Genesis 8:14 - Printer Friendly

ESV: In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.

NIV: By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

NASB: And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

CSB: By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.

NLT: Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry!

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

NKJV: And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

The previous verse marked the day when Noah removed a covering from the ark and saw that the ground was dry. At least "the face of the ground" seemed to be ready for life. Looks can be deceiving, however. We don't know exactly why Noah waited so long to release the occupants of the ark. Perhaps the ground was dry but not yet dry enough to support all of them. Perhaps Noah was waiting for God to give the word that it was okay to disembark (Genesis 8:15). This verse marks a day nearly two months later, where we are again told that the earth was dried out.

Noah was sealed into the ark on the seventh day of the second month of his 600th year. He leaves it on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of his 601st year. Using the 360-day Old Testament calendar, this is one year and ten days. Adding up the days in this account, we have 150 days of flooding, 150 days of receding waters, and seventy days of waiting for the earth to dry.

God will make it clear, in the next verse, that the time has finally come for the last of earth's humans and all of the ark's animals to leave the ark and begin to repopulate earth once again.

Genesis 8:1–19 describes the process of God drying out the earth following the flood. Noah and his family and the animals wait for the waters to recede. Noah uses birds as a test to see if any land is nearby. When the time is finally right, a full year after they entered, God commands Noah, his family, and all the animals to leave the ark. Their mission from God is to swarm over the earth, multiply, and begin again.

Even as all other life was being destroyed, God didn't forget Noah and the animals. He stops the deluge of water flowing from above and below and causes a great wind to blow to begin drying out the earth. The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. There, its occupants wait for the flood waters to go down. After a full year aboard, Noah and his family and the animals finally disembark. Noah builds an altar in worship to God and offers animal sacrifices. God commits to never curse the earth as He had through the flood, and to never again strike down all life on earth.

Genesis 6 and 7 explain the events leading up to the flood, and the actual catastrophe itself. After the devastation and destruction are over, God begins to dry out the earth in Genesis 8. The waters recede, Noah and the animals finally leave after a year aboard, and Noah offers animal sacrifices in worship to God. God commits to never again strike down all life on earth at once. As long as the earth remains, living things will enjoy the cycles of day, night, and seasons. The following chapters describe the re-population of earth by mankind, leading up to another instance of God's intervention, at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11).

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.