Genesis 8
8
1God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 2The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. 3Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished 4that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.#The mountains of Ararat: the mountain country of ancient Arartu in northwest Iraq, which was the highest part of the world to the biblical writer. There is no Mount Ararat in the Bible. 5The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.
6At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch of the ark that he had made, 7#In the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, Utnapishtim (the equivalent of Noah) released in succession a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven did not return, Utnapishtim knew it was safe to leave the ark. The first century A.D. Roman author Pliny tells of Indian sailors who release birds in order to follow them toward land. and he released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. 8Then he released a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. 9But the dove could find no place to perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water over all the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. 10He waited yet seven days more and again released the dove from the ark. 11In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had diminished on the earth. 12He waited yet another seven days and then released the dove; but this time it did not come back.
13#On the first day of the first month, the world was in the state it had been on the day of creation in chap. 1. Noah had to wait another month until the earth was properly dry as in 1:9. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground had dried. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15Then God said to Noah: 16Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.#Gn 1:22, 28. 18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives; 19and all the animals, all the birds, and all the crawling creatures that crawl on the earth went out of the ark by families.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.#Sir 44:18; Is 54:9; Rom 7:18.
22All the days of the earth,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.#Jer 33:20, 25.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Berĕshith (Genesis) 8
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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