Genesis 8-9

New King James Version

Noah’s Deliverance

8 Then God ^(A)remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. ^(B)And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. ^2 (C)The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also ^(D)stopped, and ^(E)the rain from heaven was restrained. ³ And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end ^(F)of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴ Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ And 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.

⁶ So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened ^(G)the window of the ark which he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸ He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹ But 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. ¹⁰ And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ Then 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. ¹² So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

¹³ And 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. ¹⁴ And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, ^(H)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 cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and ^(I)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every 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

²⁰ Then Noah built an ^(J)altar to the Lord, and took of ^(K)every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered ^(L)burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And the Lord smelled ^(M)a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again ^(N)curse the ground for man’s sake, although the ^(O)imagination^[a] of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^(P)nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

God’s Promise to Noah

9 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ^(S)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ^2 (T)And 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. ^3 (U)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ^(V)all things, even as the ^(W)green herbs. ^4 (X)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; ^(Y)from the hand of every beast I will require it, and ^(Z)from the hand of man. From the hand of every ^(AA)man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, ^(AE)behold, I establish ^(AF)My covenant with you and with your ^[b]descendants after you, ^10 (AG)and 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. ¹¹ Thus ^(AH)I 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.”

¹² And God said: ^(AI)“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: ¹³ I set ^(AJ)My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and ^(AK)I 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. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember ^(AL)the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And 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

¹⁸ Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ^(AM)And Ham was the father of Canaan. ^19 (AN)These three were the sons of Noah, ^(AO)and from these the whole earth was populated.

²⁰ And Noah began to be ^(AP)a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ Then he drank of the wine ^(AQ)and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ^23 (AR)But 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 ^[c]turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

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

²⁶ And he said:

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