God remembers Noah and assuages the waters, 1-3. The ark rests on Ararat, 4, 5. Noah sends forth a raven and then a dove, 6-12. Noah, being commanded, goes forth from the ark, 13-19. He builds an altar and offers sacrifice, which God accepts and promises to curse the earth no more, 20-22.
1 And God remembered Noah and every living animal and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were checked. 2 Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained, 3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually. And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. 4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried from off the earth. 8 Also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground, 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned to him into the ark, because the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, took her, and pulled her in to him into the ark. 10 And he stayed yet another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove returned to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 12 And he stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.
13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 And God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 "Go forth from the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring forth with you every living animal that is with you of all flesh, of bird, of cattle, and of every creeping animal that creeps upon the earth, so that they may breed abundantly on the earth, be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth." 18 And Noah went forth, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping animal, every bird, and whatever creeps upon the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.
20 And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took some of every clean beast and some of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savor, and the LORD said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I ever again smite every living animal as I have done.
22 While the earth remains,/
seed-time and harvest,/
cold and heat,/
summer and winter,/
and day and night shall not cease."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Genesis, Chapter 8[➚]