Genesis 8:11-21

11 The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.
12 Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out 1the dove; but she did not return to him again.
13 Now it came about in the 2six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.
14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh * day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.
17 "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may 3breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."
18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built 4an altar to the LORD, and took of every 5clean animal and of every clean bird and offered 6burnt offerings on the altar.
21 The LORD 7smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never * again 8curse the ground on account of man, for 9the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; 10and I will never * again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

Genesis 8:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 8

This chapter gives an account of the going off of the waters from the earth, and of the entire deliverance of Noah, and those with him in the ark, from the flood, when all the rest were destroyed: after an one hundred and fifty days a wind is sent over the earth, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven are stopped, the waters go off gradually, and the ark rests on Mount Ararat, Ge 8:1-4 two months and thirteen days after that the tops of the mountains were seen, Ge 8:5 and forty days after the appearance of them, Noah sent forth first a raven, and then a dove, and that a second time, to know more of the abatement of the waters, Ge 8:6-12. When Noah had been in the ark ten months and thirteen days, he uncovered it, and the earth was dry, yet not so dry as to be fit for him to go out upon, until near two months after, Ge 8:13,14 when he had an order from God to go out of the ark, with all that were with him, which was accordingly obeyed, Ge 8:15-19 upon which he offered sacrifice by way of thankfulness for his great deliverance, which was accepted by the Lord; who promised him not to curse the earth any more, nor to drown it, but that it should remain, and as long as it did there would be the constant revolutions of the seasons of the year, and of day and night, Ge 8:20-22.

Cross References 10

  • 1. Jeremiah 48:28
  • 2. Genesis 7:6
  • 3. Genesis 1:22, 28
  • 4. Genesis 12:7, 8; Genesis 13:18; Genesis 22:9
  • 5. Genesis 7:2; Leviticus 11:1-47
  • 6. Genesis 22:2; Exodus 10:25
  • 7. Exodus 29:18, 25
  • 8. Genesis 3:17; Genesis 6:7, 13, 17; Isaiah 54:9
  • 9. Genesis 6:5; Psalms 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:21; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3
  • 10. Genesis 9:11, 15

Footnotes 9

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