Genesis Chapter 8 verse 8 Holy Bible
And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
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And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth;
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And he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had become low on the ground.
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Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
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Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
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He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the surface of the ground,
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And he sendeth forth the dove from him to see whether the waters have been lightened from off the face of the ground,
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 8, 9. - Also he sent forth - per. 10 seems to Warrant the inference that this was after an interval of seven days (Baumgarten, Knobel, Keil, Lange) - a dove. Literally, the dove. The Scriptural references to the dove are very numerous: cf. Psalm 68:14 (its beautiful plumage); Leviticus 5:7; Leviticus 12:6 (its sacrificial use); Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 59:11 (its plaintive notes); Psalm 55:6 (its power of flight); Matthew 10:16 (its gentleness); vide also the metaphorical usage of the term in Song of Solomon 1:15; Song of Solomon 5:12 (beautiful eyes); Song of Solomon 5:2; Song of Solomon 6:9 (a term of endearment). From him. I.e. from himself, from the ark; not ὀπίχω αὐτοῦ (LXX.), post eum (Vulgate); i.e. after the raven. Lange thinks the expression indicates that the gentle creature had to be driven from its shelter out upon the wide waste of water. To see if the waters were abated - literally, lightened, i.e. decreased (per. 11) - from off the face of the ground; but the dove found no rest for the solo of her foot. The earth being not yet dry, but wet and muddy, and doves delighting to settle only on such places as are dry and clean; or the mountain tops, though visible, being either too distant or too high, and doves delighting in valleys and level plains, whence they are called doves of the valleys (Ezekiel 7:16). And she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were upon (literally, waters upon; a much more graphic statement than appears in the A.V.) the face of the whole earth: then (literally, and) he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in (literally, caused her to come in) unto him into the ark.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8, 9) He sent forth a dove . . . --From the nature of its food, the raven had not brought back to Noah any special information; but as the dove feeds on vegetable products, he hopes that he shall learn by her means what is the state of "the ground," the low-lying adamah. But as this species of bird does not fly far from its home, except when assembled in vast numbers, it quickly returned, finding water all around. This proves that the ark had not settled upon a lofty eminence; for as it had been already aground 120 days, and as within another fortnight the waters had "abated from off the earth," it could only have been in some valley or plain among the mountains of Ararat that the waters were thus "on the face of the whole earth," the larger word, yet which certainly does not mean here the whole world, but only a very small region in the immediate neighbourhood of the ark. For, supposing that the raven was sent out one week before the dove, forty-seven days (see Genesis 8:6) would have elapsed since Noah beheld the glorious panorama of mountain heights all around, and seven days afterwards the dove brought him a freshplucked olive-leaf. Yet, literally, the words are, for waters were upon the face of the whole earth. Plainly these large terms in the language of the Bible are to be limited in their interpretation by the general tenor of its narratives. For a similar conclusive instance, comp. Exodus 9:6 with Exodus 9:19-20.
