Genesis 7
7
1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation.#tn Heb “for you I see [as] godly before me in this generation.” The direct object (“you”) is placed first in the clause to give it prominence. The verb “to see” here signifies God’s evaluative discernment. 2 You must take with you seven#tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV). of every kind of clean animal,#sn For a study of the Levitical terminology of “clean” and “unclean,” see L. E. Toombs, IDB 1:643. the male and its mate,#tn Heb “a male and his female” (also a second time at the end of this verse). The terms used here for male and female animals (אִישׁ, ’ish) and אִשָּׁה, ’ishah) normally refer to humans. two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate, 3 and also seven#tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV). of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female,#tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah). to preserve their offspring#tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.” on the face of the earth. 4 For in seven days#tn Heb “for seven days yet,” meaning “after [or “in”] seven days.” I will cause it to rain#tn The Hiphil participle מַמְטִיר (mamtir, “cause to rain”) here expresses the certainty of the act in the imminent future. on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”
5 And Noah did all#tn Heb “according to all.” that the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah#tn Heb “Now Noah was.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate nominative after implied “to be” verb) provides background information. The age of Noah receives prominence. was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed#tn Heb “and the flood was water upon.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial/temporal in relation to the preceding clause. The verb הָיָה (hayah) here carries the nuance “to come” (BDB 225 s.v. הָיָה). In this context the phrase “come upon” means “to engulf.” the earth. 7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because#tn The preposition מִן (min) is causal here, explaining why Noah and his family entered the ark. of the floodwaters. 8 Pairs#tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.” of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground, 9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah,#tn The Hebrew text of vv. 8-9a reads, “From the clean animal[s] and from the animal[s] which are not clean and from the bird[s] and everything that creeps on the ground, two two they came to Noah to the ark, male and female.” just as God had commanded him.#tn Heb “Noah”; the pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons. 10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth.#tn Heb “came upon.”
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep#tn The Hebrew term תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean – especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 1:2).sn The watery deep. The same Hebrew term used to describe the watery deep in Gen 1:2 (תְּהוֹם, tihom) appears here. The text seems to picture here subterranean waters coming from under the earth and contributing to the rapid rise of water. The significance seems to be, among other things, that in this judgment God was returning the world to its earlier condition of being enveloped with water – a judgment involving the reversal of creation. On Gen 7:11 see G. F. Hasel, “The Fountains of the Great Deep,” Origins 1 (1974): 67-72; idem, “The Biblical View of the Extent of the Flood,” Origins 2 (1975): 77-95. burst open and the floodgates of the heavens#sn On the prescientific view of the sky reflected here, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World (AnBib), 46. were opened. 12 And the rain fell#tn Heb “was.” on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.#tn Heb “On that very day Noah entered, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah, and the three wives of his sons with him into the ark.” 14 They entered,#tn The verb “entered” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings.#tn Heb “every bird, every wing.” 15 Pairs#tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.” of all creatures#tn Heb “flesh.” that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah. 16 Those that entered were male and female,#tn Heb “Those that went in, male and female from all flesh they went in.” just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 18 The waters completely overwhelmed#tn Heb “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is וַיִּגְבְּרוּ (vayyigbÿru, from גָּבַר, gavar), meaning “to become great, mighty.” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it. the earth, and the ark floated#tn Heb “went.” on the surface of the waters. 19 The waters completely inundated#tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters. the earth so that even#tn Heb “and.” all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered. 20 The waters rose more than twenty feet#tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.” above the mountains.#tn Heb “the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of twenty feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about twenty feet above the highest mountain. 21 And all living things#tn Heb “flesh.” that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life#tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.” in its nostrils died. 23 So the Lord#tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity. destroyed#tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”). every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky.#tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.” They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.#tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69. 24 The waters prevailed over#sn The Hebrew verb translated “prevailed over” suggests that the waters were stronger than the earth. The earth and everything in it were no match for the return of the chaotic deep. the earth for 150 days.
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Genesis 7: NET
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Genesis 7
7
The Great Flood
1The day came when Yahweh said to Noah, # 7:1 How did God speak to Noah? Did he come in human form? Perhaps he appeared in a burning bush, or as an angel, or in a dream. God is able to speak in whatever way he chooses. We have a God who speaks to those whose ways are blameless. Noah moved with faith and acted on the revelation given to him. Do you respond when God speaks? “Come # 7:1 The implication is that God was in the ark waiting for Noah to enter and come to him. He has always gone before us and knows what we will face. This Hebrew word for “come” is used in contemporary Jewish weddings and songs—“come to me.” into the ark, you and your entire household, for I have found you to be the only one righteous in my eyes in this generation. # 7:1 This statement shows that the sons of Seth could not rightly be called the sons of God (see Gen. 6:2), for only Noah was righteous. God needed Noah. There had to be a righteous man who would save mankind. When God comes down, he comes looking for human vessels he can use to bring deliverance and salvation (see 1 Sam. 16:7; 2 Chron. 16:9). 2Take with you seven pairs of all the clean animals, # 7:2 Seven pairs of clean animals (ritually acceptable) were spared so that Noah could use them for sacrifices. See Lev. 11:1–12. both male and female, and one pair of all the unclean animals, both male and female. 3Take seven pairs of flying birds of all kinds, male and female, to make sure they survive on the earth. 4For in seven days I will send rain and flood the earth for forty days and forty nights. # 7:4 The number forty is a symbolic number in the Bible that represents testing and purification. See Ex. 16:35; Num. 14:34; Deut. 25:2–3; Jonah 3:4; Mark 1:13. Every living thing that I made I will wipe off the face of the earth.” # 7:4 In the days of Noah, the flood took away the wicked and left behind the righteous. See Matt. 24:37–41; Luke 17:27.
5Noah obeyed all that Yahweh had commanded him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the great flood came on the earth. 7Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives boarded the ark to escape the flood. 8-9Two of each animal, the male and female, clean and unclean, large and small, along with birds and crawling things, entered the ark with Noah as God had commanded. 10Then seven days later, massive floodwaters covered the earth.
11It started in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month on the seventeenth day. # 7:11 The exact date of the deluge is given, a miracle pointing to the divine inspiration of Scripture. God noted and had recorded the exact day the flood began. He gave us amazing details of these events as they happened. The flood began, according to the Jewish scribes, in the year 1656 from creation. On that day, all the fountains # 7:11 The Hebrew word mayanot, or “fountains,” here has the same root as mayan in Song. 4:15. As our inward lives sprout and bring forth fruit, it has the power of a subterranean fountain. of the subterranean deep cracked open and burst up through the ground. Heaven’s floodgates were opened, # 7:11 It is as though God returned the earth back to the chaos of ch. 1. He once separated the waters and raised up the dry ground; now he was covering the earth again with water and removing the separation that he spoke into existence (see Gen. 1:6–10). 12and heavy rains fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. # 7:12 God, at creation, had fixed a “boundary” for the waters (Ps. 104:9), setting doors and bars in place that the waters could not pass (see Job 38:8–11). Now he simply removed those restraints, and the waters gushed forth and flooded the earth as they had done at first (see Gen. 1:9). The floodgates of the heavens were similarly opened up.
13On that very day, Noah and his wife, their sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and their wives, entered safely into the ark. 14-15Pairs of every species of animal entered with them—wild animals, domesticated animals, large and small, and every species of bird and winged creatures—every animal that has the breath of life came into the ark with Noah. 16Both male and female went inside as God had commanded Noah; and Yahweh himself shut them in. # 7:16 Closing the door of the ark was a supernatural act of God. It was Elohim (“the Mighty One”) who commanded Noah to enter the ark, and Yahweh (the covenant-keeping God, the Friend of Sinners) who shut him in. The God of Israel is known by both names.
17For forty days, the flood engulfed the earth. The swelling floodwaters lifted up the ark until it rose high above the ground. 18The raging flood completely inundated the earth, but the ark floated safely, drifting upon the surface of the water, 19until the highest mountains were completely submerged beneath the rising waters. 20The waters rose over twenty-two feet # 7:20 Or “fifteen cubits [22.5 feet; 6.86 meters].” Waters covered the earth at a depth of three miles above sea level. All the mountains of the pride of man were covered up. Who measured all these things? Who knew the mountains were covered by fifteen cubits? It could not have been Noah or Moses, unless God showed them. The amazing details of the account of the flood all point to the divine inspiration of Scripture. above the highest mountains. # 7:20 This indicates a universal flood, not just a regional one. See Ps. 104:6; 2 Peter 3:5–7. 21Every living thing on the earth perished—domesticated animals, wild animals, birds, everything that moved on the earth, and all mankind perished. 22Everything perished—every animal on earth with the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23All life on earth was blotted out—all that he had made, animals large and small, wild and domesticated, birds and reptiles, including humanity, was wiped off the face of the earth. Only Noah was left behind, # 7:23 In the days of Noah, the wicked were taken away, swept off the earth by the flood. It was the righteous who were left behind to inherit the earth. See Matt. 24:37–41; Luke 17:27. and those who were in the ark with him. 24And the waters covered the earth for 150 days.
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