9. The dove could not find a place to rest because water still covered the earth, so the dove came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and caught the dove and brought it back into the boat.
10. After seven days Noah again sent out the dove.
11. And that afternoon the dove came back to Noah. The dove had a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. This was a sign to show Noah that there was dry ground on the earth.
12. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. But this time the dove didn’t come back.
13. After that Noah opened the door of the boat. He looked and saw that the ground was dry. This was the first day of the first month of the year. He was 601 years old.
14. By the 27th day of the second month, the ground was completely dry.
15. Then God said to Noah,
16. “Leave the boat. You, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives should go out now.
17. Bring every living animal out of the boat with you—all the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. These animals will make many more animals, and they will fill the earth again.”
18. So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
19. All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat. All the animals came out of the boat in family groups.
20. Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and some of all the clean animals and burned them on the altar as a gift to God.
21. The Lord smelled these sacrifices, and it pleased him. The Lord said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth as a way to punish people. People are evil from the time they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.
22. As long as the earth continues, there will always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth.”