The theological center of the flood narrative is not the rising of the waters but three words at the start of this chapter: "God remembered Noah." The flood account is a literary chiasm — the first half mirrors the second in reverse — and this phrase is the hinge. From here the water recedes, the birds are sent, the ark lands, and Noah's first act on dry ground is to build an altar. The flood ends where it began, with a human and an offering.