Genesis 8

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living animal, and all the cattle that [were] with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were checked.

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 The fountains also of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

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

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

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

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

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

5 And the waters decreased continually, till the tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first [day] of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

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

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

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

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, till the waters were dried from off the earth.

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

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of 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 found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark; for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in to him into the ark.

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 And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

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

11 And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth [was] an olive-leaf plucked off: So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

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 And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; which returned not again to him any more.

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

13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], the first [day] of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.

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 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

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

15 And God spoke to Noah, saying,

Then God told Noah,

16 Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

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

17 Bring forth with thee every living animal that [is] with thee, of all flesh, of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping animal that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

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

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

19 Every beast, every creeping animal, and every fowl, [and] whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.

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 And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.

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

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every living animal as I have done.

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 While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

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