Genesis 8

1 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.

And God remembered Noah, and all the wild—beasts and all the tame-beasts that were with him in the ark, —and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided;

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

and the fountains of the roaring-deep were shut, and the windows of the heavens, —and the heavy rain was restrained from the heavens;

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

and the waters returned from off the earth they went on returning, —and so the waters decreased at the end of a hundred and fifty days.

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

And the ark rested, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, —on the mountains of Ararat.

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

But, the waters went on decreasing, until the tenth month, —in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, were seen the tops of the mountains.

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

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made;

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

and sent forth a raven, —and it kept going forth and returning, until the drying up of the waters from off the earth.

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

And he sent forth a dove from him, —to see whether the waters had abated, from off the face of the ground;

9 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.

but the dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot so she returned unto him into the ark, for, waters, were on the face of all the earth; and he put forth his hand and took her, and brought her in unto him, into the ark.

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

Then stayed he yet seven days more, —and, again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

11 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.

And the dove came in unto him at eventide, and lo! a newly sprouted olive-leaf, in her mouth, —so Noah knew that the waters had abated from off the earth.

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

And he stayed yet seven days more, —and sent forth the dove, but she returned not again unto him any more.

13 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.

So it came to pass in the six hundred and first year at the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters had dried up from off the earth, —and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked and lo! the face of the ground was dried.

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

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

15 Then God told Noah,

So then, God spake to Noah, saying:

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

Come forth out of the ark, —thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

17 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.”

All the living creatures that are with thee of all flesh among birds, and among beasts, and among all the creeping things that creep on the earth, bring forth with thee, —and they shall swarm in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply, on the earth.

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

So Noah came forth, —and his sons and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:

19 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.

All the living creatures, all that move along, and all birds, and all that moveth along over the earth—by their families, came forth out of the ark.

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

And Noah builded an altar to Yahweh, —and took of all the clean beasts and of all the clean birds, and caused ascending Sacrifices to go up on the altar.

21 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.

And Yahweh smelled a satisfying odour, so Yahweh said to himself. I will not, again, curse any more the ground for man’s sake, although the device of the heart of man, be wicked from his youth, —neither will I again, any more smite every living thing, as I have done.

22 As long as the earth exists, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never come to an end.”

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

A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark