8:13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, 5 in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that 6 the surface of the ground was dry. 8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth 7 was dry.
8:15 Then God spoke to Noah and said, 8:16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 8:17 Bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you. Bring out 8 every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase 9 and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!” 10
8:18 Noah went out along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 8:19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth went out of the ark in their groups.
8:20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 11 8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma 12 and said 13 to himself, 14 “I will never again curse 15 the ground because of humankind, even though 16 the inclination of their minds 17 is evil from childhood on. 18 I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, 19
planting time 20 and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night will not cease.”
1 tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.
2 tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.
3 tn The word “again” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 tn Heb “it did not again return to him still.” For a study of this section of the flood narrative, see W. O. E. Oesterley, “The Dove with the Olive Leaf (Gen VIII 8–11),” ExpTim 18 (1906/07): 377-78.
5 tn Heb In the six hundred and first year.” Since this refers to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, the word “Noah’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “and saw and look.” As in v. 11, the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the dry ground with their own eyes.
7 tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, ha’adamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, ha’arets) is dry.
8 tn The words “bring out” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Following the Hiphil imperative, “bring out,” the three perfect verb forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry an imperatival nuance. For a discussion of the Hebrew construction here and the difficulty of translating it into English, see S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 124-25.
10 tn Heb “and let them swarm in the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
11 sn Offered burnt offerings on the altar. F. D. Maurice includes a chapter on the sacrifice of Noah in The Doctrine of Sacrifice. The whole burnt offering, according to Leviticus 1, represented the worshiper’s complete surrender and dedication to the
12 tn The
13 tn Heb “and the
14 tn Heb “in his heart.”
15 tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.
16 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.
17 tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”
18 tn Heb “from his youth.”
19 tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”
20 tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.