Passage

Genesis 8.11

Book: Genesis · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Verse

ASV (ASV)

"And the dove came in to him at eventide;"

"and, lo, in her mouth an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." (Genesis 8:11, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"The dove came back to him at evening,"

"and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth." (Genesis 8:11, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"And the dove came in to him in the evening;"

"and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." (Genesis 8:11, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"and the dove cometh in unto him at even-time,"

"and lo, an olive leaf torn off in her mouth; and Noah knoweth that the waters have been lightened from off the earth." (Genesis 8:11, YLT)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"9. but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark. 10. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;"

"11. and the dove came in to him at eventide; and, lo, in her mouth an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth."

"12. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she returned not again unto him any more. 13. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dried." (Genesis 8:9-13, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"9. but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. 10. He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship."

"11. The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth."

"12. He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him anymore. 13. In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried." (Genesis 8:9-13, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"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. ^{pulled: Heb. caused her to come} 10. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;"

"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."

"12. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. 13. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry." (Genesis 8:9-13, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"9. and the dove hath not found rest for the sole of her foot, and she turneth back unto him, unto the ark, for waters [are] on the face of all the earth, and he putteth out his hand, and taketh her, and bringeth her in unto him, unto the ark. 10. And he stayeth yet other seven days, and addeth to send forth the dove from the ark;"

"11. and the dove cometh in unto him at even-time, and lo, an olive leaf torn off in her mouth; and Noah knoweth that the waters have been lightened from off the earth."

"12. And he stayeth yet other seven days, and sendeth forth the dove, and it added not to turn back unto him any more. 13. And it cometh to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], in the first of the month, the waters have been dried from off the earth; and Noah turneth aside the covering of the ark, and looketh, and lo, the face of the ground hath been dried." (Genesis 8:9-13, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Mosaic narrator (traditionally) / Genesis-tradition narrator
Audience: the covenant community of Israel
Location: the ark, resting on the mountains of Ararat (Gen 8:4)
Time period: prediluvian-postdiluvian transition; the events Genesis ascribes to Noah's lifetime
Narrative context: the second of three dove-flights Noah dispatches to test whether the floodwaters have receded enough for re-emergence. The raven of v. 7 had been the first scout (it found no return-point because it could feed on carrion); the first dove-flight (vv. 8-9) returns to the ark because the waters still cover the earth; this second dove-flight (vv. 10-11) returns with the freshly-plucked olive leaf, the sign that vegetation has re-emerged and dry ground is reappearing; the third dove-flight (v. 12) does not return at all, the dove has found a permanent home, signaling full habitability.

Theological reading

Genesis 8:11 establishes one of the most-load-bearing biblical symbol-images, the olive leaf (or olive branch) in the dove's mouth as the sign of God's covenant peace after judgment. The image carries forward through the OT and NT canon and into general post-biblical culture (the modern "olive branch" idiom for offering peace traces directly to this verse).

The symbol-cluster

Dove: peace, gentleness, divine presence (the Spirit descending at Jesus's baptism, Matthew 3.16-17 / Mark 1:10 / Luke 3:22 / John 1:32). The Genesis 8 dove prefigures the Spirit-dove of the Gospels; both descend at moments of covenantal transition (the Noachic covenant after the flood; the new covenant inaugurated at Jesus's baptism).
Olive leaf / olive branch: peace, anointing, blessing, endurance, the post-judgment renewal of creation. Olive oil is the OT material for anointing kings (1 Sam 16:13), priests (Ex 30:22-33), and the sick (Jas 5:14); the olive tree itself is one of the most-cited covenant images (Deut 8:8, the seven species; Ps 52:8, the flourishing olive in the house of God; Ps 128:3, children as olive shoots; Jer 11:16, Israel as green olive tree; Hos 14:6, the renewed Israel as olive tree; Rom 11, the covenant community as olive tree with grafted-in branches; Zech 4, the two anointed olive-tree witnesses).
Plucked: the olive leaf is freshly plucked (Hebrew taraf, "torn off", YLT preserves this literal force). The tree is alive and growing; the leaf is fresh and recent. The image is not merely "vegetation exists" but "creation is restored to fruitfulness."
Evening: the dove returns at evening (Hebrew eit erev); the Genesis 1 day-pattern is "evening and morning, the first day"; the evening-return signals the close of a day of judgment and the beginning of a new creative day.

Covenantal-theological deployment

The passage is the OT prototype of post-judgment renewal-of-creation. The flood is the unmaking of creation (Gen 7 reverses Gen 1's separations: the waters above and below break their bounds and reunify, undoing day-2 / day-3); the post-flood narrative is the re-creation. The dove + olive leaf signals that the de-creation has ended and re-creation has begun. This is the structural anchor for the NT's "new creation" eschatology (2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:1), every NT new-creation image draws on the Noachic post-flood pattern.

Apologetic deployment

"God in the OT is cruel; only the NT shows mercy", defeated by Genesis 8 itself. The flood narrative ends with the dove and the olive leaf, with the rainbow covenant (Gen 9:8-17), with the divine commitment that "I will never again curse the ground because of man" (Gen 8:21). The OT's judgment is time-bounded and ends in covenant peace; this is the same God the NT proclaims.
"The flood is a primitive myth", the Noachic narrative is structured to make precisely the opposite point: it is the OT's foundational anti-myth, demonstrating that judgment is real, just, and ends in restoration. The image-cluster is far more sophisticated than primitive-flood-myths in surrounding ANE literature (Gilgamesh's tablet 11; Atrahasis), which lack the moral-judgment frame and the restoration-with-covenant ending. The Noachic narrative is canonically positioned as the second-creation account, structurally paralleling Genesis 1 in reverse-then-forward shape.
Olive branch as "I come in peace", every modern "olive branch" diplomatic gesture is downstream of this verse. Even radically secular cultures retain the symbol; the symbol's persistence is itself a witness to the biblical text's cultural depth. The OT's first peace-symbol is not a treaty or a flag; it is a leaf in a bird's mouth, given by God to a remnant family preserved through judgment.

Canonical-theological connections

Genesis 1:1-2:3, creation; Genesis 8 is structured as re-creation
Genesis 9:8-17, the rainbow-covenant after the dove-and-olive-leaf
Genesis 6:8, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord", the basis for the preservation of the remnant
Matthew 3:16-17 and parallels, the Spirit descending as a dove at Jesus's baptism, explicit echo of Gen 8 dove
Romans 11, the covenant community as olive tree; the grafted-in branches
Psalm 52:8, "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God"
Zechariah 4:2-3, 11-14, the two olive trees flanking the lampstand, the two anointed witnesses
Hebrews 11:7, Noah's faith in the preservation-through-judgment pattern
1 Peter 3:20-21, the flood as type of baptism, preservation-through-water
2 Peter 2:5, Noah as "preacher of righteousness" before the flood
Revelation 21:1, the new heaven and new earth, re-creation as eschatological hope

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.