Noah waited seven days before sending the dove out again after its previous flight.
Genesis 8:10 says Noah waited another seven days and then sent the dove from the Ark a second time. The dove returned that evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf. Genesis 8:12 later says Noah waited another seven days before sending the dove out a third time, after which it did not return.
The repeated seven-day intervals are part of the narrative’s careful sequence of tests. The first dove flight ended with the bird returning because it found nowhere to rest. The second produced the olive leaf, and the third gave Noah evidence that the bird could remain outside.
This detail is distinct from the forty days of rain and from the 150 days during which the waters prevailed. Those numbers describe different stages of the Flood chronology. The seven-day waits concern Noah’s actions after the waters had begun to recede.