The meaning of “back” is more literal when it is connected to objects. When someone takes something back or gives something back, the spiritual meaning is mostly centered on the object in question and the people performing the action.There are many instances in the Bible which describe people turning back, looking back or going back. In most cases it is a negative, sometimes devastatingly so (as with Lot’s wife, turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destructrion of Sodom). In general this represents our state when we are advancing to a new spiritual level and find ourselves wishing for the comfort and ease of the old one – going back represents a return to an earlier, inferior stage.

882. 'And he proceeded to send out the dove from the ark' means a state of receiving the goods and truths of faith. This is clear from what has been stated at verse 8 where nearly identical words appear, with the difference that there it is said 'he sent out the dove from himself', for the reason also given there, that at that time he himself was the source of every work of truth or good which he performed. That is to say, he believed that he performed it by his own power, meant by 'from himself'.