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船の中のノアとすべての生き物を、神は心にかけていました。やがて神が風を吹きつけると、しだいに水は減り始めました。 地下水も止まり、滝のように降っていた大雨も収まってきたようです。 3-4 降り始めてから百五十日目に水は少しずつ引いていき、とうとう船はアララテ山の頂に止まりました。 日に日に水位は下がり、三か月後にはほかの山々も姿を現し始めました。

水が引き始めてから四十日目、ノアは天窓を開いて、 からすを放しました。からすは、地面が乾くまであちこちを飛び回っていました。 しばらくしてノアは、今度は鳩を放し、乾いた土地を捜させました。 けれども鳩は下り立つ所が見つからず、ノアのもとへ帰って来ました。水がまだ全地を覆っていたからです。ノアは腕を伸ばし、鳩を船の中に入れました。

10 それから七日後、ノアはまた鳩を飛ばしてみました。 11 夕方ごろ戻った鳩を見ると、オリーブの若葉をくわえています。それで、水がかなり引いたことがわかりました。 12 さらに一週間後にもう一度放してみると、鳩はそれきり戻りませんでした。

13 そのあと、さらに三十日ほどたちました。ノアが船の屋根を取って外を見渡してみると、もう水は引いています。 14 しんぼう強く、さらに八週間待つうちに、とうとう地面はすっかり乾きました。 15-16 神はノアに言いました。「さあ、家族といっしょに外に出なさい。 17 動物も鳥も地をはうものもみな出してやりなさい。それぞれ繁殖して、どんどん増えるようにするのだ。」 18-19 それを待っていたように、ノアと妻と息子夫婦、それに動物たちはみな、その種類ごとに船から出ました。

20 ノアはそこに主への祭壇を築き、神から指定された動物や鳥をささげ物としてささげました。 21 神はそれを喜び、こう心に誓われました。「もう二度とこのようなことはしない。人間は子どもの時から悪い性質を持っていて、悪い考えを抱くものだ。わたしはもう、大地をのろって生き物を滅ぼすようなことは絶対にしない。 22 大地がある限り、春の種まきと秋の収穫、暑さと寒さ、冬と夏、昼と夜とが、年ごとにくり返されるだろう。」

Noah’s Deliverance

Then God (A)remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. (B)And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. (C)The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also (D)stopped, and (E)the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end (F)of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened (G)the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, (H)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and (I)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

God’s Covenant with Creation

20 Then Noah built an (J)altar to the Lord, and took of (K)every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered (L)burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled (M)a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again (N)curse the ground for man’s sake, although the (O)imagination[a] of man’s heart is evil from his youth; (P)nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

22 “While the earth (Q)remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And (R)day and night
Shall not cease.”

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 8:21 intent or thought