Angelology(74)

hair, and blue eyes, the most frail and thin of the three. While Shem and Ham did not tire as they

helped their father load animals, satchels of food, and jars of water, Japheth worked slowly. Shem

and Ham and Japheth had been long married, and between them Noah had many grandchildren.

“Semjaza’s daughter saw that Japheth’s appearance was close to their own and decided that this

was the brother her companion should take. The Nephilim waited for many days, watching, until Noah

had loaded the final animals onto the Ark. The son of Azazel stole to the great boat. Its massive

shadow fell upon him, blanketing him in shadow as he called for Japheth.

“Noah’s youngest leaned over the edge of the Ark, his blond curls falling into his eyes. Azazel’s

son summoned Japheth to accompany him away from the seashore, along a footpath that led deep into

a forest. The archangels, who stood guard at the boat’s prow and hull, inspecting every object that

entered and exited the Ark so that it fit God’s dictate, paid no attention to Japheth as he left the ship

and trailed the luminous stranger into the woods.

“As Japheth followed Azazel’s son deeper and deeper into the forest, the rain began to fall,

pounding the canopy of leaves above his head and echoing loud as thunder. Japheth was out of breath

when he caught up to the majestic stranger. Hardly able to speak, he asked, ‘What do you want of

me?’

“Azazel’s son did not reply but wrapped his fingers around the neck of Noah’s son and squeezed

until he felt the brittle bones of the throat collapse. In that moment, even before the Flood wiped out

the wicked creatures of the earth, God’s plan of a purified world faltered. The future of the Nephilim

race solidified, and the new world came into being.

“Semjaza’s daughter stepped from the forest and placed her hands over the face of Azazel’s son.

She had memorized the spells her father had taught her. As she touched Azazel’s son, his appearance

changed: His lustrous beauty dimmed, and his angelic features faded. She whispered words into his

ear, and he transformed into the image of Japheth. Weakened by the transformation, he stumbled away

from Semjaza’s daughter, making his way through the forest to the Ark.

“Noah’s wife took one look at her son and knew in an instant that he had changed. His face was the

same and his bearing the same, but something about his manner was strange, and so she asked him

where he had been and what had happened to him. He could not speak in human language, and so

Azazel’s son remained quiet, further terrifying his mother. She sent for Japheth’s wife, a lovely

woman who had known Japheth from his childhood. She, too, discerned the corruption of her Japheth,

but as his physical characteristics were identical to those of the man she had married, she could not

say what had changed. Japheth’s brothers recoiled, fearful of Japheth’s presence. Nevertheless,

Japheth remained on board the Ark as the water began to sweep the ground from below. It was the

seventeenth day of the second month. The Flood had begun.

“The rain poured over the Ark, filling the valleys and the cities. Water rose to the base of the

mountains and then to the peaks. The Nephilim watched as the water lifted higher and higher, until

they could not see land any longer. Terrified cheetahs and leopards clung to trees; the terrible

howling of dying wolves echoed through the air. A giraffe stood on a lone hilltop, water gushing over

its body as it angled its nose up and up and up until the water overwhelmed it. The bodies of humans

and animals and Nephilim floated like dragonflies over the surface of the world, undulating with the

tides, rotting and sinking to the ocean floor. Tangles of hair and limbs sloshed against the prow of

Noah’s boat, rising and sinking in the soup of water. The air became sweet with the smell of sun-

baked flesh.

“The Ark floated adrift over the earth until the twenty-seventh day of the second month of the

following year, a total of three hundred seventy days. Noah and his family encountered nothing but

endless death and endless water, an ever-moving gray sheet of rain, a wave-tossed horizon for as far

as one could see, water and more water, a shoreless world bereft of solidity. They floated upon the

surface of the sea for so long that they exhausted their store of wine and grain and lived on chicken

eggs and water.

“When the Ark grounded and the waters receded, Noah and his family released the animals from

the belly of the boat, took their bags of seed, and planted them. Before long the sons of Noah began to

repopulate the world. The archangels, acting out the will of God, came to their aid, bestowing great