1God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 2The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. 3Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished 4that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.#The mountains of Ararat: the mountain country of ancient Arartu in northwest Iraq, which was the highest part of the world to the biblical writer. There is no Mount Ararat in the Bible. 5The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

6At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch of the ark that he had made, 7#In the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, Utnapishtim (the equivalent of Noah) released in succession a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven did not return, Utnapishtim knew it was safe to leave the ark. The first century A.D. Roman author Pliny tells of Indian sailors who release birds in order to follow them toward land. and he released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. 8Then he released a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. 9But the dove could find no place to perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water over all the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. 10He waited yet seven days more and again released the dove from the ark. 11In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had diminished on the earth. 12He waited yet another seven days and then released the dove; but this time it did not come back.

13#On the first day of the first month, the world was in the state it had been on the day of creation in chap. 1. Noah had to wait another month until the earth was properly dry as in 1:9. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground had dried. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15Then God said to Noah: 16Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.#Gn 1:22, 28. 18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives; 19and all the animals, all the birds, and all the crawling creatures that crawl on the earth went out of the ark by families.

20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.#Sir 44:18; Is 54:9; Rom 7:18.

22All the days of the earth,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

Summer and winter,

and day and night

shall not cease.#Jer 33:20, 25.

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc

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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