Genesis 8

The Flood Ends

1But God did not forget about Noah. God remembered him and all the animals that were with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth, and all the water began to disappear.

2Rain stopped falling from the sky, and water stopped flowing from under the earth. 3-4The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water was low enough that the boat touched land again. The boat stopped on one of the mountains of Ararat. This was the 17th day of the seventh month. 5The water continued to go down, and by the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains were above the water.

6Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. 7Then he sent out a raven. The raven flew from place to place until the ground was dry and the water was gone. 8Noah also sent out a dove. He wanted it to find dry ground. He wanted to know if water still covered the earth.

9The dove could not find a place to rest because water still covered the earth, so the dove came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and caught the dove and brought it back into the boat.

10After seven days Noah again sent out the dove. 11And that afternoon the dove came back to Noah. The dove had a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. This was a sign to show Noah that there was dry ground on the earth. 12Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. But this time the dove didn’t come back.

13After that Noah opened the door#8:13 opened the door Literally, “removed the covering.” of the boat. He looked and saw that the ground was dry. This was the first day of the first month of the year. He was 601 years old. 14By the 27th day of the second month, the ground was completely dry.

15Then God said to Noah, 16“Leave the boat. You, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives should go out now. 17Bring every living animal out of the boat with you—all the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. These animals will make many more animals, and they will fill the earth again.”

18So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat. All the animals came out of the boat in family groups.

20Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and some of all the clean animals and burned them on the altar as a gift to God.

21The Lord smelled these sacrifices, and it pleased him. The Lord said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth as a way to punish people. People are evil from the time they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time. 22As long as the earth continues, there will always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth.”

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Berĕshith (Genesis) 8

1And Elohim remembered Noaḥ, and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And Elohim made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

2And the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were stopped, and the rain from the heavens was withheld.

3And the waters receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters diminished.

4And in the seventh new moon, the seventeenth day of the new moon, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.

5And the waters decreased steadily until the tenth new moon. In the tenth new moon, on the first day of the new moon, the tops of the mountains became visible.

6And it came to be, at the end of forty days, that Noaḥ opened the window of the ark which he had made,

7and he sent out a raven, which kept going out and turning back until the waters had dried up from the earth.

8Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.

9But the dove found no resting place for its feet and returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of all the earth. So he put out his hand and took it, and pulled it into the ark to himself.

10And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.

11And the dove came to him in the evening, and see, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. And Noaḥ knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

12And he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return to him again.

13And it came to be in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the new moon, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noaḥ removed the covering of the ark and looked, and saw the surface of the ground was dry.

14And in the second new moon, on the twenty-seventh day of the new moon, the earth was dry.

15And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ, saying,

16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.

17“Bring out with you every life form of all flesh that is with you: of birds, of cattle and all creeping creatures – the creeping creatures on the earth. And let them teem on the earth, and bear and increase on the earth.”

18So Noaḥ went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him,

19every beast, every creeping creature, and every bird, whatever creeps on the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

20And Noaḥ built a slaughter-place to יהוה, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and offered ascending offerings on the slaughter-place.

21And יהוה smelled a soothing fragrance, and יהוה said in His heart, “Never again shall I curse the ground because of man, although the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again strike all living creatures, as I have done,

22as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

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