Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though^[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never 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. Genesis 12:7-8; Genesis 13:18; Genesis 22:9; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 33:20; Genesis 35:7; Exodus 17:15; Exodus 24:4
• 2. S Genesis 7:8; Leviticus 11:1-47
• 3. Genesis 22:2,13; Exodus 10:25; Exodus 20:24; Exodus 40:29; Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 4:29; Leviticus 6:8-13; Numbers 6:11; Judges 6:26; Judges 11:31; 1 Samuel 20:29; Job 1:5; Job 42:8
• 4. Exodus 29:18,25; Leviticus 1:9,13; Leviticus 2:9; Leviticus 4:31; Numbers 15:3,7; 2 Corinthians 2:15
• 5. S Genesis 3:17
• 6. Genesis 6:5; Psalms 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19; Romans 1:21
• 7. Jeremiah 44:11
• 8. Genesis 9:11,15; Isaiah 54:9
• 9. Joshua 3:15; Psalms 67:6; Jeremiah 5:24
• 10. Psalms 74:17; Zechariah 14:8
• 11. S Genesis 1:14; Jeremiah 33:20,25

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "humans, for"