Genesis 8

1 And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated.

But God (did not forget/thought) about Noah and all the wild animals and all the kinds of livestock that were with him in the boat. So one day God sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the wind caused the water [to begin] to recede.

2 The fountains also of the deep, and the flood gates of heaven were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

God caused the water that was under the earth to stop bursting forth, and he caused the floodgates of water from the sky to close so that it stopped raining.

3 And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days.

The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began,

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.

(on the 17th day of the seventh month [of that year/late in March]), the boat came to rest on one of the mountains in the Ararat region.

5 And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

The water continued to recede until, on the first day of the tenth month [of that year], the tops of other mountains became visible.

6 And after that forty days were passed, Noe, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven:

40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.

7 Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth.

The raven flew back and forth [to and from the boat] until the water was completely gone.

8 He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth.

Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on the ground.

9 But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark.

But the dove did not find any place to perch, so it flew back to Noah in the boat, because there was still water all over the surface of the earth. So Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back inside the boat.

10 And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again.

11 And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth.

This time the dove returned to him in the evening and, [surprisingly], in its beak there was a leaf from an olive tree that the dove had just plucked. Then Noah knew that the water had truly receded from the surface of the ground.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.

Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

Noah was now 601 years old. By the first day of the first month [of the Jewish year], the water had completely drained away from the ground. Noah removed the covering on top of the ark, and he was surprised to see that the surface of the ground was drying.

14 In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.

By the 27th day of the next month, the ground was completely dry.

15 And God spoke to Noe, saying:

Then God said to Noah,

16 Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee.

“Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives.

17 All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it.

Bring out with you all the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that scurry across the ground, in order that they can spread all over the earth and become very numerous.”

18 So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.

So Noah left the boat, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.

19 And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

And every kind of creature, including all those that scurry across the ground, all the birds, every creature that moves on the earth, left the boat. They left the boat in groups of their own species.

20 And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar.

Then Noah built a (stone altar/place for offering sacrifices) to Yahweh. Then he took some of the animals that Yahweh had said were acceptable as sacrifices and killed them. Then he burned them whole on the altar.

21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

When Yahweh smelled the pleasant odor, he was pleased with the sacrifice. Then he said to himself, “I will never again devastate everything on the earth because of the sinful things people do. Even though everything that people think is evil from the time they are young, I will not destroy all the living creatures again, as I did this time.

22 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

As long as the earth exists, each year there will be seasons for planting seeds and seasons for harvesting crops. Each year there will be times when it is cold and times when it is hot, summer and winter (OR, rainy season and dry season). Each day there will be daytime and nighttime.”

A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark