Institute for Creation Research

Genesis 8:1

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;

2

The fountains also 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, were the tops of the mountains 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 up 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 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.

10

And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11

And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, 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 other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

13

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.

14

And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

15

And God spake unto Noah, saying,

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Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons wives with thee.

17

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.

18

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him:

19

Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20

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.

21

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.

22

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:1

8:1 a wind. The uniform temperatures of the pre-Flood would have prevented the great atmospheric circulations that now prevail, so that significant wind movements were impossible. With the almost complete precipitation of the waters in the primeval canopy after 150 days, the present latitudinal temperature differentials were soon functioning to initiate tremendous winds all over the earth. These winds, blowing on a shoreless ocean, would certainly generate gigantic surface waves and tidal surges. The latter, superimposed on all the other hydrodynamic and geophysical forces at work, evidently served as the critical factor to trigger great tectonic forces that eventually would restore at least partial equilibrium to the disturbed surface of the earth. The earth’s crust was in a highly unstable condition, with the tremendous subterranean reservoirs now emptied of their pressurized waters and with vast depths of light sediments piling up in the antediluvian sea basins.

Genesis 8:1

8:1 assuaged. As a result of the water subsiding, the phenomena described in Psalm 104:6-9 began to take place. The earth’s crust collapsed deep into the previous subterranean reservoir chambers, forming the present ocean basins, and causing further extrusions of magmas around their peripheries and through openings in their floors. The light sediments in the sea troughs were forced upward by isostatic readjustment to form mountain ranges and plateaus. Thus the waters originally stored in the vapor canopy and the subterranean chambers are now stored mainly in the present ocean basins (these waters would be sufficient to cover a “smoothed” earth to a depth of almost two miles) after the vast topographic adjustments that terminated and followed the Flood.

Genesis 8:3

8:3 continually. This expression, to some degree, suggests a cyclic tidal action, but especially connotes rapid subsidence and drainage. It is significant that all the world’s oceans bear evidence (e.g., sea mounts, submarine canyons, etc.) of former lower levels and that all the world’s continental drainage systems (rivers, lakes) bear evidence of former higher water levels and quantities of flow (e.g., old raised river terraces and lake beaches, vast alluvial valleys and “underfit” streams). These worldwide evidences clearly picture a world in the process of emerging from a recent global inundation.

Genesis 8:4

8:4 seventeenth day of the month. This “resting” of the ark, after its labor of protecting its precious cargo against the terrible cataclysm for five long months, occurred exactly 150 days after the Flood began. It may be significant that, on the anniversary of this date many years later, Jesus Christ rose from the dead! That is, the seventh month of the civil year used by the Jews (almost certainly the calendar used in the Flood narrative) was later set as the first month of their religious year. The Passover was on the fourteenth day of the first month, and Christ rose three days after the Passover. Thus, He “rested” in Joseph’s tomb and then rose from the dead on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the civil calendar.

Genesis 8:4