And the waters continued to abate says the same as in Gen 8.3. Until the tenth month is three months after the boat came to rest in verse 4.

In the tenth month repeats what has just been said. If the repetition creates an awkward style in translation, it may be better to follow Good News Translation or to say, for example, “at that time.”

Tops of the mountains were seen: tops refers to the highest points or peaks of the mountains that began to appear above the level of the water. In Hebrew this is literally “the heads of the mountains,” and many other languages will be able to use that same expression. In some other languages people do not naturally say that they saw the tops of the mountains in this context; for instance, one translation says simply “some hills began to appear again.” Were seen is passive but must mean that they were seen by or were visible to Noah and those with him. In languages that do not use the passive, we may say, for example, “Noah could see the tops of the mountains.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .