Genesis 8:12

12 and nevertheless he abode seven other days, and (then) sent out a culver, which turned not again to him. (nevertheless he waited another seven days, and then again sent out the dove, but this time she did not return to him.)

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 Soothly when other seven days were abided afterward, again he sent out a culver from the ship; (And he waited another seven days, and then again he sent out the dove from the ship;)

11 and she came (back) to him at eventide, and bare in her mouth a branch of (an) olive tree with green leaves. Therefore Noe understood that the waters had ceased (from flowing) on (the) earth (And so Noah understood that the waters had now gone from off the face of the earth);

12 and nevertheless he abode seven other days, and (then) sent out a culver, which turned not again to him. (nevertheless he waited another seven days, and then again sent out the dove, but this time she did not return to him.)

13 Therefore in the six hundred and one year of the life of Noe, in the first month, in the first day of the month, [the] waters were decreased on (the) earth; and Noe opened the roof of the ship, and beheld, and saw that the face of the earth was dried. (And so in the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were gone from off the face of the earth; and Noah opened the roof of the ship, and looked, and saw that the face of the earth was becoming dry.)

14 In the second month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was made dry. (And by the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the whole earth was made dry.)