Genesis8
New International Version
1But 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.
2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark
7and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9But 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.
10He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11When 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.
12He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15Then God said to Noah,
16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
17Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
19All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
21The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Genesis 8.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: God remembers Noah, and dries up the waters. (1–3). The ark rests on Ararat, Noah sends forth a raven and a dove. (4–12). Noah being commanded, goes out of the ark. (13–19). Noah offers sacrifice, God promises to curse the earth no more. (20–22).
vv1-3
The whole race of mankind, except Noah and his family, were now dead, so that God's remembering Noah, was the return of his mercy to mankind, of whom he would not make a full end. The demands of Divine justice had been answered by the ruin of sinners. God sent his wind to dry the earth, and seal up his waters. The same hand that brings the desolation, must bring the deliverance; to that hand, therefore, we must ever look. When afflictions have done the work for which they are sent, whether killing work or curing work, they will be taken away. As the earth was not drowned in a day, so it was not dried in a day. God usually works deliverance for his people gradually, that the day of small things may not be despised, nor the day of great things despaired of.
vv4-12
The ark rested upon a mountain, whither it was directed by the wise and gracious providence of God, that might rest the sooner. God has times and places of rest for his people after their tossing; and many times he provides for their seasonable and comfortable settlement, without their own contrivance, and quite beyond their own foresight. God had told Noah when the flood would come, yet he did not give him an account by revelation, at what times and by what steps it should go away. The knowledge of the former was necessary to his preparing the ark; but the knowledge of the latter would serve only to gratify curiosity; and concealing it from him would exercise his faith and patience. Noah sent forth a raven from the ark, which went flying about, and feeding on the carcasses that floated. Noah then sent forth a dove, which returned the first time without good news; but the second time, she brought an olive leaf in her bill, plucked off, plainly showing that trees, fruit trees, began to appear above water. Noah sent forth the dove the second time, seven days after the first, and the third time was after seven days also; probably on the sabbath day. Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he expected especial blessings from Heaven, and inquired concerning them. The dove is an emblem of a gracious soul, that, finding no solid peace of satisfaction in this deluged, defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah, its rest. The defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah, its rest. The carnal heart, like the raven, takes up with the world, and feeds on the carrion it finds there; but return thou to my rest, O my soul; to thy Noah, so the word is, Ps 116:7. And as Noah put forth his hand, and took the dove, and pulled her to him, into the ark, so Christ will save, and help, and welcome those that flee to him for rest. (Ge 8:13-19)
vv13-19
God consults our benefit, rather than our desires; he knows what is good for us better than we do for ourselves, and how long it is fit our restraints should continue, and desired mercies should be delayed. We would go out of the ark before the ground is dried; and perhaps, if the door, is shut, are ready to thrust off the covering, and to climb up some other way; but God's time of showing mercy is the best time. As Noah had a command to go into the ark, so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set him before us in all our removals. Those only go under God's protection, who follow God's direction, and submit to him.
Key Words
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
זָכַר: properly, to mark (so as to be recognized), i.e. to remember; by implication, to mention; to be male
נֹחַ: Noach, the patriarch of the flood
כֹּל: properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
חַי: alive; hence, raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively
בְּהֵמָה: properly, a dumb beast; especially any large quadruped or animal (often collective)
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
תֵּבָה: a box
עָבַר: to cross over; used very widely of any transition (literal or figurative; transitive, intransitive, intensive, causative); specifically, to cover (in copulation)
רוּחַ: wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions)
Cross References
Genesis 8God explicitly swears that the waters of Noah would no more go over the earth.
Supported by JFB
Both passages feature a divinely-sent drying wind to make dry land appear through miraculous assistance.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Identifies 'Ararat' as the region of Armenia, verifying the geographical location of the ark's resting place.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Confirms the continuation of man's evil imagination even after the purge of the flood.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Christ's offering is the ultimate sweet-smelling savor foreshadowed by Noah's sacrifice.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Direct reversal of the opening of the deep's fountains and heaven's windows.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Typological echo of the soul finding its true rest ('Noah') when there is no rest elsewhere.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Contrasts the promise of no more water floods with the future judgment by fire.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Relates to the original curse on the ground, which God promises not to repeat.
Supported by Matthew Henry
God's covenant with day and night is as unbreakable as His covenant with David.
Illustrates what it means for God to 'remember' His servants after a period of trial.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel usage of 'remember' denoting God returning to show mercy and favor after a delay.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Another key instance where God 'remembered' a patriarch and delivered him from catastrophic judgment.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Shows that God 'remembering' represents His active compassion and end of a time of affliction.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Scriptural parallel reinforcing 'Ararat' as the land of Armenia.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Illuminates how the imagination of man's heart is corrupt from his earliest youth.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Defines the ritual significance of a sweet savor offered by fire unto the Lord.
Affirms God's appointed ordinances of the sun, moon, and stars governing day and night.
Acts as the chronologic anchor for the 'hundred and fifty days' when the waters abated.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Textual parallel of 'doves of the valleys' fleeing to and fro, seeking rest.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Renewal of the creation mandate to breed abundantly and be fruitful upon the earth.
Supported by John Calvin
Explains why clean beasts were preserved in sevens: to provide for these burnt offerings.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin, JFB
The formal covenant established with Noah to never again cut off all flesh by flood.
Praising God who established the borders of the earth, making summer and winter.
Verbal link to the construction of the specific 'window' Noah was commanded to build.
Supported by John Calvin