F I R S T PA G E S

Genesis 8:89:2
sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth unt il the water had
dried up from the e arth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water
had receded from the surface of the g round. But the dove could find
nowhere to perch because t here was water over all the surface of the
earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He r eached out his hand and
took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven
more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove
returned to him in the evening, t here in its beak was a freshly p
lucked
olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
He waited seven more days and sent the dove out a gain, but this time
it did not return to h im.
By the f irst day of the f irst m
onth of Noahs six hundred and f irst year,
the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the cover
ing from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the
twenty-seventh day of the second m
onth the earth was completely dry.
Then God said to Noah, Come out of the ark, you and your wife and
your sons and t heir w
ives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is
with youthe b
irds, the animals, and all the creatures that move a long
the g roundso they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and in
crease in number onit.
So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons
wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move a long the g round
and all the birdseverything that moves on landcame out of the ark,
one kind after another.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean
animals and clean birds, he sacrif iced burnt offerings on it. The Lord
smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: Never again will I
curse the g round because of humans, even t hougha every inclination of
the human heart is evil from childhood. And never a gain will I destroy
all living creatures, as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.

9 Then God b
lessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, Be fruitful and
increase in number and fill the e arth. The fear and dread of you will fall
on all the b
easts of the earth, and on all the b
irds in the sky, on every
creature that m
oves a long the g round, and on all the fish in the sea; they
10

9780310446613_NIV_Readers_Bible_p1.indd 10

11/18/16 1:37 PM