Genesis 8
1 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.
上帝記念挪亞和挪亞方舟裏的一切走獸牲畜。上帝叫風吹地，水勢漸落。
2 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.
淵源和天上的窗戶都閉塞了，天上的大雨也止住了。
3 The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began,
水從地上漸退。過了一百五十天，水就漸消。
4 (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.
七月十七日，方舟停在亞拉臘山上。
5 The water continued to recede until, on the first day of the tenth month [of that year], the tops of other mountains became visible.
水又漸消，到十月初一日，山頂都現出來了。
6 40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.
過了四十天，挪亞開了方舟的窗戶，
7 The raven flew back and forth [to and from the boat] until the water was completely gone.
放出一隻烏鴉去；那烏鴉飛來飛去，直到地上的水都乾了。
8 Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on the ground.
他又放出一隻鴿子去，要看看水從地上退了沒有。
9 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.
但遍地上都是水，鴿子找不着落腳之地，就回到方舟挪亞那裏，挪亞伸手把鴿子接進方舟來。
10 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again.
他又等了七天，再把鴿子從方舟放出去。
11 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.
到了晚上，鴿子回到他那裏，嘴裏叼着一個新擰下來的橄欖葉子，挪亞就知道地上的水退了。
12 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
他又等了七天，放出鴿子去，鴿子就不再回來了。
13 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.
到挪亞六百零一歲，正月初一日，地上的水都乾了。挪亞撤去方舟的蓋觀看，便見地面上乾了。
14 By the 27th day of the next month, the ground was completely dry.
到了二月二十七日，地就都乾了。
15 Then God said to Noah,
上帝對挪亞說：
16 “Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives.
「你和你的妻子、兒子、兒婦都可以出方舟。
17 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.”
在你那裏凡有血肉的活物，就是飛鳥、牲畜，和一切爬在地上的昆蟲，都要帶出來，叫牠在地上多多滋生，大大興旺。」
18 So Noah left the boat, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.
於是挪亞和他的妻子、兒子、兒婦都出來了。
19 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.
一切走獸、昆蟲、飛鳥，和地上所有的動物，各從其類，也都出了方舟。
20 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.
挪亞為耶和華築了一座壇，拿各類潔淨的牲畜、飛鳥獻在壇上為燔祭。
21 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.
耶和華聞那馨香之氣，就心裏說：「我不再因人的緣故咒詛地（人從小時心裏懷着惡念），也不再按着我才行的滅各種的活物了。
22 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.”
地還存留的時候，稼穡、寒暑、冬夏、晝夜就永不停息了。」
A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark
