Genesis 8
8
1And God#GodHebrew: Elohim remembered Noah, and all the animals, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God#GodHebrew: Elohim made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed, and the pour of rain from heaven was stopped. 3And the waters retired from the earth, continually retiring; and in the course of a hundred and fifty days the waters abated.
4And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5And the waters abated continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7And he sent out the raven, which went forth going to and fro, until the waters were dried from the earth. 8And he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had become low on the ground. 9But the dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot, and returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark. 10And he waited yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11And the dove came to him at eventide; and behold, in her beak was an olive-leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters had become low on the earth. 12And he waited yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; but she returned no more to him.
13And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15And God#GodHebrew: Elohim spoke to Noah, saying, 16Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 17Bring forth with thee every animal which is with thee, of all flesh, fowl as well as cattle, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and may be fruitful and multiply on the earth. 18And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him. 19All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl — everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.
20And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar. 21And Jehovah smelled the sweet odour. And Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man, for the thought of Man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will no more smite every living thing, as I have done. 22Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.
First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Genesis 8
8
The Water Goes Down
1God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down. 2God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped. 3For 150 days the water slowly went down. 4Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains. 5The water kept going down, and the mountain tops could be seen on the first day of the tenth month.
6-7Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. 8Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, so he sent out a dove. 9Deep water was still everywhere, and when the dove could not find a place to land, it flew back to the boat. Then Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.
10Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. 11It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew the water was finally going down. 12He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.
13Noah was now 601 years old. And by the first day of that year, almost all the water had gone away. Noah made an opening in the roof of the boat#8.13 made … boat: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. and saw that the ground was getting dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.
15God said to Noah, 16“You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. 17Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” 18After Noah and his family had left the boat, 19the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.
The Lord's Promise for the Earth
20Noah built an altar where he could offer sacrifices to the Lord. Then he offered on the altar one of each kind of animal and bird that could be used for a sacrifice.#8.20 animal … sacrifice: See the note at 7.2. 21The smell of the burning offering pleased the Lord, and he said:
Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time.
22As long as the earth remains,
there will be planting
and harvest,
cold and heat;
winter and summer,
day and night.
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
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