Genesis 8
8
The Flood Recedes
1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. 2The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. 3So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, 4exactly five months from the time the flood began,#8:4 Hebrew on the seventeenth day of the seventh month; see 7:11. the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5Two and a half months later,#8:5 Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month; see 7:11 and note on 8:4. as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.
6After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat 7and released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up. 8He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground. 9But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. 10After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. 11This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. 12He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.
13Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began,#8:13 Hebrew On the first day of the first month; see 7:11. the floodwaters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14Two more months went by,#8:14 Hebrew The twenty-seventh day of the second month arrived; see note on 8:13. and at last the earth was dry!
15Then God said to Noah, 16“Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. 17Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.”
18So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. 19And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.#8:20 Hebrew every clean animal and every clean bird. 21And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. 22As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Genesis 8
8
1Then God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the land and the water subsided.
2Also the sources of the deep and the windows of the skies were closed up, and the rain from the sky was held back.
3The waters kept receding gradually from upon the land and the waters decreased by the end of 150 days.
4The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
5The waters went on decreasing until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6It was at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made.
7Then he sent out a raven and it kept going back and forth until the waters were drying up from the land.
8Then he sent out a dove to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
9But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole land. He stretched out his hand and he took her, and brought her to him into the ark.
10So he waited yet another seven days and again he sent the dove out from the ark.
11The dove came to him at evening, and surprisingly—a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the land.
12After he waited seven more days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.
13It was in his six-hundred-and first year—in the first month, on the first day of the month—that the waters had dried up from the land. Then Noah removed the cover of the ark and he looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up.
14By the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry.
Noah’s Soothing Sacrifice
15Then God spoke to Noah, saying,
16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
17Every animal that is with you of all flesh, including the flying creatures, livestock and every crawling creature that crawls on the land, bring out with you, and let them swarm in the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the land.”
18So Noah came out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
19Every animal—every crawling creature, every flying creature, everything that crawls upon the land—came out from the ark in their families.
20Then Noah built an altar to Adonai and he took of every clean domestic animal and of every clean flying creature and he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21When Adonai smelled the soothing aroma, Adonai said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, even though the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from youth. Nor will I ever again smite all living creatures, as I have done.
22While all the days of the land remain, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.”
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