For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. Finally, the waters covered even the highest mountains on the earth, rising more than twenty-two feet above the highest peaks. All the living things on earth died-birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people. Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. God wiped out every living thing on earth-people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him on the boat. And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days. (vv. 17-24, NLT)