Genesis 8: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The flood waters go down: God sends a wind, the underground springs and the openings of the sky are shut, and the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sends out a raven and then a dove three times, and after the ground is dry God tells him to bring his family and all the animals out of the ark. Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings, and the LORD says in his heart that he will not again curse the ground because of man or strike down every living thing as he has done, and that while the earth lasts its seasons and its cycles of day and night will not stop.

Claim by Claim

1. 8:1
   • God remembered Noah.
   • God remembered every living thing and all the cattle that were with Noah in the ark.
   • God caused a wind to pass over the earth.
   • The waters subsided.
2. 8:2
   • The fountains of the deep were stopped up.
   • The windows of heaven were stopped up.
   • The rain from heaven was held back.
3. 8:3
   • The waters receded from off the earth, going back steadily.
   • At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters had decreased.
4. 8:4
   • The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month.
   • The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5. 8:5
   • The waters kept decreasing until the tenth month.
   • In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
6. 8:6
   • At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark.
   • It is unclear whether the thing Noah had made is the window or the ark.
7. 8:7
   • Noah sent out the raven.
   • The raven went out and returned repeatedly until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
8. 8:8
   • Noah sent out the dove from himself.
   • He sent the dove to see whether the waters had gone down from the face of the ground.
9. 8:9
   • The dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot.
   • The dove returned to Noah at the ark.
   • Water was on the face of the whole earth.
   • Noah put out his hand and took the dove.
   • Noah brought the dove in to himself into the ark.
10. 8:10
    • Noah waited another seven days.
    • Noah again sent the dove out of the ark.
11. 8:11
    • The dove came to Noah at evening time.
    • The dove had a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth.
    • Noah knew from this that the waters had gone down from off the earth.
12. 8:12
    • Noah waited another seven days.
    • Noah sent out the dove.
    • The dove did not return to him again.
13. 8:13
    • In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth.
    • Noah removed the covering of the ark.
    • Noah looked.
    • The face of the ground was dry.
14. 8:14
    • In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15. 8:15
    • God spoke to Noah.
16. 8:16
    • God told Noah to go out of the ark.
    • God told Noah to bring his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives out with him.
17. 8:17
    • God told Noah to bring out with him every living thing of all flesh that was with him.
    • This included birds, cattle, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
    • God said they were to swarm abundantly in the earth.
    • God said they were to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.
18. 8:18
    • Noah went out of the ark.
    • Noah's sons, his wife, and his sons' wives went out with him.
19. 8:19
    • Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves upon the earth went out of the ark.
    • They went out by their kinds.
20. 8:20
    • Noah built an altar to the LORD.
    • Noah took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird.
    • Noah offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21. 8:21
    • The LORD smelled the soothing aroma.
    • The LORD said in his heart that he would not again curse the ground because of man.
    • The inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth.
    • This statement about man's heart is joined to the promise by a connector that can mean either 'because' or 'even though'.
    • The LORD said he would not again strike down every living thing as he had done.
22. 8:22
    • As long as the earth lasts, these things will not cease.
    • Seedtime and harvest will not cease.
    • Cold and heat will not cease.
    • Summer and winter will not cease.
    • Day and night will not cease.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1

"Remembered" here is not a change of mind after forgetting. In Hebrew narrative the word means to turn attention to someone and act on their behalf; it marks the moment the story turns.

8:2

The "springs of the deep" and "openings of the sky" reflect the ancient picture of the world described in Genesis 1: waters held back below the ground and above the sky, released in chapter 7 and now shut off again.

8:3

The hundred and fifty days are counted from the start of the flood in the previous chapter, where the waters rose for that same span.

8:4

Dates in this chapter are counted by the months of Noah's own life-years (see verse 13), not by any later calendar. "Ararat" is a region, not a single peak, the mountainous country of ancient Urartu, in what is now eastern Turkey and Armenia; the Hebrew says "the mountains of Ararat," a range rather than one named summit.

8:6

This window is a small opening, not a pane of glass, and from the description it seems to have been set high in the ark, so Noah could see the sky but not the ground below. That is why he has to send out birds to find out what the surface looks like.

8:7

A raven eats carrion and will perch on anything floating, so it could stay out indefinitely without dry ground, unlike the dove sent next, which needs a dry place to settle.

8:8

A dove is a small bird that needs dry ground or a branch to land on. If a dove could find a resting place, the land was coming back.

8:11

Olive trees grow on the lower slopes, not the heights, so a freshly picked olive leaf meant the water had fallen far below the mountaintops already visible in verse 5.

8:12

This time the dove stayed away. She had found a place to live, so the land was dry.

8:13

"The six hundred and first year" means the six hundred and first year of Noah's life. The "covering" is the roof or outer sheathing of the ark, which had to be pulled back before he could see out.

8:14

Noah and his family had been inside the boat for about a year.

8:17

"Be fruitful and multiply" repeats the wording of the blessing given to the creatures and to humankind at creation in Genesis 1.

8:20

An altar is a raised platform of earth or stone on which an animal is killed and burned as an offering. In a burnt offering the whole animal is consumed by the fire, with nothing kept back to eat. "Clean" animals are those counted as fit for sacrifice; Noah was told in Genesis 7:2 to take seven pairs of each, which is why he has some to spare.

8:21

"Smelled the pleasing smell" is the standard ancient way of saying an offering was accepted; the phrase is used throughout the sacrificial laws. "Said in his heart" means said to himself, not aloud. "Curse the ground" points back to Genesis 3:17, where the ground was cursed because of Adam.

8:22

These are pairs of opposites that between them cover everything: the whole farming year, the whole range of weather, the whole cycle of a day. Israel's agricultural calendar really did run on two poles, sowing in the autumn rains and reaping in the spring and early summer, so "seedtime and harvest" is a farmer's way of saying the year will keep turning.