Day 4 – God’s Covenant with Noah

₁God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. ₂The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, ₃and the water gradually went down for 150 days. ₄On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. ₅The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

₆After forty days Noah opened a window ₇and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. ₈Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, ₉but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to alight. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. ₁₀He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. ₁₁It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. ₁₂Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.

₁₃When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked round, and saw that the ground was getting dry. ₁₄By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

₁₅God said to Noah, ₁₆“Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. ₁₇Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.” ₁₈So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives. ₁₉All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.

₂₀Noah built an altar to the LORD; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burnt them whole as a sacrifice on the altar. ₂₁The odour of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. ₂₂As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

₁God blessed Noah and his sons and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. ₂All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. ₃Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food. ₄The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. ₅If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. ₆Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.

₇“You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.”

₈God said to Noah and his sons, ₉“I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, ₁₀and with all living beings — all birds and all animals — everything that came out of the boat with you. ₁₁With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. ₁₂As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, ₁₃I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. ₁₄Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, ₁₅I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. ₁₆When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. ₁₇That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”