Genesis 8:8-9 - Exposition

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. Psalms 68:14 (its beautiful plumage); Le Psalms 5:7 ; Psalms 12:6 (its sacrificial use); Isaiah 38:14 ; Isaiah 59:11 (its plaintive notes); Psalms 55:6 (its power of flight); Matthew 10:16 (its gentleness); vide also the metaphorical usage of the term in So Matthew 1:15 ; Matthew 5:12 (beautiful eyes); So Matthew 5:2 ; Matthew 6:9 (a term of endearment). From him . I .e. from himself, from the ark; not ο ̓ πι ì χω αυ ̓ του ͂ ( 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 .