and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 7. Did not return. The negotiation Not, is not to be found in any Hebrew copy now extant; though it is still retained by the Septuagint, and several Latin manuscripts, according to the testimony of Liranus. If we add here, therefore, to the Hebrew text, we must translate it with S. Jerom, thus; It went forth, going and returning, (Egredicbatur exiens et revertens,) sometimes repairing to the mountains, where it found carcasses to feed on, and at other times returning not unto the ark, but to rest upon the top of it. E. Challoner.—Or receded farther from it; as the Hebrew may be explained, agreeably to the Vulgate, Septuagint Syr. and so forth which admit the negation. Calmet.—Till, as long as the waters covered the earth, not that it returned to the ark afterwards. Menochius.