What does Noe learn from the dove’s returns, and what happens before he leaves the ark?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The first return shows that the dove has no resting place; the olive bough on its next return tells Noe that the waters have ceased. After the earth is described as dry, God commands the household and creatures to leave.

Chapter breakdown

God remembers Noe and all the living creatures and cattle with him in the ark. He brings a wind upon the earth, and the waters lessen. The fountains of the deep and floodgates of heaven close, and rain is restrained. The waters return from the earth, going and coming, and begin to lessen after 150 days.

On the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month, the ark rests upon the mountains of Armenia. The waters continue decreasing until the tenth month. On the first day of that month the mountain tops appear.

After forty days pass, Noe opens the ark’s window and sends a raven out. The verse says that it goes out and does not return until the waters dry up on earth. Challoner explains that it does not return into the ark. As may be gathered from the Hebrew, he says, it goes back and forth: sometimes to the mountains, where it finds carcasses to eat, and sometimes to rest on the top of the ark.

Noe also sends a dove to see whether the waters have ceased from the earth. It finds no place to rest its foot because water still covers the earth, so it returns. Noe puts out his hand, catches it and brings it into the ark. After waiting seven more days, he sends it out again. It returns in the evening with an olive bough carrying green leaves in its mouth. Noe understands from this that the waters have ceased. He waits another seven days and sends the dove again; it does not return to him.

In Noe’s 601st year, on the first day of the first month, the waters are lessened. He opens the covering of the ark, looks out, and sees the earth’s surface dried. On the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth is dried.

God commands Noe to leave the ark with his wife, sons and sons’ wives. He tells him to bring out the birds, beasts and creeping creatures so that they may go upon the earth, increase and multiply. Noe and his household go out. The living creatures, cattle and creeping creatures also leave according to their kinds.

Noe builds an altar to the Lord and offers holocausts from the clean cattle and birds. Challoner explains holocausts as whole burnt offerings: the entire victim is consumed by fire on God’s altar, with none reserved for priest or people.

The Lord smells a sweet savour and says that he will no more curse the earth for man’s sake. He states that the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from youth, and says that he will no more destroy every living soul as he has done. Challoner explains the smelling as a figurative expression for God being pleased with his servant’s sacrifices. God also says that, for all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day will not cease.

The story inside

The dove’s flights supply a sequence of observations. It first returns because it cannot rest its foot; Noe takes it back into the ark. After seven days its evening return with an olive bough gives him a reason to conclude that the waters have ceased. After another seven days it does not return. The account then gives dated observations of dry ground and a separate divine command to leave. The argument is that the observations and departure are distinct stages in the narrative. Noe’s feelings during the wait, a debate about leaving early, or proof of complete habitability are not supplied.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The waters recede in stages. God brings a wind, rain is restrained, the ark rests, and mountain tops later appear. The dated statements let the reader follow this sequence without converting the calendar into an unstated solar-year calculation (8:1–5).
2
The birds’ movements need different explanations. The dove’s purpose and Noe’s conclusion are narrated. The raven’s trips to the mountains for carcasses and return to the top of the ark belong to Challoner’s qualified explanation from the Hebrew, rather than to the verse itself (8:6–12).
3
The final promise concerns the earth’s continuing cycles. After Noe’s burnt offerings, God says that human thoughts are prone to evil from youth, but promises not to repeat the destruction as before. Seedtime and harvest, temperatures, seasons, night and day are to continue for all the days of the earth (8:20–22).

Test your recall

Why does the dove first return, what does Noe conclude from its next return, and how are the later dry-ground observations distinguished from the command to leave?

Show answer

The dove first returns because it finds nowhere to rest its feet. After seven more days, it returns with an olive branch bearing green leaves, and Noe understands that the waters have ceased upon the earth. Later he sees the ground’s surface dry; the chapter then gives a further dry-earth date. These observations come before God’s command to leave with his household and the animals.

Quotes from Scripture

Exact Scripture quotations from the Douay–Rheims Bible, revised by Bishop Richard Challoner (1749–1752), the same edition used for these chapters. Source: Project Gutenberg no. 1581.

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

Genesis 8:21 · Douay–Rheims / Challonerpg1581.txt · lines 1008–1011

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 927–941
Genesis Chapter 8 The deluge ceaseth. Noe goeth out of the ark, and offereth a sacrifice. God’s covenant to him. 8:1. And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated: 8:2. The fountains also of the deep, and the floodgates of heaven, were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 8:3. And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days.
Lines 942–948
8:4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia. 8:5. And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
Lines 949–959
8:6. And after that forty days were passed, Noe opening the window of the ark, which he had made, sent forth a raven: 8:7. Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth. Did not return.... The raven did not return into the ark; but (as it may be gathered from the Hebrew) went to and fro; sometimes going to the mountains, where it found carcasses to feed on: and other times returning, to rest upon the top of the ark.
Lines 960–976
8:8. He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth. 8:9. But she not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark. 8:10. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. 8:11. And she came to him in the evening carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth. 8:12. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.
Lines 977–984
8:13. Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried. 8:14. In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.
Lines 985–1000
8:15. And God spoke to Noe, saying: 8:16. Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee. 8:17. All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it. 8:18. So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. 8:19. And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds went out of the ark.
Lines 1001–1007
8:20. And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar. Holocausts, ... or whole burnt offerings. In which the whole victim was consumed by fire upon God’s altar, and no part was reserved for the use of priest or people.
Lines 1008–1019
8:21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. Smelled, etc.... A figurative expression, denoting that God was well pleased with the sacrifices which his servant offered. 8:22. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.