Genesis 8

1 And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

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 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut, and the rain from heaven was stopped.

The subterranean waters were closed off, and the heavy rainfall was stopped.

3 And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower.

The floodwaters steadily receded from the earth. They had gone down so much that by 150 days after the flood began

4 And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. This happened on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.

5 And still the waters went on falling, till on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

The waters continued to drop so that by the first day of the tenth month the tops of mountains could be seen.

6 Then, after forty days, through the open window of the ark which he had made,

Forty days later Noah opened the window he'd made in the ark,

7 Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till the waters were gone from the earth.

and sent a raven out. It flew back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up.

8 And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth;

Then he sent a dove out to see if the waters had gone down enough to expose dry ground.

9 But the dove saw no resting-place for her foot, and came back to the ark, for the waters were still over all the earth; and he put out his hand, and took her into the ark.

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 And after waiting another seven days, he sent the dove out again;

He waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again.

11 And the dove came back at evening, and in her mouth was an olive-leaf broken off: so Noah was certain that the waters had gone down on the earth.

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 And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again, but she did not come back to him.

Again he waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but this time it didn't return to him.

13 And in the six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters were dry on the earth: and Noah took the cover off the ark and saw that the face of the earth was dry.

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 And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.

By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.

15 And God said to Noah,

Then God told Noah,

16 Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.

“Leave the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives.

17 Take out with you every living thing which is with you, birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased on the earth.

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 And Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives;

So Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, left the ark.

19 And every beast and bird and every living thing of every sort which goes on the earth, went out of the ark.

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 And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar.

Noah built an altar, and sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds as a burnt offering.

21 And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living things as I have done.

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 While the earth goes on, seed time and the getting in of the grain, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not come to an end.

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