Genesis 8:3-13

3 The waters receded from off the eretz continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.

4 The teivah rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat's mountains.

5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

6 It happened at the end of forty days, that Noach opened the window of the teivah which he had made,

7 and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from off the eretz.

8 He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the surface of the ground,

9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the teivah; for the waters were on the surface of the whole eretz. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the teivah.

10 He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the teivah.

11 The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noach knew that the waters were abated from off the eretz.

12 He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.

13 It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the eretz. Noach removed the covering of the teivah, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

Genesis 8:3-13 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.