1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then 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 completely dry.
15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though8:21 Or humans, for every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
洪水消退
1上帝眷顧挪亞及方舟裡的野獸和牲畜，就使風吹在大地上，水便開始消退。 2深淵的泉源和天上的水閘都關閉了，大雨也停了。 3地上的洪水慢慢消退，過了一百五十天，水退下去了。 4七月十七日，方舟停在亞拉臘山上。 5水繼續消退一直到十月，到十月一日，山頂都露出來了。
6又過了四十天，挪亞打開他在方舟上所造的窗戶， 7放出一隻烏鴉。牠一直在空中飛來飛去，直到地上的水都乾了。 8然後，挪亞放出一隻鴿子，以便瞭解地面的水是否已經消退。 9但遍地都是水，鴿子找不到歇腳的地方，就飛回了方舟，挪亞伸手把鴿子接進方舟裡。 10挪亞又等了七天，再把鴿子放出去。 11到了黃昏，鴿子飛回來，嘴裡啣著一片新擰下來的橄欖葉，挪亞便知道地上的水已經退了。 12他又等了七天，再放出鴿子，這次鴿子沒有回來。
13挪亞六百零一歲那年的一月一日，地上的水乾了。挪亞打開方舟的蓋觀望，看見地面都乾了。 14到了二月二十七日，大地完全乾了。 15上帝對挪亞說： 16「你與妻子、兒子和兒媳都要出方舟。 17你要把方舟裡的飛禽走獸及爬蟲等所有動物都帶出來，讓牠們在地上多多滋長，生養繁衍。」 18於是，挪亞與妻子、兒子和兒媳都出了方舟。 19方舟裡的飛禽走獸和爬蟲等所有地上的動物，都按種類出了方舟。
挪亞獻祭
20挪亞為耶和華築了一座壇，在上面焚燒各種潔淨的牲畜和飛鳥作為燔祭。 21耶和華聞到這燔祭的馨香，心想：「雖然人從小就心存惡念，但我再不會因為人的緣故而咒詛大地，再不會像這次一樣毀滅一切活物了。 22只要大地尚存，播種收割、夏熱冬寒、白晝黑夜必不停息。」
