^8:2The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed,³ and the rain stopped falling from the sky. ^8:3The waters kept receding steadily⁴ from the earth, so that they⁵ had gone down⁶ by the end of the 150 days. ^8:4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.⁷^8:5The waters kept on receding⁸ until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.⁹

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Footnotes

3 Some (e.g., ) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.
4 The construction combines a Qal preterite from שׁוּב (shuv) with its infinitive absolute to indicate continuous action. The infinitive absolute from הָלָךְ (halakh) is included for emphasis: “the waters returned … going and returning.”
5 Heb “the waters.” The pronoun (“they”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite here describes the consequence of the preceding action.
7 Heb “on the mountains of Ararat.” Obviously a boat (even one as large as the ark) cannot rest on multiple mountains. Perhaps (1) the preposition should be translated “among,” or (2) the plural “mountains” should be understood in the sense of “mountain range” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [], ). A more probable option (3) is that the plural indicates an indefinite singular, translated “one of the mountains” (see §124.o). Ararat is the Hebrew name for Urartu, the name of a mountainous region located north of Mesopotamia in modern day eastern Turkey. See E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (), 29–32; G. J. Wenham, Genesis (), 1:; C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:.
8 Heb “the waters were going and lessening.” The perfect verb form הָיָה (hayah) is used as an auxiliary verb with the infinitive absolute חָסוֹר (khasor, “lessening”), while the infinitive absolute הָלוֹךְ (halokh) indicates continuous action.
9 Or “could be seen.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 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.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped. The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly. The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

NLTNew Living Translation

The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the heavens was restrained. And the waters receded from the earth gradually, and the waters abated at the end of one hundred and fifty days. And the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to recede to the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

KJV 1900King James Version

The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

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