Side by side
Genesis 8
Our retelling next to the Bible text it comes from. Each row lines up one scene with the verses it retells.
Scene 8: God Remembered NoahVerses 1 to 5
"But God remembered Noah" (8:1). God also remembered all the animals in the ark. In the Bible, when God remembers, he acts on his promise.
God sent a wind over the earth. The water under the earth stopped bursting up. The rain stopped falling. Slowly, the water began to go down.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest. It stopped on the mountains of Ararat.
The water kept going down. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.
1But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 2The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down. 4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
Scene 9: The Raven and the DoveVerses 6 to 12
Forty days later, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. He sent out a raven, a large black bird. It flew back and forth until the earth dried up.
Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water had gone down.
The dove found no place to rest her feet. Water still covered the ground. She flew back to the ark. Noah reached out his hand and brought her inside.
Noah waited seven more days. He sent the dove out again.
That evening she came back. In her beak was a fresh olive leaf. Now Noah knew the water had gone down.
Noah waited seven more days. He sent the dove out one more time. This time she did not come back.
6After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. 9But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark. 10Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
Scene 10: Out of the ArkVerses 13 to 19
On the first day of the first month of Noah's 601st year, Noah took the covering off the ark. He looked out. The ground was dry.
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry. Noah's family had been in the ark for about a year.
Then God spoke to Noah. "Come out of the ark" (8:16).
God told Noah to bring out every animal and bird. They would spread out over the earth and have young ones and fill it again.
So Noah came out with his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives. Every animal and every bird came out too, kind by kind.
13In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. 17Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.” 18So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.
Scene 11: Noah's AltarVerses 20 to 22
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. An altar is a raised place for giving offerings to God.
Noah took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird. He offered them as burnt offerings. A burnt offering was a gift to God, burned whole on the altar.
The LORD smelled the pleasing smell. Then the LORD made a promise in his heart. This means the LORD said it to himself.
"Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth" (8:21). The LORD also said he would never again destroy all living creatures as he had done.
At the start of the story, the LORD saw that people's hearts were evil (6:5). Now, after the flood, God said the same thing about people's hearts. But this time he made a promise anyway.
God said the seasons would keep coming. "Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease" (8:22).
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. 22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
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