Genesis 8

The Flood Subsides

1But 1God remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark; and 2God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 2Also 3the fountains of the deep and the 4floodgates of the sky were closed, and 5the rain from the sky was restrained; 3and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end 6of 150 days the water decreased. 4Then in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, 7the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 5And the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

6Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the 8window of the ark which he had made; 7and he sent out a raven, and it 9flew here and there until the water was dried up 10from the earth. 8Then he sent out a 11dove, to see if the water was low on the 12surface of the land; 9but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him in the ark, for the water was on the 13surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took it, and brought it into the ark to himself. 10So he waited another seven days longer; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 11And the dove came to him in 14the evening, and behold, in its 15beak was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was low on the earth. 12Then he waited another seven days longer, and sent out 16the dove; but it did not return to him again.

13Now it came about in the 17six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water was dried up 18from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the 19surface of the ground had dried up. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth, that they may 2021breed abundantly on the earth, and 22be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 19Every animal, every crawling thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out 23by their families from the ark.

20Then Noah built 24an altar to the Lord, and took some of every kind of 25clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered 26burnt offerings on the altar. 21The Lord 27smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said 28to Himself, “I will never again 29curse the ground on account of man, for 30the 31intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; 32and I will never again 33destroy every living thing, as I have done.22While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, 34Summer and winter, And 35day and night Shall not cease.”