The Book of
Genesis 8
22 verses≈ 4 min1 personBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–11BeginningsCreation, fall, flood, BabelChapter 8
- 12–24AbrahamThe call and the promise
- 25–36Isaac and JacobThe promise passed on
- 37–50JosephGod meant it for good
The Ark Rests on Ararat
But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark.
Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture
And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside. The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And 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.
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
The mountains of Ararat
The ark came to rest “on the mountains of Ararat,” the high country north of Mesopotamia, between the upper Tigris and Euphrates. The text names a range, not a peak. Which mountain, no one knows.
Noah Sends a Raven and a Dove
Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak.
So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
Reflect
Waiting with Noah
Forty days, then “seven more days,” then seven more. Noah sends out a raven, then a dove, and keeps watching the window. God had promised to keep him alive, but He didn’t tell him how long the waiting would last. What are you waiting on God for right now? Write down what it would look like to wait the way Noah did: watching, patient, and still trusting.
Exiting the Ark
The flood year, by the text’s dates
Whiteboard
Genesis dates the flood by Noah’s own years, like a ship’s log. The rain began in his 600th year (7:11); by “the twenty-seventh day of the second month” of the next year, “the earth was fully dry.” Noah spent a little over a year in the ark.
In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth.
So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.
Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”
So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.
0:30
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
Pray
Come out
Noah could see the ground was dry, but he stayed in the ark until God said, “Come out of the ark.” Then he came out to a washed world and a fresh command to “be fruitful and multiply.” Thank God for His timing. Ask Him for the patience to wait for His word, and the courage to step out when He speaks.
Noah Builds an Altar
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
Genesis 8:22
Question
Quick question
Noah sent out birds to find out whether the land was dry.
What did the dove bring back the second time Noah sent her out?
You’ve experienced
Genesis 8
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A verse to carry with you
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.
Genesis 8:22
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