Genesis 8
8
1 Then God remembered Noah, and all living things, and all the cattle, which were with him in the ark, and he brought a wind across the earth, and the waters were diminished.
2 And the fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were closed. And the rain from heaven was restrained.
3 And the waters were restored to their coming and going from the earth. And they began to diminish after one hundred and fifty days.
4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.
5 Yet in truth, the waters were departing and decreasing until the tenth month. For in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tips of the mountains appeared.
6 And when forty days had passed, Noah, opening the window that he had made in the ark, sent forth a raven,
7 which went forth and did not return, until the waters were dried up across the earth.
8 Likewise, he sent forth a dove after him, in order to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth.
9 But when she did not find a place where her foot might rest, she returned to him in the ark. For the waters were upon the whole earth. And he extended his hand and caught her, and he brought her into the ark.
10 And then, having waited a further seven days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.
11 And she came to him in the evening, carrying in her mouth an olive branch with green leaves. Noah then understood that the waters had ceased upon the earth.
12 And nevertheless, he waited another seven days. And he sent forth the dove, which no longer returned to him.
13 Therefore, in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were diminished upon the earth. And Noah, opening the cover of the ark, gazed out and saw that the surface of the earth had become dry.
14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was made dry.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying:
16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and the wives of your sons with you.
17 Bring out with you all the living things that are with you, all that is flesh: as with the birds, so also with the wild beasts and all the animals that move upon the earth. And enter upon the land: increase and multiply upon it."
18 And so Noah and his sons went out, and his wife and the wives of his sons with him.
19 Then also all living things, and the cattle, and the animals that move upon the earth, according to their kinds, departed from the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. And, taking from each of the cattle and birds that were clean, he offered holocausts upon the altar.
21 And the Lord smelled the sweet odor and said: "I will no longer curse the earth because of man. For the feelings and thoughts of the heart of man are prone to evil from his youth. Therefore, I will no longer pierce every living soul as I have done.
22 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, will not cease."
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 # Or spirit ; Gn 1:2 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 waters 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. # Turkey or Armenia # 2Kg 19:37; Is 37:38; Jr 51:27
5The waters 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 40 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 waters 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 her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought her 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 her 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 she did not return to him again. 13In the six hundred and first year, # = 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 # Lit creatures of all flesh that are with you — birds, livestock, those that crawl on the ground — 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 wildlife, all livestock, every bird, and every creature that crawls on the earth came out of the ark by their groups.
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 man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. # 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
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