Genesis 8:12

12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

Genesis 8:12 in Other Translations

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

12 He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.

12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn't come back.

12 After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

Genesis 8:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 8:12

And he stayed yet other seven days
After the dove had returned:

and sent forth the dove;
the same dove again;

which returned not again unto him any more:
the earth being dry, it found rest for the sole of its feet, sufficient food to eat, and a proper place for its habitation; and liking to be at liberty, and in the open air, chose not to return to the ark, even though its mate was there: of those birds sent out, the Heathen writers make mention: Abydenus says ^F19, that Sisithrus, the same with Noah, sent out birds making an experiment to see whether the earth was emersed out of the water, which returned again to him; and after them he sent out others; and having done so three times, obtained what he wished for, since the birds returned with their wings full of clay or mud; and so Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 says, the dove which brought the olive leaf was all over with clay or mud: and Plutarch ^F21 makes particular mention of the dove, and says that, according to the mythologists, a dove was let out of the ark; and that her going out was to Deucalion, (the same with Noah) a sign of fair weather, and her return of foul: and the story that Lucian ^F23 tells of a golden dove upon the head of a statue in the temple of Hierapolis, supposed to be Deucalion's, seems plainly to refer to this dove of Noah; for the report, he says, was, that this golden dove flew away twice in a year, at the commemoration there made of the flood, by pouring out abundance of water into a chasm or cleft of the earth, then not very large; and which, it was told him, was formerly a very great one, and swallowed up all the flood that drowned the world.

F19 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 12. p. 414, 415.
F20 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 3. p. 5.
F21 De Solert. Animal.
F23 De Dea Syria.

Genesis 8:12 In-Context

10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.

12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

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