Genesis 8

1God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth, and the water began to go down.

2The underground waters and the windows of the sky were closed. The rain stopped falling from the sky.

3The water went down from the earth little by little. After 150 days, the water was much lower.

4On the 17th day of the 7th month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

5The water kept going down until the 10th month. On the 1st day of the 10th month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

6After 40 more days, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark.

7Noah sent out a raven. The raven flew back and forth until the water dried up from the earth.

8Then Noah sent out a dove, to see if the water had gone down from the ground.

9The dove found no place to land, because water covered all the earth. The dove came back to Noah in the ark. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove. He brought it back into the ark.

10Noah waited 7 more days. Then Noah sent the dove out of the ark again.

11In the evening the dove came back to Noah. The dove had a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. So Noah knew that the water had gone down from the earth.

12Noah waited 7 more days. Then Noah sent the dove out again. This time the dove did not come back.

13It was Noah's 601st year, the 1st day of the 1st month. The water had dried up from the earth. Noah removed the cover of the ark and looked. The ground was dry.

14By the 27th day of the 2nd month, the earth was completely dry.

15Then God spoke to Noah.

16God said: Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives.

17Bring out every living thing that is with you. Bring out the birds, the animals and everything that crawls on the ground. Let them have many young ones on the earth. Let them grow in number and fill the earth.

18So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives.

19Every animal, every creature that crawls, and every bird went out of the ark. Each kind went out with its own kind.

20Then Noah built an altar for the LORD. Noah took some of every clean animal and every clean bird. Noah offered them as burnt offerings on the altar.

21The LORD smelled the sweet smell. The LORD said in His heart: I will never again curse the ground because of humans. This is so even though humans think evil from the time they are young. I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22As long as the earth lasts, there will always be a time to plant and a time to harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.