Ararat[1], and the tops of the hills began to appear. Noe perceived this with great joy, for he had been now three hundred and fifty days shut up in the ark.
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Fig. 3. Noe in the Ark with the returning dove. Early Christian painting. Catacomb of S. Domitilia, Rome.
In order to see whether the waters had subsided on the earth, he opened the window and sent forth a raven[2] which did not return. He next sent forth a dove, but she, not finding a spot whereon to rest her foot, returned to the ark. After seven days he again sent forth the dove. She came back to him, in the evening, carrying in her mouth a bough of an olive-tree[3] with green leaves (Fig. 3). Noe, therefore, understood that the waters had abated from off the face of the earth. He stayed in the ark yet other seven days, and he sent forth the dove again, which did not return[4] to him.
God then said to Noe: “Go out of the ark.” So Noe went out of the ark with his wife, his sons and their wives, together with all the living creatures which he had placed in it. Filled with gratitude[5] towards the Lord who had so wonderfully pre-
- ↑ Ararat. This was a chain of mountains in Asia, south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The highest mountain in the chain is 17,230 feet high, and is called Ararat, which, in Persian, means the “mountain of Noe”, because it was on it that the ark of Noe rested. Naturally, the waters sank slowly. When the tops of the mountains were uncovered, Noe had been 220 days in the ark, and it was a very long time after that, before the level parts of the earth were dry.
- ↑ Raven. It found quite enough food among the dead bodies floating about, and was able to settle on the mountain-tops. It had, therefore, no wish to return to the confinement of the ark.
- ↑ Olive-tree. i. e. a branch of an olive-tree, from the fruit of which sweet oil is made. Noe perceived by this that the earth, or at any rate the slopes of Mount Ararat, on which olive-trees grow, were dry.
- ↑ Did not return. She did not return, because by this time the plains were dry. Noe, however, did not leave the ark of his own accord, but waited for the command of God to whose guidance he had entirely abandoned himself.
- ↑ With gratitude. Noe was more than a year in the ark (cp. Gen. 7, 2 and 8, 14). What must he have felt when he once more trod on the earth? Whichever way he turned, there was desolation and death: no living creature to be seen, no house nor human habitation! Scattered about were the bones of those who had been drowned: the whole earth was one vast graveyard! Sorrow filled his heart when he thought of the terrible end of those who had perished; but thankfulness, inexpressible thankfulness, rose up within his soul, as he said to himself: “What would have become of me and mine, if God had not so mercifully taken care of me!”
