7. He sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth.
8. Then Noah sent out a dove. This was to find out if the water had dried up from the ground.
9. The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth. So it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird. And he brought it back into the boat.
10. After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat.
11. And that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry.
12. Seven days later he sent the dove out again. But this time it did not come back.
13. Noah was now 601 years old. It was the first day of the first month of that year. The water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry.
14. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.
15. Then God said to Noah,
16. “You and your wife, your sons and their wives should go out of the boat.
17. Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones and let them grow in number.”
18. So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives.