CHAPTER 8
But
God
remembered
Noah
and all
the animals
and
livestock
that
were with
him in the ark.
And He
sent a wind
over
the earth,
and the waters
began to subside.
The springs
of the deep
and the floodgates
of the heavens
were closed,
and the rain
from
the sky
was restrained.
And the waters
continued
to recede
until
the tenth
month,
and on the first
day
of the tenth month,
the tops
of the mountains
became visible.
But the dove
found
no
place to rest
her foot,
and she returned
to
him in
the ark,
because
water
still covered
the surface
of the whole
earth.
So he reached out
his hand
and brought
her back
inside
the ark.
And behold,
the dove
returned
to him
in the evening
with a freshly plucked
olive
leaf
in her beak.
So Noah
knew
that
the waters
had receded
from
the earth.
And Noah waited
seven
more
days
and sent out
the dove again,
but this time
she did not return
to him.
In Noah’s six
hundred
and first
year,
on the first
day
of the first month,
the water
had dried up
from
the earth.
So Noah
removed
the covering
from the ark
and saw
that the surface
of the ground
was dry.
Bring out
all
the living creatures
that
are with you—
birds,
livestock,
and everything
that crawls
upon
the ground—
so that they can spread out
over the earth
and be fruitful
and multiply
upon
it.”
Every
living creature,
every
creeping thing,
and every
bird—
everything
that moves
upon
the earth—
came out
of
the ark,
kind by kind.
Then Noah
built
an altar
to the LORD.
Taking
from every kind
of clean
animal
and
clean
bird,
He offered
burnt offerings
on the altar.
When the LORD
smelled
the pleasing
aroma,
He
said
in
His heart,
“Never again
will I curse
the ground
because of
man,
even though
every inclination
of his
heart
is evil
from his youth.
And never
again
will I destroy
all
living creatures
as
I have done.
As long as
the earth endures,
seedtime
and harvest,
cold
and heat,
summer
and winter,
day
and night
shall never
cease.”