< 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.
And God remembered Noah, and all the animals, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
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.
And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed, and the pour of rain from heaven was stopped.
3 The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began,
And the waters retired from the earth, continually retiring; and in the course of a hundred and fifty days the waters abated.
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.
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
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.
And the waters abated continually until the tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.
And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
7 The raven flew back and forth [to and from the boat] until the water was completely gone.
And he sent out the raven, which went forth going to and fro, until the waters were dried from the earth.
8 Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on the ground.
And he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had become low on the ground.
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.
But the dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot, and returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark.
10 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again.
And he waited yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
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.
And the dove came to him at eventide; and behold, in her beak was an olive-leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters had become low on the earth.
12 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
And he waited yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; but she returned no more to him.
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.
And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried.
14 By the 27th day of the next month, the ground was completely dry.
And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 Then God said to Noah,
And God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 “Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives.
Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
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.”
Bring forth with thee every animal which is with thee, of all flesh, fowl as well as cattle, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
18 So Noah left the boat, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.
And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
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.
All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl — everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.
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.
And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar.
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.
And Jehovah smelled the sweet odour. And Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man, for the thought of Man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will no more smite every living thing, as I have done.
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.”
Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed [time] and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.