Genesis 8–9

CHAPTER 8

The Water Dries Up

¹Then ^aGod remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and ^bGod caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

²Also ^athe fountains of the deep and the ¹floodgates of the sky were closed, and ^bthe rain from the sky was restrained;

³and the water receded from the earth, going forth and returning, and at the end ^aof 150 days the water decreased.

⁴In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^athe 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 ^awindow 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 ¹from 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 ¹surface 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 ¹evening, and behold, in its ²beak 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 ^athe dove; but it did not return to him again.

¹³Now it happened in the ^asix hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ¹from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the ²surface 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.

¹⁷“Bring 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 ^aswarm 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 ¹by their families from the ark.

Yahweh’s Covenant with Noah

²⁰Then Noah built ^aan altar to Yahweh and took of every ^bclean animal and of every clean bird and offered ^cburnt offerings on the altar.

²¹And Yahweh ^asmelled the ¹soothing aroma; and Yahweh said ²to Himself, “I will never again ^bcurse the ground because of man, for ^cthe ³intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^dand I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

²²“While all the days of the earth remain,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And ^asummer and winter,

And ^bday and night

Shall not cease.”

CHAPTER 9

¹And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “^aBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

²“And the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the ¹sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.

³“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; ^aas with the green plant, I give all to you.

⁴“However, flesh with its life, that is, ^aits blood, you shall not eat.

⁵“Surely I will require ^1ayour lifeblood; ^2bfrom every living thing I will require it. And ³from every man, ⁴from each man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁶“^aWhoever sheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For ^bin the image of God

He made man.

⁷“As for you, ^abe fruitful and multiply;

¹Swarm on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

⁹“As for Me, behold, ^aI establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you;

¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

¹¹“Indeed I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall ^anever again be cut off by the water of the flood, ^band there shall never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²Then God said, “This is ^athe sign of the covenant which I am giving to be between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for ¹all successive generations;

¹³I put My ^abow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

¹⁴“And it will be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

¹⁵and ^aI will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and ^bnever again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶“So the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the ^aeverlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

¹⁷And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah’s Three Sons

¹⁸Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and ^aHam was the father of Canaan.

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and ^afrom these the whole earth was scattered abroad.

²⁰Then Noah began to be ¹a man of the land and planted a vineyard.

²¹And he drank of the wine and ^abecame drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.

²²Then Ham, the father of Canaan, ^asaw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

²³But Shem and Japheth took the garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned backward, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴Then Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

²⁵So he said,

“^aCursed be Canaan;

^1bA servant of servants

He shall be to his brothers.”

²⁶And he said,

“^aBlessed be Yahweh,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be ¹his servant.

²⁷“^aMay God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be ¹his servant.”

²⁸And Noah lived 350 years after the flood.

²⁹So all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.