Genesis 8

God Remembers Noah

1God remembered Noah and all the wild and domestic animals with him in the ship. So God made a wind blow over the earth, and the water started to go down. 2The deep springs and the sky had been shut, and the rain had stopped pouring. 3The water began to recede from the land. At the end of 150 days the water had decreased. 4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. 5The water kept decreasing until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

6After 40 more days Noah opened the window he had made in the ship 7and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water on the land had dried up. 8Next, he sent out a dove to see if the water was gone from the surface of the ground. 9The dove couldn’t find a place to land because the water was still all over the earth. So it came back to Noah in the ship. He reached out and brought the dove back into the ship. 10He waited seven more days and again sent the dove out of the ship. 11The dove came to him in the evening, and in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. Then Noah knew that the water was gone from the earth. 12He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but it never came back to him.

13By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water on the land had dried up. Noah opened the top of the ship, looked out, and saw the surface of the ground. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was dry.

15Then God spoke to Noah, 16“Come out of the ship with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives. 17Bring out every animal that’s with you: birds, domestic animals, and every creature that crawls on the earth. Be fertile, increase in number, and spread over the earth.”

18So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19Every animal, crawling creature, and bird—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ship, one kind after another.

20Noah built an altar to the Lord. On it he made a burnt offering of each type of clean #8:20 “Clean” refers to anything that is presentable to God. animal and clean bird. 21The Lord smelled the soothing aroma. He said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of humans, even though from birth their hearts are set on nothing but evil. I will never again kill every living creature as I have just done.

22As long as the earth exists,

planting and harvesting,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never stop.”

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Genesis 8

1But God showed concern for Noah. He also showed concern for all the wild animals and livestock that were with Noah in the ark. So God sent a wind to sweep over the earth. And the waters began to go down. 2The springs at the bottom of the oceans had been closed. The windows of the sky had also been closed. And the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3The water on the earth continued to go down. At the end of the 150 days the water had gone down. 4On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of that month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

6After 40 days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark. 7He sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up. 8Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water on the surface of the ground had gone down. 9But the dove couldn’t find any place to rest. Water still covered the whole surface of the earth. So the dove returned to Noah in the ark. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove in. He brought it back to himself in the ark. 10He waited seven more days. Then he sent out the dove again from the ark. 11In the evening the dove returned to him. There in its beak was a freshly picked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the water on the earth had gone down. 12He waited seven more days. Then he sent out the dove again. But this time it didn’t return to him.

13It was the first day of the first month of Noah’s 601st year. The water on the earth had dried up. Then Noah removed the covering from the ark. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark. Bring your wife and your sons and their wives with you. 17Bring out every kind of living thing that is with you. Bring the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground. Then they can multiply on the earth. They can have little ones and the number of them can increase.”

18So Noah came out of the ark. His sons and his wife and his sons’ wives were with him. 19All the animals came out of the ark. The creatures that move along the ground also came out. So did all the birds. Everything that moves on land came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. He took some of the “clean” animals and birds. He sacrificed them on the altar as burnt offerings. 21The smell of the offerings pleased the Lord. He said to himself, “I will never put a curse on the ground again because of human beings. I will not do it even though their hearts are always directed toward evil. Their thoughts are evil from the time they are young. I will never destroy all living things again, as I have just done.

22“As long as the earth lasts,

there will always be a time to plant

and a time to gather the crops.

As long as the earth lasts,

there will always be cold and heat.

There will always be summer and winter,

day and night.”

Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®

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