However, God remembered Noah as well as all the life and the animals that were with him in the boat. So God sent a wind over the earth, and the floodwaters receded.
2 Earth’s water sources dammed up, and the rain clouds in the sky dried up, as the period for rainfall from the sky drew to a close.
3 The floodwaters steadily receded from the ground and had ceased from rising after the 150 days.
4 The boat came ashore on the Ararat mountain range on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.
5 And so the floodwaters continued to recede until the first day of the tenth month. It was then that the tops of mountains appeared.
6 At the end of forty days, Noah opened the door of the boat that he had built.
7 He then let a crow free, but it returned after leaving, until the waters had receded more off of the earth’s surface.1
8 Afterwards, he let a dove free, to see if the water had further receded off of the earth’s surface.
9 But the dove didn’t find any resting spot for itself, so it returned to him (Noah) in the boat, because much water was still covering the earth’s surface. So Noah took the dove in his hand and brought it into the boat.
10 Another seven days passed, and again he sent the dove out of the boat.
11 The dove returned to him at evening, and it held a plucked olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters had truly receded from the earth’s surface.
12 Yet another seven days went by, and he again sent the dove out, and this time it did not return.
13 So on the first day of the first month when he was 601 years old, the floodwaters were abated from the earth’s surface. Noah took off the ark’s covering; he looked and saw the dry, bare ground.
14 On the seventeenth day of the second month, the land was thoroughly dry.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 “You, your wife, your sons and their wives are to leave the boat.
17 Bring out all the creatures that are with you. All the types should come out: all birds, all animals and all the reptiles that crawl on the ground. They should spread out over the dry land, and be fruitful and reproduce.”
18 And so Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives all left.
19 Along with them, all animals, all reptiles, all birds, all creatures that crawl on the ground, each by its species, left from the boat.
20 Then Noah built an altar to worship the Lord. He took sacrifices from all types of ritually pure animals and from all types of ritually pure birds, and he offered them as whole burnt offerings on the altar.
21 God was greatly pleased with the sacrifice. He then said to Himself, “I will not curse the earth again because of mankind, just because every desire they have from their youth is evil. I will never again strike all life which I have created.
22 As long as earth exists, sowing and reaping seasons, cold and hot seasons: summer and winter, and day and night will never cease from occurring.”
1. v. 7: The word for “crow” (orev in Hebrew) can also mean a raven.
Chapter 9
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Reproduce by having children, and fill the earth.
2 Every animal on earth, every bird in the sky, and everything that crawls on the ground, as well as all the fish of the sea, will fear you. They will be frightened of you and be subject to you.1
3 Every animal that moves and is alive will be your food, like green vegetation. I have provided you with all of this.
4 But don’t eat any meat that still has blood in it.2
5 I will hold every living being responsible for the life of another. I will hold every human being responsible for the life of another; I will demand an accounting for each life.
6 Since man was made in God’s image, whoever kills a person will be killed by others.3
7 But you, reproduce, have children, and become numerous throughout the earth: rule over it.”
8 Then God spoke to Noah and his sons, saying,
9 “I will definitely fulfill my covenant with you and your descendants,
10 and with all the creatures that were with you, and left the boat with you; with the birds, animals, and all life on earth.
11 I will make my covenant with you by never again destroying all life by floodwaters. There will never again be a flood that will totally devastate the entire earth.”
12 Then God said, “This is the sign of my covenant that I am making between me and you, and all animal life that is with you. It will last till eternity, for all generations.
13 I have made my rainbow in the clouds, and it is the sign of My covenant between Me and all of the earth.
14 So when I cause cloudy skies over the earth and My rainbow is seen in the clouds,
15 I will then remember my covenant between Me and you and all types of life. Never again will floodwaters devastate all life.
16 When you see a rainbow in the clouds, remember the eternal covenant between God and all types of living beings that are on earth.”
17 Then God said to Noah, “This (the rainbow) is the sign of the covenant that I am making between Me and all life that is on earth.”
18 The sons of Noah who left the boat were Shem, Ham, and Yafet. Ham was the father of Canaan.
19 These were Noah’s three sons, and they filled and spread out over all the earth.
20. Noah became a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
21 He drank from its wine, became intoxicated, and undressed inside his tent.4
22 So Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father inappropriately, and he told this to his two brothers who were outside.5
23 Then Shem and Yafet took and carried an outer garment, and walked backward (into the tent). They covered their naked father while looking away. They did not see their father undressed.
24 When Noah recovered from being drunk, he knew what his youngest son had done.
25 He then said, “Cursed is Canaan; he will be a slave of slaves to his brothers.”
26 He further said, “Blessed
