And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
After the dove's first return, Noah waited seven days longer and then sent the dove out from the ark a second time. Before this second sending, the raven going to and fro had not given him the information he desired about the waters. The dove first sent out had returned because it found no rest or footing place.
At this time Noah and his family of eight were anxiously watching the waters decrease and longing to go forth upon the earth after their long confinement in the ark. On this second sending the dove came back in the evening with an olive leaf in its mouth, giving proof that the floodwaters had fallen and decreased. The dove's return with the olive leaf brought great joy and rejoicing to Noah's family. Despite this proof, Noah still waited patiently inside the ark for God's specific direction to depart, because he had entered at God's command.
The verse belongs to the divinely inspired account of Noah and the Flood, which Christ affirms as literal history. Noah's time prefigures the conditions that will exist in the age before Christ's return. The Flood account to which the verse belongs stands as an example of God's judgment on human sin, warning that widespread sin will again bring certain punishment as the end approaches. In the surrounding narrative, the world was destroyed by a flood because of its iniquity, and God used the massive boat of the ark to save all who would heed the warning and turn from unrighteousness; all were tested by the truth Noah preached, those who believed were saved, but only eight persons were saved.
After the dove's first return, Noah waited seven days longer and then sent the dove out from the ark a second time. Before this second sending, the raven going to and fro had not given him the information he desired about the waters. The dove first sent out had returned because it found no rest or footing place.
At this time Noah and his family of eight were anxiously watching the waters decrease and longing to go forth upon the earth after their long confinement in the ark. On this second sending the dove came back in the evening with an olive leaf in its mouth, giving proof that the floodwaters had fallen and decreased. The dove's return with the olive leaf brought great joy and rejoicing to Noah's family. Despite this proof, Noah still waited patiently inside the ark for God's specific direction to depart, because he had entered at God's command.
The verse belongs to the divinely inspired account of Noah and the Flood, which Christ affirms as literal history. Noah's time prefigures the conditions that will exist in the age before Christ's return. The Flood account to which the verse belongs stands as an example of God's judgment on human sin, warning that widespread sin will again bring certain punishment as the end approaches. In the surrounding narrative, the world was destroyed by a flood because of its iniquity, and God used the massive boat of the ark to save all who would heed the warning and turn from unrighteousness; all were tested by the truth Noah preached, those who believed were saved, but only eight persons were saved.