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
© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Genesis 8
8
The End of the Flood
1God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. 2The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, 3and the water gradually went down for 150 days. 4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. 5The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.
6After forty days Noah opened a window 7and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. 8Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, 9but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to alight. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. 10He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. 11It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. 12Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.
13When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked round, and saw that the ground was getting dry. 14By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15God said to Noah, 16“Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. 17Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.” 18So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives. 19All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.
Noah Offers a Sacrifice
20Noah built an altar to the LORD; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burnt them whole as a sacrifice on the altar. 21The odour of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. 22As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”
Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.