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 to and fro 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 honour 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 towards 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.’
Genesis 8
English Standard Version
The Flood Subsides
1But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. (Ge 19:29; Ge 30:22; Ex 2:24; Ex 14:21; 1Sa 1:19)2The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, (Ge 7:11)3and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, (Ge 7:24)4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38; Jer 51:27)5And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made7and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.8Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.9But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.10He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.11And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.12Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.15Then God said to Noah,16“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. (Ge 7:13)17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (Ge 1:22; Ge 1:28; Ge 9:1)18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
God’s Covenant with Noah
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.21And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse[1] the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. (Ge 3:17; Ge 6:5; Ge 6:17; Ge 9:11; Ge 9:15; Ex 29:18; Ex 29:25; Ex 29:41; Le 1:9; Le 1:13; Le 1:17; Ps 58:3; Isa 54:9; Eze 16:19; Eze 20:41; Mt 15:19; Ro 1:21; 2Co 2:15; Eph 5:2; Php 4:18)22While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Jer 5:24; Jer 33:20; Jer 33:25)