²⁰ Then Noah built an altar and sacrificed on it some of the animals and birds God had designated^[a] for that purpose. ²¹ And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice^[b] and said to himself, “I will never do it again—I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though man’s bent is always toward evil from his earliest youth, and even though he does such wicked things. ²² As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.”