Genesis 8
1 God considered Noah, all the wild animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters started going down.
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 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed, and 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 flood waters went down slowly from the earth, and after the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down.
水從地上漸退。過了一百五十天，水就漸消。
4 The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
七月十七日，方舟停在亞拉臘山上。
5 The waters continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
水又漸消，到十月初一日，山頂都現出來了。
6 It came about after forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
過了四十天，挪亞開了方舟的窗戶，
7 He sent out a raven and it flew back and forth until the waters were dried up from the earth.
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 he sent out a dove to see if the waters had gone down from the surface of the earth,
他又放出一隻鴿子去，要看看水從地上退了沒有。
9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, for the waters were still covering the whole earth. He reached out with his hand, and took and brought her into the ark with him.
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 He waited another seven days and again he sent out the dove from the ark.
他又等了七天，再把鴿子從方舟放出去。
11 The dove returned to him in the evening. Look! In her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had gone down from the earth.
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 He waited another seven days, and sent out the dove again. She did not return again to him.
他又等了七天，放出鴿子去，鴿子就不再回來了。
13 It came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from off the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark, looked out, and saw that, behold, the surface of the ground was dry.
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 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
到了二月二十七日，地就都乾了。
15 God said to Noah,
上帝對挪亞說：
16 “Go out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
「你和你的妻子、兒子、兒婦都可以出方舟。
17 Take out with you every living creature of all flesh that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth—so that they may grow unto very large numbers of living creatures throughout the earth, be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.”
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 went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
於是挪亞和他的妻子、兒子、兒婦都出來了。
19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, according to their families, left the ark.
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 Noah built an altar to Yahweh. He took some of the clean animals and some of the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings 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 Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground because of mankind, even though the intentions of their hearts is evil from childhood. Nor will I again destroy everything living, as I have done.
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 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
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
