Genesis 7: The Flood

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.” And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. (BSB)

Says The Lord tells Noah to go into the ark, he and all his family, because He has found him righteous in this generation (7:1). The Hebrew is בֹּא־אַתָּה וְכָל־בֵּיתְךָ אֶל־הַתֵּבָה, come, you and all your house, into the ark, and כִּי־אֹתְךָ רָאִיתִי צַדִּיק לְפָנַי בַּדּוֹר הַזֶּה, for you I have seen righteous before me in this generation. 6:9 used the adjective with in his generations, plural; here God says it, with the singular this generation. Swete 7:1 has Κύριος ὁ θεός for the Lord, and σὲ ἴδον δίκαιον ἐναντίον μου ἐν τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ. See the Hebrew and Greek notes, and the note on 6:9.

Implies The command rests on the righteousness God has seen in Noah in this generation. That is of a piece with 6:8–9, already treated in the notes on Genesis 6, and is not taken up again at length.

Uncertain Whether this generation means the people of Noah’s time, or the span of his life, is open, and no lean is taken. Ground for the first: God speaks of finding Noah righteous in contrast to the generation then living, as 6:5–12 has already described that generation, and those notes are pointed to rather than restated. Objection: generation can also name a man’s lifetime, and 6:9 used the plural generations. Ground for the second: the singular here could name the period of Noah’s life. Objection: the contrast in 7:1 is with those among whom he is found righteous.

Says Of every clean animal Noah is to take שִׁבְעָה שִׁבְעָה, seven seven, a male and its mate, and of every unclean animal two, a male and its mate; of the birds of the air, seven seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth (7:2–3). The BSB has seven pairs; its footnote gives by sevens, also in verse 3. Swete has ἑπτὰ ἑπτὰ ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ, and at 7:3 adds clean to the birds and a clause on the birds not clean, two by two, which the Hebrew has not. The distinction of clean and not clean is named here, before the laws of Leviticus 11, and is not explained away. See the Hebrew and Greek notes, and the note on the sevens.

Implies The doubled numeral is distributive, as two two later in the chapter is two by two: by sevens. The grammar gives a grouping; it does not give the size of each group.

Uncertain What a group of seven is, is open, and no lean is taken. (1) Seven animals: ground, the numeral counts heads, as two does before a man and his wife; objection, seven does not divide into pairs. (2) Seven pairs, as the BSB: ground, a man and his wife and male and female follow the numeral; objection, the same words follow two, one pair. Early readings, including a count of seven animals with one for sacrifice, are set out in the historical note. How the sevens stand beside the pairs of 6:19–20 is taken up with the entry in 7:8–9.

Says In yet seven days the Lord will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing He has made (7:4). The verb is וּמָחִיתִי, I will wipe out, the verb of 6:7; the object is כָּל־הַיְקוּם, all that exists. Swete has ἐγὼ ἐπάγω ὑετὸν and ἐξαλείψω πᾶν τὸ ἀνάστεμα. “And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him” (7:5, BSB). Swete 7:5 again has Κύριος ὁ θεός. The formula is that of 6:22, now with the Lord named. “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family” (Heb 11:7, BSB). See the Hebrew note and the notes on Genesis 6.

Says The obedience of 7:5 is told before the entry of 7:7 and of 7:13. Swete 7:1 and 7:5 both have Κύριος ὁ θεός where the Masoretic Text has the Lord alone. The seven days of 7:4 are a set term before the rain; they are taken up again at 7:10, when the waters come. The wiping out of every living thing uses the verb of 6:7 (see the notes on Genesis 6), and 7:23 tells it as done.

The persons of the chapter are treated in the note on persons and history.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.1-Gen.7.5.command-and-obedience

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.1-Gen.7.24.persons-and-history

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.2-Gen.7.16.sevens-pairs-and-entry

Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons— they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. (BSB)

Says “Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth” (7:6, BSB). Noah, his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives enter the ark from before the waters of the flood (7:7). The clean and the not clean, the birds, and all that creeps, come שְׁנַיִם שְׁנַיִם, two two, male and female, as God commanded Noah (7:8–9). That is the wording of 6:19–20, pointed to and not restated at length. “And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth” (7:10, BSB): the seven days of 7:4. Swete has δύο δύο εἰσῆλθον and μετὰ τὰς ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας. Verses 7:8–9 are one sentence in the English; 7:9 begins with came. The noun מַבּוּל is used at 7:6, 7 and 10, the same word as in 6:17, and is treated in the Hebrew note on that stretch, and in the notes on Genesis 6, which are pointed to rather than restated. See the Hebrew note and the notes on Genesis 6.

Uncertain How the sevens of 7:2–3 stand beside the pairs of 7:9 and 7:15, and beside 6:19–20, is open, and no lean is taken. (1) A fuller command for the clean animals within the first command of two of all: ground, 7:2–3 adds the sevens for the clean, and 7:8–9 can still speak of all of them coming two by two. Objection: the two notices read as complete in themselves. (2) Two tellings set together: ground, the sevens and the pairs, and the names for God, fall with other retellings in the chapter. Objection: both notices can be read as one sequence, the command first and the coming after. Early readings are set out in the historical note. The question is not re-argued as a source decision here.

Says “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (7:11, BSB). The Hebrew is בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בְּשִׁבְעָה־עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month. Swete prints τοῦ δευτέρου μηνός, ἑβδόμῃ καὶ εἰκάδι τοῦ μηνός, the twenty-seventh of the month. Swete’s notes give no other day; they note an erasure of five or six letters in Alexandrinus after the opening in the, and one manuscript that reads the one and six hundredth year and lacks on this day. The Samaritan text has the seventeenth, as the Masoretic Text does; see the textual note. Then נִבְקְעוּ כָּל־מַעְיְנֹת תְּהוֹם רַבָּה, split open were all the springs of the great deep, and וַאֲרֻבֹּת הַשָּׁמַיִם נִפְתָּחוּ, and the windows of the heavens were opened. Swete has αἱ πηγαὶ τῆς ἀβύσσου, with no word for great, and οἱ καταράκται τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. “And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights” (7:12, BSB). The opening of the springs and of the windows is the start of the flood as 7:11 tells it; 7:12 then names the rain of forty days and forty nights, already announced in 7:4. At 7:17 the Masoretic Text will have forty days only, and Swete will add the nights, as the note on the waters sets out. See the textual note and the Greek note.

Implies The noun for the deep is that of Genesis 1:2, and 8:2 closes the same springs of the deep and the same windows of the heavens.

Uncertain Whether the chapter presents the flood as an undoing of the separation of the waters in Genesis 1:6–8 is open, and no lean is taken. Ground: the springs of the deep below and the windows of the heavens above are opened together in 7:11. Objection: the chapter does not use the word for the expanse of 1:6–8.

Uncertain Which day in 7:11 is original is open, and no lean is taken. (1) The seventeenth: ground, the Hebrew text, with the same day number at 8:4, when the ark comes to rest. Objection: a copyist could have carried the number of 8:4 back to 7:11. (2) The twenty-seventh: ground, it is the day of 8:14, when the earth is dry, so that the waters would leave the earth on the day number on which they came. Objection: a translator or copyist could have carried the number of 8:14 back to 7:11. The Greek alone does not settle it. How the forty days of rain (7:4, 12, 17) stand beside the hundred and fifty days on which the waters prevail (7:24; 8:3), and on what reckoning of months, is likewise open. Readings include one schematic count, a calendar of 360 days or of lunar months set to the sun, and reckonings laid one upon another; the words do not settle among them. Early readings of the date and of the count of days are set out in the historical note.

Says On that very day — בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה — Noah enters the ark, with Shem, Ham and Japheth, his wife, and the three wives of his sons, and every kind, two by two of all flesh in which is the breath of life, as God commanded him (7:13–16). The phrase on that very day dates the entry to the day the springs were split open. 7:13 continues into 7:14 in the English. The sons are named, Shem, Ham and Japheth, as in 5:32 and 6:10; those earlier notes are pointed to rather than restated. The breath of life in 7:15 is taken up again at 7:22. Then וַיִּסְגֹּר יְהוָה בַּעֲדוֹ, and the Lord shut behind him. The BSB has, “Then the Lord shut him in” (7:16, BSB). Swete has ἔκλεισεν Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τὴν κιβωτὸν ἔξωθεν αὐτοῦ, the Lord God shut the ark from outside him. The chapter names יְהוָה in 7:1, 5 and 16, and אֱלֹהִים in 7:9 and 16; 7:16 has both. That both names stand in 7:16 is a fact of the wording: the coming is as God commanded, and the Lord shuts behind him. 7:13–16 tells again the entry of 7:7–9, now dated. See the Hebrew and Greek notes.

Uncertain How the retelling and the two names are to be read is open, and no lean is taken. (1) A resumption: ground, it adds the date and the sons’ names and carries the account to the shut door. Objection: it repeats the lists nearly word for word. (2) Two tellings set together, each with its own name for God: ground, the names fall with other doublets, such as the sevens and the pairs. Objection: 7:16 joins both names in one verse. The question is described here and is not re-argued as a source decision.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.11-Gen.7.24.flood-chronology

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.2-Gen.7.16.sevens-pairs-and-entry

Minor variants

Says The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. For 7:1–24 the English verse numbers agree with the Hebrew and with Swete. The date at 7:11 is the chief difference: the Masoretic Text has the seventeenth day of the second month; Swete has the twenty-seventh. That difference is treated in the textual note and is not repeated as a table here. The Greek is otherwise fuller at a number of points, set out in the note on minor variants: at 7:3 it adds clean to the birds and a clause on the birds not clean; at 7:8 it names the birds twice; at 7:16 it adds the ark; at 7:17 it has forty days and forty nights, where the Masoretic Text has days only. It has male and female for a man and his wife at 7:2, no great with the deep at 7:11, and the Lord God where the Masoretic Text has the Lord at 7:1, 5 and 16. At 7:23 the BSB has the passive was destroyed where the form is parsed as and he wiped out, and Swete has the active ἐξήλειψεν. Other notes in Swete, in plain words, include omissions at 7:2 in one manuscript or another, of water added at 7:6 in one, a twelve-letter erasure at the end of 7:7 in Alexandrinus, Lord for God at 7:9 in one, Lord or Lord God at 7:16, and Noah’s wife lacking in one at 7:13, the waves added at 7:17 in one, five and ten at 7:20 in one, and fifty and a hundred days at 7:24 in two. See the textual note and the Greek notes.

Uncertain Whether the Greek differences reflect other Hebrew or the translator is open. No lean is taken here, including on which day in 7:11 is original.

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. (BSB)

Says “For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth” (7:17, BSB). At 7:17 the Masoretic Text has forty days only; Swete adds καὶ τεσσεράκοντα νύκτας, and forty nights. The waters prevail, and the ark goes on the face of the waters (7:18). “Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered” (7:19, BSB). The Hebrew is גָּבְרוּ מְאֹד מְאֹד, prevailed very, very much, and וַיְכֻסּוּ כָּל־הֶהָרִים הַגְּבֹהִים אֲשֶׁר־תַּחַת כָּל־הַשָּׁמָיִם, and all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. Then 7:20: חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה מִלְמַעְלָה גָּבְרוּ הַמָּיִם, fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed, וַיְכֻסּוּ הֶהָרִים, and the mountains were covered. The BSB has the waters covering the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. Swete has δέκα πέντε πήχεις ἐπάνω ὑψώθη τὸ ὕδωρ, the water rose fifteen cubits above. The feet and meters of the BSB’s footnote are a conversion, not the Hebrew. See the Hebrew and Greek notes.

Implies The verb גבר is one of strength, not height. The waters prevail in 7:18, 19, 20 and 24; their rising is told by other verbs in 7:17, increased, lifted, rose. The same verb of prevailing is used of the hundred and fifty days in 7:24, so that the covering of the mountains and the length of the waters are told in the same terms of strength. Genesis 8:3 later uses the same figure for the going down of the waters, and is pointed to rather than treated here.

Uncertain What the fifteen cubits measure is open, and no lean is taken. (1) The depth of water over the highest mountains: ground, the clause stands between the two statements that the mountains were covered, in 7:19 and at the end of 7:20. Objection: it does not name the mountains as its base. (2) A depth tied to the ark, half the thirty cubits of its height in 6:15: ground, the water it would need to float clear of the bottoms. Objection: 7:20 does not name the ark. Neither reading settles how far the flood reached. Early readings of the fifteen cubits are set out in the historical note.

Uncertain How far the flood reached is open, and no lean is taken, in agreement with the notes on Genesis 6. (1) A flood of the whole earth. Ground: the chapter’s own language, all flesh, all the high mountains under all the heavens, all mankind, and the death of all that had the breath of life on the dry ground. Objection: all and the earth can be used of a land and its people. (2) A flood of the then-known world, or of a region. Ground: that narrower use of the same words. Objection: the chapter repeats its widest terms, and 7:19 places all the high mountains under all the heavens. Geology is not imported here. The New Testament speaks of the flood as a past judgment, and those texts state the New Testament’s own usage. They are not themselves a verdict on the geographic extent.

Babylonian accounts of a set time, a closed door, a storm, and the death of those outside are treated in the historical note, from the pages of Rogers and King cited there, including the Eleventh Tablet, another recension in which Atra-khasis is told to close the door of the ship, Berossus, and a Sumerian text in King. They differ from Genesis 7 on who shuts the door — here the Lord — and on the length of the storm. No dependence is claimed in either direction, and that background does not fix the meaning of Genesis 7. See the historical note, and the Genesis 6 note on the warning and the ship.

Says All flesh expires: birds, beasts, wild animals, the swarming thing that swarms, and all mankind (7:21). Of all that was on the dry ground, everything that had in its nostrils נִשְׁמַת־רוּחַ חַיִּים, the breath of the spirit of life, died (7:22): the nouns of 2:7, with spirit between them. They are wiped out from the earth, and only Noah is left, and those with him in the ark (7:23). The verb of 7:4 is here told as done. The remnant is eight persons, as 1 Peter 3:20 and 2 Peter 2:5 state. See the Hebrew xref on 2:7. At 7:23 the BSB has the passive was destroyed where the form is parsed as and he wiped out; that English wording is set out in the textual note, and is not treated as a different event from the wipe of 7:4. “And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days” (7:24, BSB). “In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water” (1 Pet 3:20, BSB). 2 Peter 3:6 states that the world of that time perished in the flood. See the Hebrew note, and the note on 2:7.

Genesis 8 is pointed to for the going down of the waters, and is not treated here.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.17-Gen.7.24.flood-extent

New Testament reading

Says The New Testament speaks of Noah and the flood as past. “For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark” (Matt 24:38, BSB). “And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:39, BSB). Those verses set the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood that swept the rest away, beside the coming of the Son of Man. They do not themselves treat the sevens, the date in 7:11, or how far the waters reached. Luke 17:26 states that as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. Luke 17:26–27 then speaks in the same way: people were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark, and “Then the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:27, BSB). “In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water” (1 Pet 3:20, BSB). 2 Peter 2:5 speaks of Noah as a preacher of righteousness, preserved among the eight when the flood was brought on the ungodly. 2 Peter 3:5–7 sets the forming of the earth by God’s word beside the flood: the world of that time perished in the flood, and by that same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire. Those verses place the flood beside the forming of the heavens and the earth, and beside the present heavens and earth reserved for fire. The three are set in one argument; the verses do not themselves decide how far the waters of Genesis 7 reached, or which day in 7:11 is original. “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Heb 11:7, BSB). The verse treats the building of the ark and the saving of the family as an act of faith, and is pointed to also from the notes on Genesis 6. Those texts state the New Testament’s own use of Noah and the flood. They treat Noah as a real person. They do not settle how far the waters reached, or how the forty and the hundred and fifty days are to be reckoned.

Says 1 Peter 3:21 then states that this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is how the text frames the correspondence. The correspondence is between the water through which eight souls were saved and the baptism that now saves, as the verse itself states it. No further system is built from it here. The Greek forms, including ἀντίτυπον and the apparatus at 1 Peter 3:20–21, Matthew 24:38–39, Luke 17:26–27 and 2 Peter 3:6–7, are set out in the Greek note. Form agreement of κατακλυσμός and κιβωτός with Swete 7:7 and 7:17 is a fact of wording, not a claim about which text a writer used.

Uncertain No sacramental or eschatological-system lean is taken on 1 Peter 3:21. No lean is taken on geographic extent or on the chronology. No application is drawn.

Note ID: note.exegetical.Gen.7.1-Gen.7.24.new-testament-reading