Genesis 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
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；
2 The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
深淵的泉源和天上的水閘已關閉，雨也由天上停止降落，
3 The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.
於是水逐漸由地上退去；過了一百五十天，水就低落了。
4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
七月十七日，方舟停在阿辣辣特山上。
5 And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
洪水繼續減退，直到十月；十月一日，許多山頂都露出來。
6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
過了四十天，諾厄開了在方舟上做的窗戶，
7 and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.
放了一隻烏鴉；烏鴉飛去又飛回，直到地上的水都乾了。
8 Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
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。
9 But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.
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。
10 Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
再等了七天，他由方舟中又放出一隻鴿子，
11 And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
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。
12 And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
諾厄又等了七天再放出一隻鴿子；這隻鴿子沒有回來。
13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
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。
14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.
二月二十七日，大地全乾了。
15 Then God said to Noah,
天主於是吩咐諾厄說：「
16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.
你和你的妻子、兒子及兒媳，同你由方舟出來；
17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”
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。」
18 So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
諾厄遂同他的兒子、妻子及兒媳出來；
19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.
所有的爬蟲、飛禽和地上所有的動物，各依其類出了方舟。
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
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。
21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
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，
22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
只願大地存在之日，稼穡寒暑，冬夏晝夜，循環不息。」
A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark
