Genesis 8–9

Noah’s Deliverance

8Then God ^aremembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. ^bAnd God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. ^2cThe fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also ^dstopped, and ^ethe rain from heaven was restrained. ³And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end ^fof the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened ^gthe window of the ark which he had made. ⁷Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹²So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

¹³And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

¹⁵Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶“Go out of the ark, ^hyou 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 cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and ⁱbe fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

God’s Covenant with Creation

²⁰Then Noah built an ^jaltar to the Lord, and took of ^kevery clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered ^lburnt offerings on the altar. ²¹And the Lord smelled ^ma soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again ⁿcurse the ground for man’s sake, although the ^oimagination ¹of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^pnor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

²²“While the earth ^qremains,

Seedtime and harvest,

Cold and heat,

Winter and summer,

And ^rday and night

Shall not cease.”

9So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ^a“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ^2bAnd the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. ^3cEvery moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ^dall things, even as the ^egreen herbs. ^4fBut you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; ^gfrom the hand of every beast I will require it, and ^hfrom the hand of man. From the hand of every ⁱman’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁶“Whoever ^jsheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed;

^kFor in the image of God

He made man.

⁷And as for you, ^lbe fruitful and multiply;

Bring forth abundantly in the earth

And multiply in it.”

⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹“And as for Me, ^mbehold, I establish ⁿMy covenant with you and with your ¹descendants after you, ^10oand with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹Thus ^pI establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²And God said: ^q“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³I set ^rMy rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵and ^sI will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember ^tthe everlasting 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 and His Sons

¹⁸Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ^uAnd Ham was the father of Canaan. ^19vThese three were the sons of Noah, ^wand from these the whole earth was populated.

²⁰And Noah began to be ^xa farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹Then he drank of the wine ^yand was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ^23zBut Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were ²turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ²⁵Then he said:

^a“Cursed be Canaan;

A ^bservant of servants

He shall be to his brethren.”

²⁶And he said:

^c“Blessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem,

And may Canaan be his servant.

²⁷May God ^denlarge Japheth,

^eAnd may he dwell in the tents of Shem;

And may Canaan be his servant.”

²⁸And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.