^6-7 Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. ⁸ Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, so he sent out a dove. ⁹ Deep water was still everywhere, and when the dove could not find a place to land, it flew back to the boat. Then Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.

¹⁰ Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. ¹¹ It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew the water was finally going down. ¹² He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.

¹³ Noah was now 601 years old. And by the first day of that year, almost all the water had gone away. Noah made an opening in the roof of the boat^[a] and saw that the ground was getting dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat.

⁸ Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

⁹ I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. ¹⁰ This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. ¹¹ I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

^12-13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. ¹⁴ When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, ¹⁵ I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life. ¹⁶ When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature.