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—beasts and all the tame-beasts that were with him in the ark, —and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided;

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 roaring-deep were shut, and the windows of the heavens, —and the heavy rain was restrained from the heavens;

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

and the waters returned from off the earth they went on returning, —and so the waters decreased at the end of a hundred and fifty days.

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 the ark rested, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, —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.

But, the waters went on decreasing, until the tenth month, —in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, were seen the tops of the mountains.

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

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

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

and sent forth a raven, —and it kept going forth and returning, until the drying up of the waters from off the earth.

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

And he sent forth a dove from him, —to see whether the waters had abated, from off the face 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 resting-place for the sole of her foot so she returned unto him into the ark, for, waters, were on the face of all the earth; and he put forth his hand and took her, and brought her in unto him, into the ark.

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

Then stayed he yet seven days more, —and, again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

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.

And the dove came in unto him at eventide, and lo! a newly sprouted olive-leaf, in her mouth, —so Noah knew that the waters had abated from off the earth.

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

And he stayed yet seven days more, —and sent forth the dove, but she returned not again unto 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.

So it came to pass in the six hundred and first year at the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters had dried up from off the earth, —and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked and lo! the face of the ground was dried.

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

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

15 Then God said to Noah,

So then, God spake to Noah, saying:

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

Come forth out of the ark, —thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

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.”

All the living creatures that are with thee of all flesh among birds, and among beasts, and among all the creeping things that creep on the earth, bring forth with thee, —and they shall swarm in 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.

So Noah came forth, —and his sons and 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.

All the living creatures, all that move along, and all birds, and all that moveth along over the earth—by their families, came forth out of the ark.

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.

And Noah builded an altar to Yahweh, —and took of all the clean beasts and of all the clean birds, and caused ascending Sacrifices to go up 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 Yahweh smelled a satisfying odour, so Yahweh said to himself. I will not, again, curse any more the ground for man’s sake, although the device of the heart of man, be wicked from his youth, —neither will I again, any more smite 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.”

During all the days of the earth, seedtime 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