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.

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 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.

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

3 The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began,

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

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.

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

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.

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

6 40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.

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

7 The raven flew back and forth [to and from the boat] until the water was completely gone.

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

8 Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on 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 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 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 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again.

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

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.

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 Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

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

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 By the 27th day of the next month, the ground was completely dry.

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

15 Then God said to Noah,

Then God told Noah,

16 “Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives.

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

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.”

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 So Noah left the boat, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.

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

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 creatures that run along the ground, all the birds—everything that lives on land—also left, each kind leaving together.

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.

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

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.

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 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.”

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