The Bible

The Bible › Genesis

Genesis 7

1Yahweh said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2Take for yourself seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and its mate, and of the animals that are not clean, two, a male and its mate. 3Also take seven pairs of the birds of heaven, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the surface of all the earth. 4For in seven more days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the surface of the ground every existing thing that I have made.” 5Noah did everything Yahweh commanded him.

6Noah was 600 years old when the flood came as waters upon the earth. 7Noah entered the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives because of the floodwaters. 8From the clean animals, from the animals that were not clean, from the birds, and from everything that crawls on the ground, 9they came to Noah into the ark two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10After the seven days, the floodwaters came upon the earth. 11In the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst open, and heaven's windows opened. 12Rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13On that very day Noah entered the ark, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's sons, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them. 14They entered with every wild animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind—every bird, everything winged. 15They came to Noah into the ark two by two, from all flesh that had the breath of life in it. 16Those entering came male and female from all flesh, as God had commanded him. And Yahweh shut him in.

17The flood continued forty days upon the earth. The waters multiplied and lifted the ark, and it rose above the earth. 18The waters grew strong and multiplied greatly upon the earth, and the ark moved on the surface of the waters. 19The waters grew exceedingly strong upon the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. 21All flesh moving upon the earth perished: birds, livestock, wild animals, every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all humankind. 22Everything on dry ground with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils died. 23He wiped out every existing thing on the surface of the ground, from human to livestock, to crawling things and birds of heaven. They were wiped from the earth. Only Noah remained, and those with him in the ark. 24The waters remained strong upon the earth 150 days.

Translation notes 3

7:2–3, 8–9 — Animal numbers. The Hebrew says “seven seven, a male and its mate,” understood here as seven pairs; seven individual animals is another interpretation. The unclean animals are expressly two. Two-by-two entry describes pairing and does not itself reduce the clean animals to two. Clean and unclean are stated categories without an explanation of their origin here.

7:11–12 — Waters above and below. Springs of the deep and heaven's windows depict the opening of waters on both sides of the inhabited world. The images and the forty days of rain are retained without supplying a modern physical mechanism.

7:17–24 — Scope; durations. The narrative uses comprehensive language: all the high mountains under the whole heaven and all breathing land life. The draft preserves its scope without deciding a modern reconstruction of the event. The forty days and 150 days are both retained; the latter period is not added after the former as though the Hebrew explicitly made them consecutive.