Genesis 8

1-3Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. God caused the wind to blow and the floodwaters began to go down. The underground springs were shut off, the windows of Heaven closed and the rain quit. Inch by inch the water lowered. After 150 days the worst was over.

4-6On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range. The water kept going down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains came into view. After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.

7-9He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn’t even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.

10-11He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.

12He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn’t come back.

13-14In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.

15-17God spoke to Noah: “Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that swarming extravagance of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth.”

18-19Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons’ wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family.

20-21Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, “I’ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I’ll never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.

22For as long as Earth lasts,

planting and harvest, cold and heat,

Summer and winter, day and night

will never stop.”

Genesis 8

The Flood Subsides

1And God remembered Noah and all the wild animals, and all the domesticated animals that were with him in the ark. And God caused a wind to blow#Or “go” over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2And the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens#Or “the sky” were closed, and the rain from the heavens#Or “the sky” was restrained. 3And the waters receded from the earth gradually,#Literally “going and returning” and the waters abated at the end of one hundred and fifty days. 4And the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5And the waters continued to recede#Literally “going and receding” to the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. 6And it happened that at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. 7And he sent out a#Or “the” raven;#Or “crow” it went to and fro#Literally “it went out, going out and returning” until the waters were dried up from upon the earth. 8And he sent out a#Or “the” dove#Literally “and he sent out a dove from him” to see whether the waters had subsided from upon the ground. 9But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the earth. And he stretched out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself into the ark. 10And he waited another seven days, and again he sent out#Literally “he added to send” the dove from the ark. 11And the dove came to him in the evening,#Literally “at the time of the evening” and behold, a freshly-picked olive tree leaf was in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had subsided from upon the earth. 12And he waited seven more days,#Literally “again another seven days” and he sent out the dove. But it did not return again to him. 13And it happened that, in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dried up. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15And God spoke to Noah, saying: 16“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you all the living things which are with you, from all the living creatures—birds, and animals, and everything that creeps on the earth, and let them swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So#Or “And” Noah went out, with#Or “and” his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. 19Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, and everything that moves upon the earth, according to its families, went out from the ark. 20And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And Yahweh smelled the soothing fragrance, and Yahweh said to himself,#Literally “to his heart” “Never again will I curse#Literally “I will not add to curse again” the ground for the sake of humankind, because the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from his youth. Nor will I ever again destroy#Literally “And I will not add again to destroy” all life as I have done. 22As long as the earth endures,#Literally “While all the days of the earth” seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.

Choose your language

The Message

Genesis 8

Genesis 8