The Water Dries Up

1Then God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 2Also the fountains of the deep and the [†]floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; 3and the water receded from the earth, going forth and returning, and at the end of 150 days the water decreased. 4In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 5Now 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.

6Then it happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; 7and he sent out a raven, and it went out flying back and forth until the water was dried up [†]from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; 9but 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 [†]surface of all the earth. Then he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark to himself. 10Then he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 11And the dove came to him toward [†]evening, and behold, in its [†]beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. 12Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove; but it did not return to him again.

13Now it happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up [†]from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the [†]surface of the ground was dried up. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring 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 swarm on the earth, and that they may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out [†]by their families from the ark.

Yahweh’s Covenant with Noah

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

22While all the days of the earth remain,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease.”