Genesis 8
8
The Flood Recedes
1God remembered Noah,#Gn 19:29; Ex 2:24; 1Sm 1:19; Ps 105:42 as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth,#Ex 14:21; 15:10; Jb 12:15; Ps 29:10; Is 44:27; Nah 1:4 and the water began to subside. 2The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped.#Gn 7:11 3The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly.#Gn 7:24 4The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.#2Kg 19:37; Is 37:38; Jr 51:27
5The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. 6After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, 7and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down, 9but the dove found no resting place for its foot. It returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought it into the ark to himself. 10So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. 11When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down. 12After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but it did not return to him again. 13In the six hundred first year,#8:13 = of Noah’s life in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.
The Lord’s Promise
15Then God spoke to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out all the living creatures that are with you — birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth — and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”#Gn 1:22,28; 9:1 18So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. 19All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures — everything that moves on the earth — came out of the ark by their families.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma,#Ex 29:18; Lv 1:9; Ezk 16:19; 20:41; 2Co 2:15; Eph 5:2; Php 4:18 he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground#Gn 3:17; 5:29; 6:7; Is 54:9 because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward.#Gn 6:5; Ps 51:5; Jr 17:9; Rm 1:21; 3:23; Eph 2:1–3 And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.#Gn 9:11,15
22As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”#Jr 33:20,25
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Genesis 8
8
The Flood Subsides
1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 2the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; 4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
13In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
God's Promise to Noah
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
22As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.”
New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.