A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Genesis 8
Genesis 8 is the eighth chapter of the book of Genesis and the resolution of the flood narrative. The 22-verse chapter describes the waters going down, the ark coming to rest, Noah and his family stepping out onto dry land, and the LORD's promise never to curse the ground in this way again.
The chapter opens with the words "But God remembered Noah." God sends a wind over the earth, and the waters begin to subside. The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens are closed.
The dates are specific. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains become visible.
After forty days Noah opens the window of the ark and sends out a raven, which flies back and forth until the waters dry. He then sends a dove, which finds no place to rest and returns. He waits seven days, sends the dove again, and this time she returns at evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. Seven days later he sends her once more, and she does not return.
In Noah's six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, Noah removes the covering of the ark and sees that the ground is dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth is fully dry. God tells Noah to come out, along with his wife, his sons, and their wives, and to bring out all the animals so that they can spread out and multiply.
Noah builds an altar to the LORD and offers burnt offerings from every kind of clean animal and clean bird. When the LORD smells the pleasing aroma, he says 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."
Verse 1. But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
Verse 2. The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
Verse 3. The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.
Verse 4. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Verse 5. 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.
Verse 6. After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
Verse 7. and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.
Verse 8. Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
Verse 9. But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.
Verse 10. Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
Verse 11. 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.
Verse 12. And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
Verse 13. In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
Verse 14. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.
Verse 15. Then God said to Noah,
Verse 16. “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.
Verse 17. 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.”
Verse 18. So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
Verse 19. Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.
Verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Verse 21. 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.
Verse 22. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
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