This evil is meant to destroy you." And they said, "We are ready to return to the Lord now. Let us in." And Noah said, "You had your chance. The Lord will not listen to you now, nor will I." And the men approached the ark intending to break into it, but the Lord sent the remaining animals that surrounded the ark to overpower them and drive them away.

The ark was tossed upon the waters like pottage in a cauldron, and all aboard the ark, man and animal, were terrified. And Noah prayed until the Lord, and the Lord caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters stilled. The waters decreased, and the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The Lord told Noah that after a full year in the ark, they could go forth from it. And after that year, when the Lord told them they could go out, they all went from the ark.

And God said to them, "Be fruitful and fill all the earth; become strong and increase abundantly."

The Book of Jasher (Salt Lake City: J.H. Parry, 1887), chapters 5-6, via www.sacred-texts.com, accessed 8/25/2015. Note that another Book of Jasher, purporting to be a translation by Alcuinus, is a fake.

Jasher also tells of an earlier flood directed against evil men.

In the days sof Enosh, the sons of men served other gods, and forgot the Lord, and made images of brass and iron, wood and stone, and they bowed down and served them. And the anger of the Lord was kindled on account of their works and abominations which they did in the earth. And the Lord caused the waters of the river Gihon to overwhelm them, and he destroyed the third part of the earth, and notwithstanding this, the sons of men did not turn from their evil ways. . . ."

The Book of Jasher (Salt Lake City: J.H. Parry, 1887), 2:3-6, via www.sacred-texts.com, accessed 8/25/2015.