Genesis 8
God Stops the Rain
But God remembered Noah and all the animals on the boat, so he caused a spirit to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. The fountains deep within the earth were closed and so were the windows in the sky. The rain from the sky was held back, and the water returned back into the ground.
Noah Waits 5 Months for Earth to Dry
It took 5 months for the water to dissipate.
On the 17th of the 7th month, the boat made landfall on Mount Ararat [which means “the curse reversed;” located in modern-day Turkey]. The water continued receding, and then on the 1st of 10th month the surrounding mountaintops finally became visible.
40 days later, Noah opened the boat’s window and sent out a raven. It flew out and came back since the water hadn’t dried up yet.
Then he sent out a pigeon to see if the water had dried up from the ground, but the pigeon came back because it couldn’t find anywhere dry to land. So Noah grabbed the bird and brought it back into the boat. He waited another week and then sent out the pigeon again. She returned that evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak, so Noah knew that the water had significantly died down. He waited another week and sent out the pigeon again, but that time it never came back.
On the 1st day of the 1st month of Noah’s 601st year, the ground was mostly dry. Then Noah removed the boat’s covering, looked out, and sure enough, the ground was dry. On the 27th of the 2nd month, the ground was completely back to normal.
Noah Gets Off the Boat
Then God told Noah,
“You and your family can get off the boat now. Bring all the animals with you so that they can multiply on the earth.”
So Noah and his family got off the boat, and every kind of land animal, creepy crawly, and bird got off the boat with their kinds.
Then Noah built an altar for the Existing One, and took every kind of clean animal and bird and offered roasted contributions on the altar. The Existing One smelled the soothing fragrance and said to himself,
“I won’t ever curse the ground because of humanity again, because the human heart is geared toward destruction even from an early age. I won’t ever wipe all life on earth again.
“The earth continues on: planting & harvesting, hot & cold, summer & winter, and day & night will not come to an end.”