1 And then God thought about Noah and the animals with him in that big boat. And he made a strong wind blow on the flood water to help it to go down. 2 And God stopped the water from coming up from under the ground, and he stopped the rain falling from the sky.

3 The flood water went down slowly, and after 5 months it was a lot lower. 4 So 5 months after the start of the flood, the big boat got stuck in the mountains called the Ararat mountains. 5 The flood water kept going down for the next 2½ months, and then they saw the tops of the mountains, sticking up out of the water.

6 Then, 40 days later, Noah opened a window in the big boat. He wanted to find out if the water went down, and if a bird could find some dry ground. 7 So he let a crow go out of the window. The crow didn’t come back to the big boat. It just kept on flying around until the flood waters dried up.

8-9 So Noah let a pigeon go out of the window. But the flood water still covered the ground, and the pigeon couldn’t find a place to stop and rest, so it went back to the big boat. Noah held out his hand for the bird, and he helped it back into the boat.

10 Noah waited for 7 more days, and then he let the pigeon go out of the boat again. 11 This time the pigeon came back just before night time. It had a fresh leaf from an olive tree in its mouth. Then Noah knew the flood water was getting lower, and the trees were growing again. 12 Noah waited 7 more days, then he sent the pigeon out again. This time the pigeon didn’t come back to the big boat.

13 Noah was 601 years old at that time.

The water was still going down, and on the 1st day of the new year, Noah took off some of the roof from the big boat and looked around. He could see that the ground was getting dry. 14 After another 2 months, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “You can go out of the big boat now. You can all go out, you, and your wife, and your sons, and their wives too. 17 And bring all the animals out of the big boat. Bring out all the animals, and the birds, and the animals that crawl around on the ground. They can all come out, so they can live on the earth and have lots of young ones, so that they will go everywhere on the earth.”

18-19 So Noah, and his wife, and his sons, and their wives, they all came out of the big boat. And all the animals and all the birds came out of the big boat too. They came out in groups. Each sort of animal was in its family group.

20 Then Noah piled up stones to make a special table with a flat top, and he got one of each sort of animal and bird that are the right sorts to give to God, and he killed them, and he put them on that special table, and he burned them there. He did that to give them to God, to say thank you to God.

21-22 God smelled the meat cooking on that stone table, and he was happy. Then God said to himself, “People always just want to do bad things. They do that all their lives, from when they are little kids, right up until the time they die. But I will never again punish them the same way that I did this time. I will never again finish up everything that breathes air, and I will never again curse the earth. While the earth is still here, the seasons will stay the same. There will always be day and night, and every year there will be a hot time and a cold time, a wet season and a dry season. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food, and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

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