God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
KJV And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
זָכַרzakhar
"remembered"—to remember, to recall, to be mindful of, to act on behalf of
When God 'remembers,' it is not a cognitive event but a relational and active one — God turns toward someone to deliver, fulfill a promise, or show mercy. This is the theological pivot of the flood: God remembers Noah, and salvation begins.
Translator Notes
'God remembered' (vayyizkor Elohim, וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים) — this is the turning point of the flood narrative. Divine 'remembering' in the Hebrew Bible does not imply prior forgetfulness; it means God turns his active attention toward someone and acts on their behalf. The verb zakhar ('to remember') with God as subject is consistently an act of gracious intervention (cf. Genesis 19:29; 30:22; Exodus 2:24; 6:5). The flood narrative pivots on this word: from destruction to restoration, from judgment to mercy.
'God caused a wind to pass over the earth' (vayya'aver Elohim ruach al-ha'arets) — ruach here means 'wind,' echoing 1:2 where the ruach Elohim ('Spirit/wind of God') moved over the waters. The creation parallel is deliberate: as God's ruach moved over the primordial waters at the beginning, so God's ruach now moves over the flood waters to begin the re-creation. The flood was a de-creation; the drying is a re-creation.
'Subsided' translates vayyashokku (וַיָּשֹׁכּוּ), from shakhakh (שָׁכַךְ, 'to abate, to subside, to grow calm'). The turbulent waters begin to quiet.
The springs of the deep and the windows of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
KJV The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The sources of the flood described in 7:11 are now closed: the springs of the deep are stopped and the windows of the sky are shut. The cosmic plumbing that was opened for destruction is now sealed. God re-establishes the boundaries between waters that the flood had dissolved.
The waters receded from the earth continually, and at the end of 150 days the waters had decreased.
KJV And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Continually' translates halokh vashov (הָלוֹךְ וָשׁוֹב), literally 'going and returning' — a vivid image of the waters gradually ebbing in a back-and-forth movement, like a tide slowly withdrawing. The process is gradual, not sudden.
The 150-day mark connects to 7:24. After 150 days of domination, the waters begin to decrease.
In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
KJV And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Came to rest' translates vattanach (וַתָּנַח), from nuach (נוּחַ, 'to rest') — the same root as Noah's name (Noach). The ark of Noah (Noach) comes to rest (nuach). The wordplay connects Noah's identity to his destiny: the one whose name means 'rest' finds rest on Ararat.
'The mountains of Ararat' (harei Ararat, הָרֵי אֲרָרָט) — Ararat refers to the ancient kingdom of Urartu, located in the region of modern eastern Turkey, Armenia, and northwestern Iran. The text says 'mountains' (plural), indicating the mountainous region rather than a specific peak. The identification with the specific mountain known today as 'Mount Ararat' (Ağrı Dağı) is a later tradition.
The waters continued to decrease until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
KJV And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The recession is gradual — months pass between the ark's grounding (7th month) and the mountain peaks appearing (10th month). The narrative patiently tracks the slow restoration of the habitable world. The re-emergence of dry land echoes the third day of creation (1:9–10), when God gathered the waters to reveal the dry land.
At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made.
KJV And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Window' (challon, חַלּוֹן) — a different word from the tsohar ('roof/opening') of 6:16. This is a standard window through which Noah will send out birds to test the conditions.
He sent out a raven, and it went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.
KJV And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'A raven' (ha'orev, הָעֹרֵב) — the raven, a scavenger bird, goes out and returns repeatedly ('went back and forth,' yatso yatso' vashov) without providing useful information. It can survive on floating carrion and does not need dry land. The sending of birds to test for dry land has parallels in other ancient Near Eastern flood traditions, notably the Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet XI).
Then he sent out a dove from him to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
KJV Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'A dove' (hayyonah, הַיּוֹנָה) — the dove, unlike the raven, requires dry land, vegetation, and fresh water. It is a more reliable indicator of habitable conditions. The dove becomes a symbol of peace and hope in later tradition.
But the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for waters were on the surface of all the earth. He reached out his hand and took it and brought it back to himself into the ark.
KJV But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Found no resting place' (lo-mats'ah manoach, לֹא מָצְאָה מָנוֹחַ) — manoach is from the root nuach ('to rest'), the same root as Noah's name. The dove could not find noach (rest) — an echo of the naming wordplay. The world is not yet ready for rest.
Noah's reaching out to take the dove back is a tender, personal gesture — the only moment of physical action described for Noah in the flood narrative. He extends his hand to receive the exhausted bird.
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
KJV And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Seven-day intervals structure Noah's testing (vv. 10, 12) — echoing the seven-day creation week and the seven-day waiting period before the flood (7:4, 10). The pattern of sevens continues.
The dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
KJV And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'A freshly plucked olive leaf' (aleh-zayit taraph bephiha, עֲלֵה זַיִת טָרָף בְּפִיהָ) — the olive leaf, freshly torn from a living tree, is proof that vegetation is growing above the waterline. The olive tree, which can survive periods of submersion, is among the first plants to recover. The olive branch/leaf has become one of the most enduring symbols of peace and new beginnings in Western civilization, drawn from this passage.
'So Noah knew' (vayyeda Noach) — the verb yada ('to know') recurs. Noah gains knowledge through observation and evidence — the same verb used for the intimate knowledge of God and of each other throughout Genesis.
He waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him again.
KJV And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The three sendings of the dove form a progression: (1) returns with nothing — no land available; (2) returns with an olive leaf — land is emerging; (3) does not return — land is now habitable. The dove finds its manoach (resting place), the rest that was unavailable in verse 9.
In Noah's 601st year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters had dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and the surface of the ground was drying.
KJV And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The date — the first day of the first month of Noah's 601st year — marks a new beginning. Some scholars see this as symbolically New Year's Day, the start of a new era. The world is being reborn.
'Drying' translates charvu (חָרְבוּ), from charav (חָרַב, 'to be dry, to be desolate'). The ground is drying but not yet fully dry (that comes in v. 14). Noah looks out and sees the emergence of a new world.
In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
KJV And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The earth is fully dry exactly one year and ten days after the flood began (cf. 7:11: second month, seventeenth day → second month, twenty-seventh day). The flood lasted just over a solar year. The new world is ready for habitation.
'Dry' translates yavshah (יָבְשָׁה), from yavash (יָבַשׁ, 'to be dry, to dry up') — a different word from charav in verse 13, indicating full dryness versus the process of drying.
Genesis 8:15
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־נֹ֥חַ לֵאמֹֽר׃
God spoke to Noah, saying,
KJV And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God breaks the silence. Noah has waited patiently in the ark without divine instruction to leave. He entered when God commanded (7:1), and he waits to exit until God commands. The text does not record Noah leaving on his own initiative.
"Go out from the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
KJV Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Go out' (tse, צֵא) — the command to exit parallels the command to enter (7:1, 'Come... into the ark'). God bookends the flood with commands: come in, go out. The order of names here differs from the entry order, listing Noah's wife immediately after Noah.
Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all flesh, birds and livestock and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth—so that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."
KJV Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Be fruitful and multiply' (paru veravu, וּפָרוּ וְרָבוּ) — the creation blessing of 1:22 and 1:28 is reissued. The post-flood world receives the same mandate as the original creation. Life is to resume its God-intended expansion. The re-creation is complete when the creation blessing is renewed.
'Swarm on the earth' (vesharetsu va'arets) — the same verb from 1:20 where the waters swarmed with life. The earth, emptied by the flood, is to be refilled with teeming life.
Every animal, every crawling thing, and every bird—everything that moves on the earth—went out of the ark by their families.
KJV Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'By their families' (lemishpechoteihem, לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתֵיהֶם) — the word mishpachah ('family, clan') replaces the 'according to their kinds' (lemin) of chapter 1. The animals leave as organized groups — families, not isolated individuals. The word choice may suggest that the animals have been fruitful even within the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
KJV And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This is the first altar (mizbeach, מִזְבֵּחַ) in the Bible and the first burnt offering (olah, עֹלָה). The altar is built 'to the LORD' (laYHWH) — using the personal covenant name, not the generic Elohim. Noah's first act in the new world is worship.
'Burnt offerings' (olot, עֹלֹת) — from the root '-l-h ('to go up'). The olah is a sacrifice entirely consumed by fire — it 'goes up' as smoke to God. Nothing is kept by the offerer. It is a total gift. The additional clean animals taken in 7:2 now serve their purpose — providing animals for sacrifice without diminishing the breeding population.
The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, and the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of mankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
KJV And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Pleasing aroma' translates reach hannichoach (רֵיחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ), literally 'aroma of rest/soothing.' The word nichoach is from the same root as Noah's name (nuach, 'rest'). The offering of Noah (Noach) produces a nichoach (pleasing/restful) aroma. The wordplay completes the Noah-rest-comfort theme that began in 5:29.
'The inclination of the human heart is evil from youth' (yetser lev ha'adam ra minne'urav) — strikingly, this assessment repeats almost exactly the pre-flood diagnosis of 6:5 ('every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time'). The reason given for NOT destroying again is essentially the same reason given for destroying in the first place. The human condition has not changed — but God's response to it has. This is one of the most theologically dense statements in Genesis: God accommodates his dealings with humanity to humanity's moral reality, choosing mercy over deserved judgment.
'I will never again' (lo-osif... od) — the double promise frames the divine commitment: never again curse the ground, never again destroy all life. This internal divine resolution is formalized as a covenant in 9:8–17.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease."
KJV While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This verse is structured as poetry — three pairs of opposites (seedtime/harvest, cold/heat, summer/winter) plus the foundational pair (day/night), forming a rhythmic declaration of cosmic stability. The created order, disrupted by the flood, is now guaranteed by divine promise.
'Will not cease' (lo yishbotu, לֹא יִשְׁבֹּתוּ) — from shavat (שָׁבַת, 'to cease, to rest, to stop'). The same verb used for God's rest on the seventh day (2:2–3). The natural cycles will not 'sabbath' — they will continue without interruption. The stability of creation is guaranteed for 'as long as the earth endures' (od kol-yemei ha'arets, 'all the remaining days of the earth').
The chapter ends with a comprehensive promise of cosmic regularity. After the cosmic disruption of the flood, God reaffirms the dependability of the natural order. The seasons, the agricultural cycle, and the alternation of day and night are secured by divine decree.