Genesis Chapter 8 — The End of the Flood
After the floodwaters recede, Noah and his family exit the ark, and God promises never to destroy all living things with a flood again.
1God 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.
2The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
3The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded.
4The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains.
5The 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.
6At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,
7and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
9but 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.
10He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship.
11The 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.
12He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.
13In 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.
14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15God spoke to Noah, saying,
16“Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
17Bring 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 in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
18Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.
19Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
20Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21The 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.
22While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
WEB Translation
Notable Verses
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.”
This verse marks the turning point of the flood narrative where God begins the process of restoration.
Genesis 8:11
“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.”
The olive leaf is a historic symbol of peace and the return of life to the land.
Genesis 8:22
“While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
This verse records God's promise to maintain the natural order and seasons of the world.
Chapter Summary
Genesis Chapter 8 describes the period after the Great Flood. God remembers Noah and the animals, causing a wind to pass over the earth to recede the waters. The ark eventually rests on the mountains of Ararat. To determine if the land is dry, Noah sends out a raven and then a dove. The dove eventually returns with an olive leaf, indicating that plant life has begun to return. Once the earth is fully dry, God commands Noah and all the animals to leave the ark and be fruitful on the earth. Noah builds an altar and offers a sacrifice to the LORD. Pleased by the offering, God promises never again to curse the ground for man's sake or destroy every living creature by a flood. He establishes a cycle of seasons—seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter—declaring that these will continue as long as the earth remains.
Frequently Asked Questions
According to the text, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.
Noah sent out a raven and then a dove three separate times. When the dove returned with an olive leaf, and later did not return at all, Noah knew the land was safe to inhabit.
Noah built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings using every clean animal and bird he had brought on the ship.
God promised that He would never again curse the ground because of humans or strike every living thing as He had done during the flood.
Study Note
The Hebrew word for 'remembered' used in verse 1 indicates God acting on behalf of a previous commitment rather than simply recalling forgotten information.
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