Genesis 8
International Children’s Bible
The Flood Ends
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and tame animals with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth. And the water went down. 2 The underground springs stopped flowing. And the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. 3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.[a] This was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. 5 The water continued to go down. By the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.
6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. 7 He sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then Noah sent out a dove. This was to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. 9 The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth. So it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird. And he brought it back into the boat.
10 After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat. 11 And that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. 12 Seven days later he sent the dove out again. But this time it did not come back.
13 Noah was now 601 years old. It was the first day of the first month of that year. The water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “You and your wife, your sons and their wives should go out of the boat. 17 Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones and let them grow in number.”
18 So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth and every bird went out of the boat. They left by families.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and animals. And he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. 21 The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices. He said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young. But I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.
22 “As long as the earth continues,
there will be planting and harvest.
Cold and hot,
summer and winter,
day and night
will not stop.”
Footnotes
- 8:3-4 Ararat The ancient land of Urartu, an area in Eastern Turkey.
Genesis 8
English Standard Version
The Flood Subsides
8 But God (A)remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And (B)God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 (C)The fountains of the deep and (D)the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end (E)of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of (F)Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, (G)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and (H)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 beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
God's Covenant with Noah
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled (I)the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again (J)curse[a] the ground because of man, for (K)the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (L)Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 (M)While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, (N)day and night, shall not cease.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 8:21 Or dishonor
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
