Genesis 8

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

But God (did not forget/thought) about Noah and all the wild animals and all the kinds of livestock that were with him in the boat. So one day God sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the wind caused the water [to begin] to recede.

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

God caused the water that was under the earth to stop bursting forth, and he caused the floodgates of water from the sky to close so that it stopped raining.

3 and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of an hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.

The water on the earth gradually receded. 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.

(on the 17th day of the seventh month [of that year/late in March]), the boat came to rest on one of the mountains in the Ararat region.

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

The water continued to recede until, on the first day of the tenth month [of that year], the tops of other mountains became visible.

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

40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.

7 and he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

The raven flew back and forth [to and from the boat] until the water was completely gone.

8 And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had all receded on the ground.

9 but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark.

But the dove did not find any place to perch, so it flew back to Noah in the boat, because there was still water all over the surface of the earth. So Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back inside the boat.

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

Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out of the boat again.

11 and the dove came in to him at eventide; and, lo, in her mouth an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

This time the dove returned to him in the evening and, [surprisingly], in its beak there was a leaf from an olive tree that the dove had just plucked. Then Noah knew that the water had truly receded from the surface of the ground.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; and she returned not again unto him any more.

Noah waited seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

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

Noah was now 601 years old. By the first day of the first month [of the Jewish year], the water had completely drained away from the ground. Noah removed the covering on top of the ark, and he was surprised to see that the surface of the ground was drying.

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

By the 27th day of the next month, the ground was completely dry.

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

Then God said to Noah,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

“Leave the boat, along with your wife and your sons and their wives.

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

Bring out with you all the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that scurry across the ground, in order that they can spread all over the earth and become very numerous.”

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

So Noah left the boat, along with his wife and his sons and their wives.

19 every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, whatsoever moveth upon the earth, after their families, went forth out of the ark.

And every kind of creature, including all those that scurry across the ground, all the birds, every creature that moves on the earth, left the boat. They left the boat in groups of their own species.

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Then Noah built a (stone altar/place for offering sacrifices) to Yahweh. Then he took some of the animals that Yahweh had said were acceptable as sacrifices and killed them. Then he burned them whole on the altar.

21 And the LORD smelled the sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, for that the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

When Yahweh smelled the pleasant odor, he was pleased with the sacrifice. Then he said to himself, “I will never again devastate everything on the earth because of the sinful things people do. Even though everything that people think is evil from the time they are young, I will not destroy all the living creatures again, as I did this time.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

As long as the earth exists, each year there will be seasons for planting seeds and seasons for harvesting crops. Each year there will be times when it is cold and times when it is hot, summer and winter (OR, rainy season and dry season). Each day there will be daytime and nighttime.”

A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark