創世記 8
1 天主想起了諾厄和同他在方舟內的一切野獸和牲畜，遂使風吹過大地，水漸漸退落；
But God hadn't forgotten about Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the ark. God sent a wind to blow over the earth, and the floodwaters started to drop.
2 深淵的泉源和天上的水閘已關閉，雨也由天上停止降落，
The subterranean waters were closed off, and the heavy rainfall was stopped.
3 於是水逐漸由地上退去；過了一百五十天，水就低落了。
The floodwaters steadily receded from the earth. They had gone down so much that by 150 days after the flood began
4 七月十七日，方舟停在阿辣辣特山上。
the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. This happened on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.
5 洪水繼續減退，直到十月；十月一日，許多山頂都露出來。
The waters continued to drop so that by the first day of the tenth month the tops of mountains could be seen.
6 過了四十天，諾厄開了在方舟上做的窗戶，
Forty days later Noah opened the window he'd made in the ark,
7 放了一隻烏鴉；烏鴉飛去又飛回，直到地上的水都乾了。
and sent a raven out. It flew back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up.
8 諾厄等待了七天，又放出了一隻鴿子，看看水是否已由地面退盡。
Then he sent a dove out to see if the waters had gone down enough to expose dry ground.
9 但是，因為全地面上還有水，鴿子找不著落腳的地方，遂飛回方舟；諾厄伸手將牠接入方舟內。
But the dove couldn't find anywhere to land. So it came back to Noah in the ark because water was still covering the whole earth. He reached out his hand, picked up the dove, and took it back into the ark with him.
10 再等了七天，他由方舟中又放出一隻鴿子，
He waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again.
11 傍晚時，那隻鴿子飛回他那裏，看，嘴裏啣著一根綠的橄欖樹枝；諾厄於是知道，水已由地上退去。
When it came back to him in the evening it had a freshly-picked olive leaf in its beak, so Noah knew the floodwaters were mainly gone from the earth.
12 諾厄又等了七天再放出一隻鴿子；這隻鴿子沒有回來。
Again he waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but this time it didn't return to him.
13 諾厄六百零一歲，正月初一，地上的水都乾了，諾厄就撤開方舟的頂觀望，看見地面已乾。
By now Noah was 601, and by the first day of the first month, the floodwaters on the earth were gone. Noah pulled back the ark's covering and saw that the ground was drying out.
14 二月二十七日，大地全乾了。
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.
15 天主於是吩咐諾厄說：「
Then God told Noah,
16 你和你的妻子、兒子及兒媳，同你由方舟出來；
“Leave the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives.
17 所有同你在方舟內的有血肉的生物：飛禽、牲畜和各種地上的爬蟲，你都帶出來，叫他們在地上滋生，在地上生育繁殖。」
Let all the animals go—the birds, the wild animals, the creatures that run along the ground—so that they can breed and increase their numbers on the earth.”
18 諾厄遂同他的兒子、妻子及兒媳出來；
So Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, left the ark.
19 所有的爬蟲、飛禽和地上所有的動物，各依其類出了方舟。
All the animals, all the creatures that run along the ground, all the birds—everything that lives on land—also left, each kind leaving together.
20 諾厄給上主築了一座祭壇，拿各種潔淨的牲畜和潔淨的飛禽，獻在祭壇上，作為全燔祭。
Noah built an altar, and sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds as a burnt offering.
21 上主聞到了馨香，心裏說：「我再不為人的緣故咒罵大地，因為人心的思念從小就邪惡；我也再不照我所作的打擊一切生物了，
The Lord accepted the sacrifice, and said to himself, “I won't ever again curse the ground because of human beings, even though every single thought in their minds is evil from childhood. I won't ever destroy all life again as I have just done.
22 只願大地存在之日，稼穡寒暑，冬夏晝夜，循環不息。」
As long as the earth exists, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never come to an end.”
A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark
