17. Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.”
18. So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives.
19. All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.
20. Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burnt them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.
21. The odour of the sacrifice pleased the Lord, and he said to himself, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.
22. As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”