seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 8:6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 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.
Most of the commentaries just gloss over these verses. I found this in the easy English commentary.
A raven is a fairly large black bird. It can fly for a long time before it gets tired. One raven went out and it did not come back. We believe that the first raven lived outside until its companion came out later.
Ravens eat meat from dead animals. Many animals died in the flood. So, there was plenty of food for the raven.
Noah probably waited seven days before he sent out the dove. He did wait 7 more days before he sent it out again. The writer says that in verse 10.
Unlike ravens, doves do not eat meat from dead animals. Doves need plants. So we can see that the plants had not yet grown.
Noah may have considered the 7th day in a week as special. There is some evidence for that. He sent the birds out at certain times. The interval between those times was 7 days. An olive tree has a special meaning. If something is ‘like an olive tree’, that thing is beautiful and fruitful.
It seems that this olive tree did not die during the flood. And now it was growing again.
Ravens eat meat from dead animals. Many animals died in the flood. So, there was plenty of food for the raven.
Noah probably waited seven days before he sent out the dove. He did wait 7 more days before he sent it out again. The writer says that in verse 10.
Unlike ravens, doves do not eat meat from dead animals. Doves need plants. So we can see that the plants had not yet grown.
Noah may have considered the 7th day in a week as special. There is some evidence for that. He sent the birds out at certain times. The interval between those times was 7 days. An olive tree has a special meaning. If something is ‘like an olive tree’, that thing is beautiful and fruitful.
It seems that this olive tree did not die during the flood. And now it was growing again.
