Genesis 8–9

Chapter 8

The Flood Subsides

¹But ^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 steadily from the earth, and at the end ^aof one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.

⁴In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^athe ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

⁵The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶Then it came about 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 ¹flew here and there until the water was dried up ²from 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 her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ¹surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself.

¹⁰So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

¹¹The dove came to him toward ¹evening, and behold, in her 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 she did not return to him again.

¹³Now it came about 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 ^1abreed abundantly on the earth, and 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.

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

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

²²“While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And ^asummer and winter,

And ^bday and night

Shall not cease.”

Chapter 9

Covenant of the Rainbow

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

²“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; I give all to you, ^aas I gave the green plant.

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

⁵“Surely I will require ^1ayour lifeblood; ^2bfrom every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every 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;

¹Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

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

⁹“Now behold, ^aI Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your ¹descendants 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“I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall ^anever again be cut off by the water of the flood, ^bneither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

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

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

¹⁴“It shall come about, 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“When the bow is in the cloud, then 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.”

¹⁸Now the sons of Noah who came 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 ¹populated.

²⁰Then Noah began ¹farming and planted a vineyard.

²¹He drank of the wine and ^abecame drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

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

²³But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were ¹turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine, 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.”

²⁶He also said,

“^aBlessed be the Lord,

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.”

²⁸Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

²⁹So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.