Genesis8
World English Bible · Public Domain
1God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
2The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
3The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded.
4The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains.
5The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.
6At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,
7and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
9but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.
10He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship.
11The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.
12He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.
13In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15God spoke to Noah, saying,
16“Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
18Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.
19Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
20Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
22While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not 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