Genesis 8

1 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.

And God remembered Noah, and all the wild animals, and all the tame animals, and all the flying creatures, and all the crawling creatures that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters began to recede.

2 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.

And the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

3 The water on the earth gradually receded. 150 days after the flood began,

And the waters receded steadily from the land. And after the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had decreased significantly.

4 (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.

And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ship came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

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

The waters receded continually to the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 40 days later, Noah opened the window that he had made in the side of the boat, and sent out a raven.

It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

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

and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters had dried up from the earth.

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

Then he sent forth a dove from it, to see if the waters had abated from the surface of the ground,

9 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.

but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.

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

And he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ship.

11 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.

The dove came back to him at evening, and, look, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.

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

He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.

13 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.

And it happened in the six hundred first year of Noah's life, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters had dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ship and looked out. And look, the surface of the ground was dry.

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

In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 Then God said to Noah,

God spoke to Noah, saying,

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

"Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

17 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.”

Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, of flying creatures, and animals, and every creature that crawls on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

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

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

19 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.

And every wild animal, and every tame animal, and every flying creature, and every creature that crawls on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.

20 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.

Noah built an altar to God, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean flying creature, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 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.

And God smelled the pleasing aroma, and God said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, nor will I again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 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.”

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

A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark