In Genesis, how long did Noah wait between sending the dove flights?

In Genesis, Noah waited seven days between the dove flights.

Genesis 8:10 says Noah waited seven more days before sending the dove a second time, and Genesis 8:12 repeats the seven-day interval before the third flight. The second flight produced the olive leaf, while the third showed that the dove no longer needed to return to the Ark.

This interval is easy to confuse with other numbers in the Flood narrative. Rain falls for 40 days and nights, the waters prevail for 150 days, and Noah’s chronology includes specific months and days. The seven-day waiting pattern belongs specifically to the dove test. The passage uses the repeated interval to structure Noah’s careful observation of the receding waters rather than presenting the bird releases as one continuous event.