The deluge ceaseth. Noe goeth out of the ark, and offereth a sacrifice.
God's covenant to him.
8:1. And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the
cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the
earth, and the waters were abated:
8:2. The fountains also of the deep, and the floodgates of heaven, were
shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
8:3. And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and
they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days.
8:4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth
day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia.
8:5. And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for
in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the
mountains appeared.
8:6. And after that forty days were passed, Noe opening the window of
the ark, which he had made, sent forth a raven:
8:7. Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up
upon the earth.
Did not return... The raven did not return into the ark; but (as it may
be gathered from the Hebrew) went to and fro; sometimes going to the
mountains, where it found carcasses to feed on: and other times
returning, to rest upon the top of the ark.
8:8. He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now
ceased upon the face of the earth.
8:9. But she not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into
the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his
hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark.
8:10. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the
dove out of the ark.
8:11. And she came to him in the evening carrying a bough of an olive
tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the
waters were ceased upon the earth.
8:12. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove,
which returned not any more unto him.
8:13. Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month,
the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and
Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of
the earth was dried.
8:14. In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the
earth was dried.
8:15. And God spoke to Noe, saying:
8:16. Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of
thy sons with thee.
8:17. All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in
fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth,
bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply
upon it.
8:18. So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his
sons with him.
8:19. And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep
upon the earth, according to their kinds went out of the ark.
8:20. And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and
fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar.
Holocausts,... or whole burnt offerings. In which the whole victim was
consumed by fire upon God's altar, and no part was reserved for the use
of priest or people.
8:21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more
curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of
man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more
destroy every living soul as I have done.
Smelled, etc... A figurative expression, denoting that God was well
pleased with the sacrifices which his servant offered.
8:22. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.