⁶After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ⁷and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark. ¹⁰Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹²And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.