Genesis 8
New American Standard Bible
The Flood Subsides
8 But (A)God remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark; and (B)God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 2 Also (C)the fountains of the deep and the [a]floodgates of the sky were closed, and (D)the rain from the sky was restrained; 3 and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end (E)of 150 days the water decreased. 4 Then in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, (F)the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the (G)window of the ark which he had made; 7 and he sent out a raven, and it [b]flew here and there until the water was dried up [c]from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a [d]dove, to see if the water was low on the [e]surface of the land; 9 but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him in the ark, for the water was on the [f]surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took it, and brought it into the ark to himself. 10 So he waited another seven days longer; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 11 And the dove came to him in [g]the evening, and behold, in its [h]beak was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was low on the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days longer, and sent out (H)the dove; but it did not return to him again.
13 Now it came about in the (I)six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water was dried up [i]from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the [j]surface of the ground had dried up. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, 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 animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth, that they may [k](J)breed abundantly on the earth, and (K)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 crawling thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out [l]by their families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built (L)an altar to the Lord, and took some of every kind of (M)clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered (N)burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord (O)smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said [m]to Himself, “I will never again (P)curse the ground on account of man, for (Q)the [n]intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; (R)and I will never again [o]destroy every living thing, as I have done.
22 While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
(S)Summer and winter,
And (T)day and night
Shall not cease.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 8:2 Or windows of the heavens
- Genesis 8:7 Lit went out, going and returning
- Genesis 8:7 Lit from upon
- Genesis 8:8 Lit dove from him
- Genesis 8:8 Lit face
- Genesis 8:9 Lit face
- Genesis 8:11 Lit the time of evening
- Genesis 8:11 Lit mouth
- Genesis 8:13 Lit from upon
- Genesis 8:13 Lit face
- Genesis 8:17 Or swarm
- Genesis 8:19 Or according to their kind
- Genesis 8:21 Lit to His heart
- Genesis 8:21 Or inclination
- Genesis 8:21 Lit strike
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.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
