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

CHAPTER 8

1Forsooth the Lord had mind of Noah, and of all living beasts, and of all work beasts, that were with him in the ship; and [he] brought a wind on the earth. And [the] waters were decreased, or assuaged,

2and the wells of the sea were closed, and the windows of heaven were closed, and rains of heaven were ceased.

3And [the] waters turned again from off the earth, and went again, and began to be decreased, or assuaged, after an hundred and fifty days.

4And the ship rested in the seventh month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, on the hills [or mounts] of Armenia.

5And soothly the waters went and decreased till to the tenth month, for in the tenth month, in the first day of the month, the tops of [the] hills appeared.

6And when forty days had passed, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

7and sent out a crow, which went out, and turned not again till the waters were dried on [the] earth.

8Also Noah sent out a culver after him, to see if the waters had ceased then on the face of the earth;

9and when the culver found not where her foot should rest, she turned again to him into the ship, for the waters were on all [the] earth; and Noah held forth his hand, and brought the culver taken into the ship.

10Soothly when other seven days were abided afterward, again he sent out a culver from the ship;

11and she came to him at eventide, and bare in her mouth a branch of an olive tree with green leaves. There-fore Noah understood that the waters had ceased or abated on earth;

12and nevertheless he abode seven other days, and sent out a culver, which turned not again to him.

13Therefore in the six hundred and one year of the life of Noah, in the first month, in the first day of the month, [the] waters were decreased on earth; and Noah opened the roof of the ship, and beheld, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

14In the second month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was made dry.

15Soothly the Lord spake to Noah; and said,

16Go out of the ship, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee;

17and lead out with thee all living beasts that be with thee of each flesh, as well in volatiles, as in unreason-able beasts, and all reptiles or all creeping beasts that creep on [the] earth; and enter ye on the earth, increase ye, and be ye multiplied on earth.

18Therefore Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him;

19but also all living beasts, and work beasts, and birds, and reptiles that creep on [the] earth, by their kind, went out of the ship.

20Forsooth Noah builded an altar to the Lord, and he took of all clean beasts and birds, and offered burnt sacrifices on the altar.

21And the Lord savoured the odour of sweetness, and said to him, I shall no more curse the earth for men, for the wit and thought of man’s heart be ready, either prone, into evil from young waxing age; therefore I shall no more smite each living soul, as I did;

22in all the days of [the] earth, seed and ripe corn, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not rest.

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Genesis 8

Genesis 8