Bible Strands
Genesis 7:17
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the physical progression of the deluge immediately after God seals Noah and the animals inside the vessel. This occurs during the initial phase of the judgment, before the ark begins to float on the surface.
The words — הַמַּבּוּל (ha-maḇûl) translates literally as "the flood," and וַיִּרְבּוּ (wa-yirrᵊḇû) means "and they increased." These terms describe the waters actively growing in volume and height.
The thread — The forty-day period appears in Genesis 7:4 as God's advance warning and in Genesis 7:12 as the recorded fulfillment of the rain. The same duration marks both the promise of judgment and its execution.
Why it lands — The verse states that the ark's elevation results entirely from rising waters, not from any steering or control by those inside. A reader must acknowledge that survival in this narrative depends on passive buoyancy, not active navigation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
Cross-references
- Genesis 7:4 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.”
- Genesis 7:12 And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.