Genesis 8

1But God showed concern for Noah. He also showed concern for all the wild animals and livestock that were with Noah in the ark. So God sent a wind to sweep over the earth. And the waters began to go down. 2The springs at the bottom of the oceans had been closed. The windows of the sky had also been closed. And the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3The water on the earth continued to go down. At the end of the 150 days the water had gone down. 4On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of that month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

6After 40 days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark. 7He sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up. 8Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water on the surface of the ground had gone down. 9But the dove couldn’t find any place to rest. Water still covered the whole surface of the earth. So the dove returned to Noah in the ark. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove in. He brought it back to himself in the ark. 10He waited seven more days. Then he sent out the dove again from the ark. 11In the evening the dove returned to him. There in its beak was a freshly picked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the water on the earth had gone down. 12He waited seven more days. Then he sent out the dove again. But this time it didn’t return to him.

13It was the first day of the first month of Noah’s 601st year. The water on the earth had dried up. Then Noah removed the covering from the ark. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark. Bring your wife and your sons and their wives with you. 17Bring out every kind of living thing that is with you. Bring the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground. Then they can multiply on the earth. They can have little ones and the number of them can increase.”

18So Noah came out of the ark. His sons and his wife and his sons’ wives were with him. 19All the animals came out of the ark. The creatures that move along the ground also came out. So did all the birds. Everything that moves on land came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. He took some of the “clean” animals and birds. He sacrificed them on the altar as burnt offerings. 21The smell of the offerings pleased the Lord. He said to himself, “I will never put a curse on the ground again because of human beings. I will not do it even though their hearts are always directed toward evil. Their thoughts are evil from the time they are young. I will never destroy all living things again, as I have just done.

22“As long as the earth lasts,

there will always be a time to plant

and a time to gather the crops.

As long as the earth lasts,

there will always be cold and heat.

There will always be summer and winter,

day and night.”

Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®

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Genesis 8

The Flood Ends

1But God remembered Noah and all the wild and tame animals with him in the boat. He made a wind blow over the earth, and the water went down. 2The underground springs stopped flowing, and the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. 3-4The water that covered the earth began to go down. After one hundred fifty days it had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. 5The water continued to go down so that by the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.

6Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat, and 7he sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. 8Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. 9The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth, so it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird and brought it back into the boat.

10After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat, 11and that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. 12Seven days later he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not come back.

13When Noah was six hundred and one years old, in the first day of the first month of that year, the water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.

15Then God said to Noah, 16“You and your wife, your sons, and their wives should go out of the boat. 17Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones so that they might grow in number.”

18So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth, and every bird went out of the boat by families.

20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of all the clean birds and animals, and he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. 21The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.

22“As long as the earth continues,

planting and harvest,

cold and hot,

summer and winter,

day and night

will not stop.”

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