Genesis 8

1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.

2 The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

3 The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded.

4 The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains.

5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

6 At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.

8 He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,

9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.

10 He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship.

11 The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.

12 He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.

13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 God spoke to Noah, saying,

16 “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.

17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”

18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.

19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.

20 Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Around Genesis 8

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

Genesis 8 · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this chapter says

“God remembered Noah” and every living thing with him in the ship. He sends a wind over the earth, the springs of the deep and the windows of the sky are closed, and the waters begin to go down. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ship comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sends out a raven, and then a dove, which finds nowhere to rest and returns. A week later he sends her again, and this time she comes back in the evening with “a freshly plucked olive leaf.” After another week she does not return.

At last the ground is dry, and God tells Noah to come out. Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings. The LORD smells the pleasing aroma and says in his heart that he will never again curse the ground or strike every living thing, although “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” While the earth remains, seed time and harvest will not cease.

Background

The turning point is in the first verse: God remembers. In the Bible, to remember is to act on a promise. The chapter is full of small details of waiting, with seven days, then seven more, and each time a bird. The LORD’s promise comes in the same breath as his honest view of human hearts, so mercy rests on grace and not on human goodness. The altar and offerings recall worship in Genesis 4, and the promise leads to the covenant of the next chapter.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 20 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes