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The deep water goes away

Then God thought of Noah, and all the wild animals and the farm animals that were with him in the ship. He caused a wind to blow over the earth. As a result, the water began to go down. Streams of water stopped coming up from below the earth. Rain stopped coming down from the sky. The deep water continued to go down for 150 days. On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ship stopped on the ground. It was sitting on the top of Ararat mountains. The water continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared above the water.

After 40 more days, Noah opened a window in the ship. He sent a raven to fly away. The raven flew away from the ship and then it returned. It continued to do this until the earth was dry.

Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water had gone away from the top of the ground. But the dove could not find anywhere to stand. Water still covered all the ground. So it returned to Noah in the ship. Noah put out his hand and took the dove back into the ship. 10 He waited for seven days. Then he sent the dove out of the ship again. 11 The dove returned to Noah in the evening. It carried a fresh leaf from an olive tree in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the water had gone down. 12 He waited for seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again. This time, it did not return to Noah.[a]

13 Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the first month, the water that had covered the earth was now gone. The ground had become dry. Noah made a hole in the roof of the ship and he looked around. He saw that the top of the ground was dry. 14 By the 27th day of the second month, the earth had become completely dry.

15 God said to Noah, 16 ‘Come out of the ship. Bring your wife, your sons and their wives with you. 17 Bring every different kind of living animal out of the ship. Bring out the birds, the animals, and the living things that move across the ground. Now they may give birth to young ones again. They can grow in number all over the earth.’

18 Noah went out of the ship, together with his wife, his sons and their wives. 19 All the living animals also went out of the ship. The birds and the living things that move across the ground all went out. Every different kind of animal came out of the ship, each of them in its own group.

God makes a promise to Noah

20 Then Noah built an altar to make sacrifices to the Lord. He took one from each kind of clean animal and clean bird. He offered them to the Lord as sacrifices which he burned on the altar.[b]

21 The Lord smelled the sacrifice and it made him happy. The Lord said to himself, ‘I will never curse the ground again because of the bad things that people do. From the time that they are children, they want to do bad things. But I will never again destroy everything that breathes, as I have done this time.

22 As long as the earth continues to be here,
the time for people to plant seeds will come each year.
The time for harvest will come each year.
Times of cold and heat will always come.
Summer and winter will always come.
Day and night will never stop.’[c]

Footnotes

  1. 8:12 A raven is a big black bird. A dove is a white or grey bird. Olives are small round fruits that grow on an olive tree.
  2. 8:20 When Noah left the ship, he worshipped God. He built an altar to do this. He offered a sacrifice to God on the altar. God had kept them safe and Noah wanted to thank God. He did this before he did anything else.
  3. 8:22 As long as the earth is here, the days and the seasons will continue to happen. God has promised this. He made the universe and he continues to cause it to work properly.

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

洪水消落

神记念挪亚挪亚方舟里的一切走兽牲畜。神叫风吹地,水势渐落。 渊源和天上的窗户都闭塞了,天上的大雨也止住了。 水从地上渐退,过了一百五十天,水就渐消。 七月十七日,方舟停在亚拉腊山上。 水又渐消,到十月初一日,山顶都现出来了。

挪亚放乌鸦与鸽出方舟

过了四十天,挪亚开了方舟的窗户, 放出一只乌鸦去。那乌鸦飞来飞去,直到地上的水都干了。 他又放出一只鸽子去,要看看水从地上退了没有。 但遍地上都是水,鸽子找不着落脚之地,就回到方舟挪亚那里,挪亚伸手把鸽子接进方舟来。 10 他又等了七天,再把鸽子从方舟放出去。 11 到了晚上,鸽子回到他那里,嘴里叼着一个新拧下来的橄榄叶子,挪亚就知道地上的水退了。 12 他又等了七天,放出鸽子去,鸽子就不再回来了。

13 挪亚六百零一岁,正月初一日,地上的水都干了。挪亚撤去方舟的盖观看,便见地面上干了。 14 到了二月二十七日,地就都干了。

挪亚和全家出方舟

15 神对挪亚说: 16 “你和你的妻子、儿子、儿妇都可以出方舟。 17 在你那里凡有血肉的活物,就是飞鸟、牲畜和一切爬在地上的昆虫,都要带出来,叫它在地上多多滋生,大大兴旺。” 18 于是挪亚和他的妻子、儿子、儿妇都出来了。 19 一切走兽、昆虫、飞鸟和地上所有的动物,各从其类,也都出了方舟。

挪亚筑坛献祭

20 挪亚为耶和华筑了一座坛,拿各类洁净的牲畜、飞鸟献在坛上为燔祭。 21 耶和华闻那馨香之气,就心里说:“我不再因人的缘故咒诅地(人从小时心里怀着恶念),也不再按着我才行的灭各种的活物了。 22 地还存留的时候,稼穑、寒暑、冬夏、昼夜就永不停息了。”