1God remembered Noah, all those alive, and all the animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth so that the waters receded. 2The springs of the deep sea and the skies#8.2 Or the windows of the skies closed up. The skies held back the rain. 3The waters receded gradually from the earth. After one hundred fifty days, the waters decreased; 4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains. 5The waters decreased gradually until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the mountain peaks appeared.

6After forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. 7He sent out a raven, and it flew back and forth until the waters over the entire earth had dried up. 8Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters on all of the fertile land had subsided, 9but the dove found no place to set its foot. It returned to him in the ark since waters still covered the entire earth. Noah stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it back into the ark. 10He waited seven more days and sent the dove out from the ark again. 11The dove came back to him in the evening, grasping a torn olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were subsiding from the earth. 12He waited seven more days and sent out the dove, but it didn’t come back to him again. 13In Noah’s six hundred first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters dried up from the earth. Noah removed the ark’s hatch and saw that the surface of the fertile land had dried up. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.

15God spoke to Noah, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you all the animals of every kind—birds, livestock, everything crawling on the ground—so that they may populate the earth, be fertile, and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19All the animals, all the livestock,#8.19 LXX; MT lacks all the livestock. all the birds, and everything crawling on the ground, came out of the ark by their families.

God’s promise for the earth

20Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of the clean large animals and some of the clean birds, and placed entirely burned offerings on the altar. 21The LORD smelled the pleasing scent, and the LORD thought to himself, I will not curse the fertile land anymore because of human beings since the ideas of the human mind are evil from their youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.

22As long as the earth exists,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and hot,

summer and autumn,

day and night

will not cease.

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Genesis 8

1And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark: and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated.

2The fountains also of the deep, and the flood gates of heaven were shut up: and the rain from heaven was restrained.

3And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days.

4And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.

5And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

6And after that forty days were passed, Noe, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven:

7Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth.

8He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth.

9But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark.

10And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

11And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth.

12And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.

13Therefore in the six hundreth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth. And Noe, opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

14In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.

15And God spoke to Noe, saying:

16Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee.

17All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increased and multiply upon it.

18So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.

19And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

20And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar.

21And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

22All the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

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Genesis 8

Genesis 8