Genesis 8:7

8:7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying ¹  back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.

Genesis 8:12

8:12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, ²  but it did not return to him this time. ³ 

Genesis 9:18

The Curse of Canaan

9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.) ⁴ 

Genesis 34:26

34:26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left.

Genesis 45:25

45:25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. ⁵ 

[8:7]  ¹ tn Heb “and it went out, going out and returning.” The Hebrew verb יָצָא (yatsa’), translated here “flying,” is modified by two infinitives absolute indicating that the raven went back and forth.

[8:12]  ² tn The word “again” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:12]  ³ tn Heb “it did not again return to him still.” For a study of this section of the flood narrative, see W. O. E. Oesterley, “The Dove with the Olive Leaf (Gen VIII 8–11),” ExpTim 18 (1906/07): 377-78.

[9:18]  ³ sn The concluding disjunctive clause is parenthetical. It anticipates the following story, which explains that the Canaanites, Ham’s descendants through Canaan, were cursed because they shared the same moral abandonment that their ancestor displayed. See A. van Selms, “The Canaanites in the Book of Genesis,” OTS 12 (1958): 182-213.

[45:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they entered the land of Canaan to their father.”