Genesis 8

8 ¹ But our Father remembered Noah, and all the living creatures and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And he made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. ^a a v1 When Scripture says our Father “remembered,” it does not mean he had forgotten — it means he acted on his covenant love at the appointed time. ² The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was held back. ³ The waters receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ^b b v4 Ararat refers to a mountain region, not necessarily a single peak. ⁵ The waters kept on going down until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ After forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark, ⁷ and he sent out a raven, which kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters still covered the surface of the whole earth. So he reached out his hand, took her, and brought her back inside the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in her beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the waters had dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked out, and the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ Then our Father said to Noah,

¹⁶ "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living creature of every kind that is with you — the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground — so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on it."

¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creature that moves along the ground, and every bird — everything that moves on the earth — came out of the ark, one kind after another.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to our Father, and taking some of every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on it.

²¹ Our Father smelled the pleasing aroma, and he said in his heart, "Never again will I curse the ground because of humanity, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I strike down every living thing, as I have done. ^c c v21 Our Father was not pleased by the smell itself, but by the faithful worship and obedience the offering expressed. ²² As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."