Genesis 8
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.”
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
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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