The filthy, ¹  stained city is as good as dead; the city filled with oppressors is finished! ² 

Then Noah ¹  sent out a dove ²  to see if the waters had receded ³  from the surface of the ground.

He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark.

“He will then make one of the turtledoves ¹  or young pigeons, which are within his means, ² 

When ¹  the dove returned to him in the evening, there was ²  a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, ¹  but it did not return to him this time. ² 

“‘If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering from the birds, ¹  he must present his offering from the turtledoves or from the young pigeons. ² 

The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. ¹  So their lands will certainly ²  be laid waste by the warfare of the oppressive nation ³  and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”

I will make many stumble. ¹  They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. ²  They will say, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’ ³ 

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered ¹  the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah ²  in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, ³  and brought it back into the ark. ⁴