Genesis 8:1-11

1 But 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.
2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark
7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9 But 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.
10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11 When 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.

Genesis 8:1-11 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 13

  • 1. Genesis 9:15; Genesis 19:29; Genesis 21:1; Genesis 30:22; Exodus 2:24; Numbers 10:9; Ruth 4:13; 1 Samuel 1:11,19; 2 Kings 20:3; 1 Chronicles 16:15; Nehemiah 1:8; Nehemiah 5:19; Nehemiah 13:14,22,31; Job 14:13; Psalms 105:42; Psalms 106:4; Luke 1:54,72
  • 2. Exodus 14:21; Joshua 2:10; Joshua 3:16; Job 12:15; Psalms 66:6; Isaiah 11:15; Isaiah 44:27; Nahum 1:4
  • 3. S Genesis 7:11
  • 4. S Genesis 7:4
  • 5. S Genesis 7:24
  • 6. S Genesis 7:11
  • 7. Genesis 7:20
  • 8. 2 Kings 19:37; Jeremiah 51:27
  • 9. Genesis 7:12
  • 10. Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14; 1 Kings 17:4,6; Job 38:41; Psalms 147:9; Proverbs 30:17; Isaiah 34:11; Luke 12:24
  • 11. ver 11
  • 12. Job 30:31; Psalms 55:6; Psalms 74:19; Song of Songs 2:12,14; Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 59:11; Isaiah 60:8; Jeremiah 48:28; Ezekiel 7:16; Hosea 7:11; Hosea 11:11; Nahum 2:7; Matthew 3:16; Matthew 10:16; John 1:32
  • 13. ver 7
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