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.

2 And the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

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

4 And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ship came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

12 He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.

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.

14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 God spoke to Noah, saying,

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

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."

18 And Noah went forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

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.

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.

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.

22 While the earth remains, seed time 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