Genesis 8:11-13

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹¹And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a newly sprouted and freshly plucked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the land.

¹²Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, but she did not return to him any more.

¹³In the year 601 [of Noah’s life], on the first day of the first month, the waters were drying up from the land. And Noah ^[a]removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was drying.

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Footnotes

Genesis 8:13 Possibly overhanging eaves which prevented the rain from coming through the perforated window space had also prevented Noah from seeing the mountaintops. It is well to remember that the Architect of Noah’s ark was the omniscient Scientist Whose “ways are past finding out,” though men have learned much from them through the centuries. Nothing was lacking in Noah’s ark to keep it from being suited for all that was required of it. The comfortable, light, well-ventilated, watertight, perfectly planned boat, large enough to accommodate all the original land animals intelligently and to permit the four human couples to live separately and in peace, needs no apology today. “In 1609 at Hoorn, in Holland, the Netherlandish Mennonite, P. Jansen, produced a vessel after the pattern of the ark, only smaller, whereby he proved it was well adapted for floating, and would carry a cargo greater by one-third than any other form of like cubical content” (J.P. Lange, A Commentary). It revolutionized shipbuilding. By 1900 every large vessel on the high seas was definitely inclined toward the proportions of Noah’s ark (as verified by “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping,” The World Almanac). Later, ships were built longer for speed, a matter of no concern to Noah.