Genesis 8

1 Then God remembered Noah, and all living things, and all the cattle, which were with him in the ark, and he brought a wind across the earth, and the waters were diminished.

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 And the fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were closed. And the rain from heaven was restrained.

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

3 And the waters were restored to their coming and going from the earth. And they began to diminish after one hundred and fifty days.

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 twenty-seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.

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

5 Yet in truth, the waters were departing and decreasing until the tenth month. For in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tips of the mountains appeared.

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

6 And when forty days had passed, Noah, opening the window that he had made in the ark, sent forth a raven,

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

7 which went forth and did not return, until the waters were dried up across the earth.

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

8 Likewise, he sent forth a dove after him, in order to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth.

Then he sent a dove out to see if the waters had gone down enough to expose dry ground.

9 But when she did not find a place where her foot might rest, she returned to him in the ark. For the waters were upon the whole earth. And he extended his hand and caught her, and he brought her 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 then, having waited a further seven days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

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

11 And she came to him in the evening, carrying in her mouth an olive branch with green leaves. Noah then understood that the waters had ceased upon 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 nevertheless, he waited another seven days. And he sent forth the dove, which no longer returned to him.

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

13 Therefore, in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were diminished upon the earth. And Noah, opening the cover of the ark, gazed out and saw that the surface of the earth had become 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 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was made dry.

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

15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying:

Then God told Noah,

16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and the wives of your sons with you.

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

17 Bring out with you all the living things that are with you, all that is flesh: as with the birds, so also with the wild beasts and all the animals that move upon the earth. And enter upon the land: increase and multiply upon it.”

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 so Noah and his sons went out, and his wife and the wives of his sons with him.

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

19 Then also all living things, and the cattle, and the animals that move upon the earth, according to their kinds, departed from 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 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. And, taking from each of the cattle and birds that were clean, he offered holocausts upon the altar.

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

21 And the Lord smelled the sweet odor and said: “I will no longer curse the earth because of man. For the feelings and thoughts of the heart of man are prone to evil from his youth. Therefore, I will no longer pierce every living soul 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 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, will 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