Genesis 8

The flood water went down

1And then God thought about Noah and the animals with him in that big boat. And he made a strong wind blow on the flood water to help it to go down. 2And God stopped the water from coming up from under the ground, and he stopped the rain falling from the sky.

3The flood water went down slowly, and after 5 months it was a lot lower. 4So 5 months after the start of the flood, the big boat got stuck in the mountains called the Ararat mountains. 5The flood water kept going down for the next 2½ months, and then they saw the tops of the mountains, sticking up out of the water.

Noah let some birds go out of the boat to fly around

6Then, 40 days later, Noah opened a window in the big boat. He wanted to find out if the water went down, and if a bird could find some dry ground. 7So he let a crow go out of the window. The crow didn’t come back to the big boat. It just kept on flying around until the flood waters dried up.

8-9So Noah let a pigeon go out of the window. But the flood water still covered the ground, and the pigeon couldn’t find a place to stop and rest, so it went back to the big boat. Noah held out his hand for the bird, and he helped it back into the boat.

10Noah waited for 7 more days, and then he let the pigeon go out of the boat again. 11This time the pigeon came back just before night time. It had a fresh leaf from an olive tree in its mouth. Then Noah knew the flood water was getting lower, and the trees were growing again. 12Noah waited 7 more days, then he sent the pigeon out again. This time the pigeon didn’t come back to the big boat.

Everyone left the boat

13Noah was 601 years old at that time.

The water was still going down, and on the 1st day of the new year, Noah took off some of the roof from the big boat and looked around. He could see that the ground was getting dry. 14After another 2 months, the earth was dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“You can go out of the big boat now. You can all go out, you, and your wife, and your sons, and their wives too. 17And bring all the animals out of the big boat. Bring out all the animals, and the birds, and the animals that crawl around on the ground. They can all come out, so they can live on the earth and have lots of young ones, so that they will go everywhere on the earth.”

18-19So Noah, and his wife, and his sons, and their wives, they all came out of the big boat. And all the animals and all the birds came out of the big boat too. They came out in groups. Each sort of animal was in its family group.

Noah said thank you to God

20Then Noah piled up stones to make a special table with a flat top, and he got one of each sort of animal and bird that are the right sorts to give to God, and he killed them, and he put them on that special table, and he burned them there. He did that to give them to God, to say thank you to God.

21-22God smelled the meat cooking on that stone table, and he was happy. Then God said to himself, “People always just want to do bad things. They do that all their lives, from when they are little kids, right up until the time they die. But I will never again punish them the same way that I did this time. I will never again finish up everything that breathes air, and I will never again curse the earth. While the earth is still here, the seasons will stay the same. There will always be day and night, and every year there will be a hot time and a cold time, a wet season and a dry season. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food, and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

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Genesis 8

The Flood Subsides

1But God #ch. 19:29; 30:22; Ex. 2:24; 1 Sam. 1:19 remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And #Ex. 14:21God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2#ch. 7:11The fountains of the deep and #ch. 7:11the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end #ch. 7:24of 150 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 #2 Kgs. 19:37; Isa. 37:38; Jer. 51:27Ararat. 5And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she 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 her and brought her into the ark with him. 10He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth 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 forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“Go out from the ark, #ch. 7:13you 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—that they may swarm on the earth, and #ch. 1:22, 28; 9:1be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

God’s Covenant with Noah

20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And when the Lord smelled #Ex. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17; See Ezek. 16:19; 20:41; 2 Cor. 2:15; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18 the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again #ch. 3:17; 6:17 curse#8:21 Or dishonor the ground because of man, for #ch. 6:5; Ps. 58:3; Rom. 1:21; [Matt. 15:19] the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. #ch. 9:11, 15; Isa. 54:9Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22#Jer. 5:24 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, #Jer. 33:20, 25day and night, shall not cease.”

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