The Water Dries Up

8 Then ^(A)God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle 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 from the earth, going forth and returning, and at the end ^(E)of 150 days the water decreased. ⁴ In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^(F)the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ Now the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ Then it happened 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 went out flying back and forth until the water was dried up ^[b]from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; ⁹ but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ^[c]surface of all the earth. Then he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ Then he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ And the dove came to him toward ^[d]evening, and behold, in its ^[e]beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. ¹² Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out ^(H)the dove; but it did not return to him again.

¹³ Now it happened in the ^(I)six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ^[f]from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the ^[g]surface of the ground was dried up. ¹⁴ 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 creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may ^(J)swarm on the earth, and that they may 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 beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out ^[h]by their families from the ark.

Yahweh’s Covenant with Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built ^(K)an altar to Yahweh and took of every ^(L)clean animal and of every clean bird and offered ^(M)burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And Yahweh ^(N)smelled the ^[i]soothing aroma; and Yahweh said ^[j]to Himself, “I will never again ^(O)curse the ground because of man, for ^(P)the ^[k]intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^(Q)and I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.