創世記 8
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
洪水消退
8 上帝眷顧挪亞及方舟裡的野獸和牲畜，使風吹在大地上，水便開始消退。 2 深淵的泉源和天上的水閘都關閉了，大雨也停了。 3 地上的洪水慢慢消退，過了一百五十天，水退下去了。 4 七月十七日，方舟停在亞拉臘山上。 5 水繼續消退，到十月一日，山頂都露出來了。
6 又過了四十天，挪亞打開方舟的窗戶， 7 放出一隻烏鴉。牠一直在空中飛來飛去，直到地上的水都乾了。 8 後來，挪亞放出一隻鴿子，以便瞭解地面的水是否已經消退。 9 但遍地都是水，鴿子找不到歇腳的地方，就飛回了方舟，挪亞伸手把鴿子接進方舟裡。 10 過了七天，挪亞再把鴿子放出去。 11 到了黃昏，鴿子飛回來，嘴裡啣著一片新擰下來的橄欖葉，挪亞便知道地上的水已經退了。 12 等了七天，他又放出鴿子，這一次，鴿子沒有回來。
13 挪亞六百零一歲那年的一月一日，地上的水乾了。挪亞打開方舟的蓋觀望，看見地面都乾了。 14 到了二月二十七日，大地完全乾了。 15 上帝對挪亞說： 16 「你與妻子、兒子和兒媳可以出方舟了。 17 你要把方舟裡的飛禽走獸及爬蟲等所有動物都帶出來，讓牠們在地上多多繁殖。」 18 於是，挪亞與妻子、兒子和兒媳都出了方舟。 19 方舟裡的飛禽走獸和爬蟲等所有地上的動物，都按種類出了方舟。
挪亞獻祭
20 挪亞為耶和華築了一座壇，在上面焚燒各種潔淨的牲畜和飛鳥作為燔祭。 21 耶和華聞到這燔祭的馨香，心想：「雖然人從小就心存惡念，但我再不會因為人的緣故而咒詛大地，再不會毀滅一切生靈。 22 只要大地尚存，播種收割、夏熱冬寒、白晝黑夜必永不停息。」
Genesis 8
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 8
The New Creation.[a] 1 God remembered Noah and all the wild and farm animals that were with him in the ark. God made a wind blow upon the earth, and the waters began to recede. 2 The springs of the abyss and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rains from the heavens ceased. 3 The waters slowly receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days they had greatly diminished. 4 In the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.[b] 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month. In the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains came into view.
6 After forty days had gone by, Noah opened the window that he had made in the ark 7 and released a raven to see if the waters had completely dried up. It flew back and forth until the waters upon the earth dried up. 8 Noah then released a dove, to see if the waters had drained from the surface of the earth, 9 but the dove, not finding any place to land, returned to the ark (for the waters still covered the surface of the earth). He reached out and caught the dove and brought it back into the ark.
10 After waiting another seven days, he once again released the dove from the ark. 11 It returned to him toward the evening. In its beak it had a sprig from an olive tree. Noah understood that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and then released the dove. It did not return to him.
13 In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters dried up upon the earth. Noah removed the covering from the ark and, behold, the surface of the earth was dry. 14 In the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the entire surface of the earth was dry.
15 God commanded Noah, 16 “Leave the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. 17 Take all the animals of every species with you, birds, cattle, all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth, take them all with you. Let them spread out upon the earth. May they be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
18 Noah left the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
19 All the living creatures and all the wild animals, all the birds and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth, each according to its kind, all left the ark.
20 Noah built an altar to the Lord, took every kind of clean animal and some of every kind of clean bird, and he offered them as burnt offerings upon the altar.
21 The Lord smelled the pleasant odor and said to himself, “I will never again curse the land because of humankind, for the instinct of every human heart is evil from its youth. I will never again destroy every living creature.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
shall not cease.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 8:1 The first five verses, on the withdrawal of the waters, are from the Priestly tradition with a short Yahwist insert, while the section on the raven and the dove is Yahwist. The sending of a bird to find solid land was a custom of ancient mariners and also occurs in Mesopotamian stories of the flood. The following section, on the departure from the ark, is again Priestly and is in continuity with chapter 9, which is from the same source, whereas 8:21-22 on sacrifice and the divine decision are Yahwist.
God does not allow evil to conquer him but defeats it by preparing a new world. With Noah, the second father of humankind, everything begins again: nature takes up its laws again and human beings rediscover their rights. However, sin had destroyed the harmony that existed in the beginning. Human beings enter into conflict with the animals and with one another. The prohibition of shedding blood and the punishment for murderers are intended to remind all that life belongs to God alone. The Lord concludes a new covenant with human beings but engages only himself; he has decided to be patient and allow freedom to go to its very limits. This ancient story of the covenant defines God’s attitude toward all humankind. The universal covenant that Jesus will seal with his blood bears witness to the astounding greatness of God’s love for human beings (see Jn 3:16). - Genesis 8:4 Ararat (cuneiform texts have Urartu) has been variously identified: the northeast region of Lake Van; the mountains of Kurdistan; the Lubar mountains, near Zagros, close to the Nisir of the Gilgamesh myth.
