The Book of Jasher 24

¹🔗nd they said to Noah, We are ready to return to the Lord; only open for us that we may live and not die.

²🔗 And Noah answered them, saying, Behold now that you see the trouble of your souls, you wish to return to the Lord; why did you not return during these hundred and twenty years, which the Lord granted you as the determined period?

³🔗 But now you come and tell me this on account of the troubles of your souls, now also the Lord will not listen to you, neither will he give ear to you on this day, so that you will not now succeed in your wishes.

⁴🔗 And the sons of men approached in order to break into the ark, to come in on account of the rain, for they could not bear the rain upon them.

⁵🔗 And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals that stood round the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from that place, and every man went his way and they again scattered themselves upon the face of the earth.

⁶🔗 And the rain was still descending upon the earth, and it descended forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailed greatly upon the earth; and all flesh that was upon the earth or in the waters died, whether men, animals, beasts, creeping things or birds of the air, and there only remained Noah and those that were with him in the ark.

⁷🔗 And the waters prevailed and they greatly increased upon the earth, and they lifted up the ark and it was raised from the earth.

⁸🔗 And the ark floated upon the face of the waters, and it was tossed upon the waters so that all the living creatures within were turned about like pottage in a cauldron.

⁹🔗 And great anxiety seized all the living creatures that were in the ark, and the ark was like to be broken. 30.