6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he'd made in the ark, 7 and sent a raven out. It flew back and forth until the water on the earth had dried up. 8 Then he sent a dove out to see if the waters had gone down enough to expose dry ground. 9 But the dove couldn't find anywhere to land. So it came back to Noah in the ark because water was still covering the whole earth. He reached out his hand, picked up the dove, and took it back into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again. 11 When it came back to him in the evening it had a freshly-picked olive leaf in its beak, so Noah knew the floodwaters were mainly gone from the earth. 12 Again he waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but this time it didn't return to him.