Genesis 7
7
The Flood Begins
1Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are the best man among the people of this time. So you and your family go into the boat. 2Take with you seven pairs, each male with its female, of every kind of clean animal. And take one pair, each male with its female, of every kind of unclean animal. 3Take seven pairs of all the birds of the sky, each male with its female. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the flood. 4Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain 40 days and 40 nights. I will destroy from the earth every living thing that I made.”
5Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.
6Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. 7He and his wife and his sons and their wives went into the boat. They went in to escape the waters of the flood. 8The clean animals, the unclean animals, the birds and everything that crawls on the ground 9came to Noah. They went into the boat in groups of two, male and female. This was just as God had commanded Noah. 10Seven days later the flood started.
11Noah was now 600 years old. The flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month of that year. That day the underground springs split open. And the clouds in the sky poured out rain. 12The rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
13On that same day Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives went into the boat. 14They had every kind of wild animal and tame animal. There was every kind of animal that crawls on the earth. Every kind of bird was there. 15They all came to Noah in the boat in groups of two. There was every creature that had the breath of life. 16One male and one female of every living thing came. It was just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
17Water flooded the earth for 40 days. As the water rose, it lifted the boat off the ground. 18The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on the water above the earth. 19The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. 20The water continued to rise until it was more than 20 feet above the mountains.
21All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals and creatures that swarm on the earth. And all human beings died. 22So everything on dry land died. This means everything that had the breath of life in its nose. 23So God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land. This was every man, animal, crawling thing and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. 24And the waters continued to cover the earth for 150 days.
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Genesis 7: ICB
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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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