Discovery BoxGenesis 8:2-22
Context8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, 1 and the rain stopped falling from the sky. 8:3 The waters kept receding steadily 2 from the earth, so that they 3 had gone down 4 by the end of the 150 days. 8:4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat. 5 8:5 The waters kept on receding 6 until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible. 7
8:6 At the end of forty days, 8 Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 9 8:7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying 10 back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.
8:8 Then Noah 11 sent out a dove 12 to see if the waters had receded 13 from the surface of the ground. 8:9 The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered 14 the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah 15 in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, 16 and brought it back into the ark. 17 8:10 He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark. 8:11 When 18 the dove returned to him in the evening, there was 19 a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 8:12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, 20 but it did not return to him this time. 21
8:13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, 22 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 23 the surface of the ground was dry. 8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth 24 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 25 every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase 26 and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!” 27
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. 28 8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma 29 and said 30 to himself, 31 “I will never again curse 32 the ground because of humankind, even though 33 the inclination of their minds 34 is evil from childhood on. 35 I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, 36
planting time 37 and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night will not cease.”
[8:2] 1 tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.
[8:3] 2 tn The construction combines a Qal preterite from שׁוּב (shuv) with its infinitive absolute to indicate continuous action. The infinitive absolute from הָלָךְ (halakh) is included for emphasis: “the waters returned…going and returning.”
[8:3] 3 tn Heb “the waters.” The pronoun (“they”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[8:3] 4 tn The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite here describes the consequence of the preceding action.
[8:4] 5 tn Heb “on the mountains of Ararat.” Obviously a boat (even one as large as the ark) cannot rest on multiple mountains. Perhaps (1) the preposition should be translated “among,” or (2) the plural “mountains” should be understood in the sense of “mountain range” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 53). A more probable option (3) is that the plural indicates an indefinite singular, translated “one of the mountains” (see GKC 400 §124.o).
[8:5] 6 tn Heb “the waters were going and lessening.” The perfect verb form הָיָה (hayah) is used as an auxiliary verb with the infinitive absolute חָסוֹר (khasor, “lessening”), while the infinitive absolute הָלוֹךְ (halokh) indicates continuous action.
[8:5] 7 tn Or “could be seen.”
[8:6] 8 tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.
[8:6] 9 tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.
[8:7] 10 tn Heb “and it went out, going out and returning.” The Hebrew verb יָצָא (yatsa’), translated here “flying,” is modified by two infinitives absolute indicating that the raven went back and forth.
[8:8] 11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:8] 12 tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.
[8:8] 13 tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.
[8:9] 14 tn The words “still covered” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[8:9] 15 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:9] 16 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the dove) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:9] 17 tn Heb “and he brought it to himself to the ark.”
[8:11] 18 tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.
[8:11] 19 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.
[8:12] 20 tn The word “again” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[8:12] 21 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.
[8:13] 22 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.
[8:13] 23 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.
[8:14] 24 tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, ha’adamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, ha’arets) is dry.
[8:17] 25 tn The words “bring out” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[8:17] 26 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.
[8:17] 27 tn Heb “and let them swarm in the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
[8:20] 28 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
[8:21] 29 tn The
[8:21] 30 tn Heb “and the
[8:21] 31 tn Heb “in his heart.”
[8:21] 32 tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.
[8:21] 33 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.
[8:21] 34 tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”
[8:21] 35 tn Heb “from his youth.”
[8:22] 36 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.”
[8:22] 37 tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.
