Genesis 8:1-11
Ge 8:1
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all
the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over
the earth, and the waters asswaged;
The fact that God remembered Noah does not mean that he
had a lapse in memory but he was acting in faithful love according to the
covenant that he made with Noah and that his attention was now on Noah.
God also mentions the animals that were in the ark with him.
Then God created a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged
which means that the waters were now abated or subsiding.
Ge 8:2
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven
were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
Then the rain from the heavens ceased and also the water
coming up from inside the earth also stopped.
The forty days and nights of rain were now over.
Ge 8:3
And the waters returned from off the earth continually:
and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Some of the water was dried up by the wind but some of it
returned to its assigned places.
There was a scouring effect of the waters moving to and fro.
Some believe the Grand Canyon was formed by a powerful cutting action of
rapid flowing water. Then the next
phase was the ebbing of the water and after the full 150 days the water was
abated or stopped. The water level
began to gradually fall.
Ge 8:4
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Exactly five full months after the deluge began, the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Now it does not give a specific mountain as you notice the word
“mountains” is plural. It is
believed that the ark settled in Armenia which is east of Turkey or eastern
Turkey itself.
Ge 8:5
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth
month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the
tops of the mountains seen.
Then the waters decreased gradually until the tenth month
when the tops of the mountains could be seen.
Probably Mount Everest was the first to show its peak and then the rest
followed from around the world whether it be the Alps, Rockies, etc.
This was eight months after the flood began.
This shows how much water there was on the earth when it took eight
months just to see the mountain tops.
Ge 8:6
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah
opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Then after forty days from the from the appearance of the
mountain tops, Noah had opened the window of the ark which he made according to
God’s plans. This would have been
in the eleventh month which is Ab which is the ecclesiastical year.
Ge 8:7
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro,
until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
The first bird that he sent out was a raven which is a
scavenger bird but it never returned because it probably flew around until it
found a place to perch when the waters abated.
It may have found a place on one of the mountain tops but it never again
entered the ark.
Ge 8:8
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters
were abated from off the face of the ground;
Noah also dispatched a dove to see whether the waters
were abated or terminated on the face of the earth.
The dove has a tendency to fly lower and longer than the raven.
The dove was sent out seven days after the raven.
Ge 8:9
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and
she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of
the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in
unto him into the ark.
The dove found no place for rest so she returned to the
ark because doves are faithful to their mate.
Doves eat seeds which they pick up from the ground and since no ground
was yet visible, the dove returned to the ark.
The waters were still on the face of the earth although the mountain tops
were visible, trees do not grow on the top of high mountains, they normally grow
in the valley or on small hills.
None of the lower lands were visible yet.
So Noah reached out when the dove returned and brought her inside.
At that time he knew that it was still too early to find a place to
disembark.
Ge 8:10
And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent
forth the dove out of the ark;
Then Noah waited another seven days and sent out the dove
again on a mission to see whether it was safe to disembark yet.
It was probably the same dove so it would not have a problem knowing
where it was dispatched from and could return easily.
Ge 8:11
And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in
her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were
abated from off the earth.