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Genesis 8

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God Causes the Waters to Recede 1–5

1
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; ​
2
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
3
And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
4
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. ​
5
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

The Dove and the Olive Branch 6–12

6
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
7
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. ​
8
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
9
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
10
And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
11
And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. ​
12
And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

The Earth Dries Completely 13–14

13
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. ​
14
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

God Commands the Family to Exit 15–19

15
And God spake unto Noah, saying,
16
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
17
Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. ​
18
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
19
Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

Noah Sacrifices; God's Promise 20–22

20
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ​
21
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. ​
22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Genesis 8

Verse 1

God remembered Noah — Zakar does not imply that God had forgotten; it is the verb of action for a covenant, as when ‘God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out’ (Gen 19:29) and ‘remembered his covenant with Abraham’ (Ex 2:24). The ‘wind’ is ruach, the word for ‘the Spirit of God’ over the waters in Gen 1:2.

Verse 4

the mountains of Ararat — ‘Mountains’ is plural: the ark came to rest on a range, in the land the KJV calls Armenia (2 Kgs 19:37) and Ararat (Jer 51:27). The seventeenth day of the seventh month falls five months to the day after the fountains broke open (7:11), the ‘hundred and fifty days’ of 7:24.

Verse 7

a raven — Oreb, a bird named in the law’s list of fowls ‘in abomination’ (Lev 11:13–15). ‘To and fro’ renders two verbs, going out and returning (yatsa, shub), and it continued ‘until the waters were dried up’. Unlike the dove (v.9), it is not said to bring anything back.

Verse 11

an olive leaf — Alah zayith. ‘Pluckt off’ is taraph, freshly torn, a form found only here. The dove, on the second of its three sendings (vv.8, 10, 12), came back at evening with a leaf taken from a living tree, and by it ‘Noah knew that the waters were abated’.

Verse 13

the waters were dried up — This is dated to the first day of the 601st year. Verse 13 uses charab for the waters and the ground’s face, v.14 uses yabesh for ‘the earth dried’, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, a year and ten days after the fountains broke (7:11). Noah leaves only at God’s word (v.15).

Verse 17

be fruitful, and multiply — The blessing given to the creatures of waters and air at creation (Gen 1:22) is renewed for the animals. ‘Breed abundantly’ is sharats, to swarm, the verb of ‘bring forth abundantly’ in Gen 1:20; to Noah and his sons the same words go out in 9:1.

Verse 20

builded an altar — Mizbeach, a place of sacrifice; this is the first altar named in Scripture (the word next appears at Gen 12:7). ‘Offered’ is alah, to go up, and ‘burnt offerings’ (olah) are what goes up. The ‘clean’ beasts were taken aboard ‘by sevens’ (7:2), and Lev 11 later distinguishes clean from unclean.

Verse 21

a sweet savour — Nichoach, ‘restful’, from nuach, the root of Noah’s own name and of the ark ‘rested’ in v.4. The LORD will not ‘curse’ (qalal) the ground again, though man’s imagination is still evil, as in 6:5; ‘for man’s sake’ answers Gen 3:17. Paul uses the phrase of Christ’s offering (Eph 5:2).

Verse 22

seedtime and harvest — ‘While the earth remaineth’ is literally ‘all the days of the earth’. Four pairs, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, ‘shall not cease’ (shabath, the verb of God resting in Gen 2:2). The LORD later calls this ‘my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night’ (Jer 33:20).