Genesis 8
Common English Bible
8 God remembered Noah, all those alive, and all the animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth so that the waters receded. 2 The springs of the deep sea and the skies[a] closed up. The skies held back the rain. 3 The waters receded gradually from the earth. After one hundred fifty days, the waters decreased; 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains. 5 The waters decreased gradually until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the mountain peaks appeared.
6 After forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. 7 He sent out a raven, and it flew back and forth until the waters over the entire earth had dried up. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters on all of the fertile land had subsided, 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot. It returned to him in the ark since waters still covered the entire earth. Noah stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it back into the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out from the ark again. 11 The dove came back to him in the evening, grasping a torn olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were subsiding from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent out the dove, but it didn’t come back to him again. 13 In Noah’s six hundred first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters dried up from the earth. Noah removed the ark’s hatch and saw that the surface of the fertile land had dried up. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.
15 God spoke to Noah, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you all the animals of every kind—birds, livestock, everything crawling on the ground—so that they may populate the earth, be fertile, and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals, all the livestock,[b] all the birds, and everything crawling on the ground, came out of the ark by their families.
God’s promise for the earth
20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of the clean large animals and some of the clean birds, and placed entirely burned offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing scent, and the Lord thought to himself, I will not curse the fertile land anymore because of human beings since the ideas of the human mind are evil from their youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 As long as the earth exists,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and hot,
summer and autumn,
day and night
will not cease.
Footnotes
- Genesis 8:2 Or the windows of the skies
- Genesis 8:19 LXX; MT lacks all the livestock.
Genesis 8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Flood Subsides
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;(A) 2 the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,(B) 3 and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated,(C) 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.(D) 5 The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made(E) 7 and sent out the raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.(F) 8 Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.(G) 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more.
13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and saw that the face of the ground was drying.(H) 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.(I) 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”(J) 18 So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
God’s Promise to Noah
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.(K) 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humans, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.(L)
22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night
shall not cease.”(M)
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.