Genesis 8

1 And God remembered Noah, and all the wild animals, and all the tame animals, and all the flying creatures, and all the crawling creatures that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters began to recede.

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 floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

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

3 And the waters receded steadily from the land. And after the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had decreased significantly.

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

4 And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ship 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 The waters receded continually to the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

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

6 It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

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

7 and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters had dried up from the earth.

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

8 Then he sent forth a dove from it, to see if the waters had abated from the surface of the ground,

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

9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.

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 he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ship.

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

11 The dove came back to him at evening, and, look, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters had abated from 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 He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.

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

13 And it happened in the six hundred first year of Noah's life, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters had dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ship and looked out. And look, the surface of the ground 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 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

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

15 God spoke to Noah, saying,

Then God told Noah,

16 "Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

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

17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, of flying creatures, and animals, and every creature that crawls on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply 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 forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

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

19 And every wild animal, and every tame animal, and every flying creature, and every creature that crawls on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.

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 Noah built an altar to God, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean flying creature, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

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

21 And God smelled the pleasing aroma, and God said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of his heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing, 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 remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

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