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.
For more information about the NLT:
Genesis 8
8
1And God remembereth Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle which [are] with him in the ark, and God causeth a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subside,
2and closed are the fountains of the deep and the net-work of the heavens, and restrained is the shower from the heavens.
3And turn back do the waters from off the earth, going on and returning; and the waters are lacking at the end of a hundred and fifty days.
4And the ark resteth, in the seventh month, in the seventeenth day of the month, on mountains of Ararat;
5and the waters have been going and becoming lacking till the tenth month; in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, appeared the heads of the mountains.
6And it cometh to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah openeth the window of the ark which he made,
7and he sendeth forth the raven, and it goeth out, going out and turning back till the drying of the waters from off the earth.
8And he sendeth forth the dove from him to see whether the waters have been lightened from off the face of the ground,
9and the dove hath not found rest for the sole of her foot, and she turneth back unto him, unto the ark, for waters [are] on the face of all the earth, and he putteth out his hand, and taketh her, and bringeth her in unto him, unto the ark.
10And he stayeth yet other seven days, and addeth to send forth the dove from the ark;
11and the dove cometh in unto him at even-time, and lo, an olive leaf torn off in her mouth; and Noah knoweth that the waters have been lightened from off the earth.
12And he stayeth yet other seven days, and sendeth forth the dove, and it added not to turn back unto him any more.
13And it cometh to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], in the first of the month, the waters have been dried from off the earth; and Noah turneth aside the covering of the ark, and looketh, and lo, the face of the ground hath been dried.
14And in the second month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth hath become dry.
15And God speaketh unto Noah, saying, ‘Go out from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee;
16every living thing that [is] with thee, of all flesh, among fowl, and among cattle, and among every creeping thing which is creeping on the earth, bring out with thee;
17and they have teemed in the earth, and been fruitful, and have multiplied on the earth.’
18And Noah goeth out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him;
19every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl; every creeping thing on the earth, after their families, have gone out from the ark.
20And Noah buildeth an altar to Jehovah, and taketh of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and causeth burnt-offerings to ascend on the altar;
21and Jehovah smelleth the sweet fragrance, and Jehovah saith unto His heart, ‘I continue not to disesteem any more the ground because of man, though the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil from his youth; and I continue not to smite anymore all living, as I have done;
22during all days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, do not cease.’
maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society