Genesis 8:10-20

10 And he waited yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.

11 And the dove came to him at eventide; and behold, in her beak was an olive-leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters had become low on the earth.

12 And he waited yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; but she returned no more to him.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried.

14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 And God spoke to Noah, saying,

16 Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every animal which is with thee, of all flesh, fowl as well as cattle, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

18 And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

19 All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl -- everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.

20 And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar.

Genesis 8:10-20 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or 'light.'
• [b]. Or 'families.'