Genesis 8:20-22

God's Covenant with Noah

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And when the LORD smelled ¹the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again ²curse^[a] the ground because of man, for ³the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. ⁴Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

22 ⁵While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, ⁶day and night, shall not cease."

Genesis 8:20-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 8

This chapter gives an account of the going off of the waters from the earth, and of the entire deliverance of Noah, and those with him in the ark, from the flood, when all the rest were destroyed: after an one hundred and fifty days a wind is sent over the earth, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven are stopped, the waters go off gradually, and the ark rests on Mount Ararat, Ge 8:1-4 two months and thirteen days after that the tops of the mountains were seen, Ge 8:5 and forty days after the appearance of them, Noah sent forth first a raven, and then a dove, and that a second time, to know more of the abatement of the waters, Ge 8:6-12. When Noah had been in the ark ten months and thirteen days, he uncovered it, and the earth was dry, yet not so dry as to be fit for him to go out upon, until near two months after, Ge 8:13,14 when he had an order from God to go out of the ark, with all that were with him, which was accordingly obeyed, Ge 8:15-19 upon which he offered sacrifice by way of thankfulness for his great deliverance, which was accepted by the Lord; who promised him not to curse the earth any more, nor to drown it, but that it should remain, and as long as it did there would be the constant revolutions of the seasons of the year, and of day and night, Ge 8:20-22.

Cross References

• 1. Ex. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17; See Ezekiel 16:19; Ezekiel 20:41; 2 Corinthians 2:15; Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 4:18
• 2. Genesis 3:17; Genesis 6:17
• 3. Genesis 6:5; Psalms 58:3; Romans 1:21; [Matthew 15:19]
• 4. Genesis 9:11, 15; Isaiah 54:9
• 5. Jeremiah 5:24
• 6. Jeremiah 33:20, 25

Footnotes

• [a]. Or dishonor