Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come, you and all your household, into the ark, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
KJV And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Come' (bo, בֹּא) — God invites Noah into the ark. The use of 'come' (rather than 'go') may imply that God is already present in the ark, inviting Noah to join him. Alternatively, it is simply the standard imperative for entering a space.
'Righteous before me' (tsaddiq lefanai) — God affirms the narrator's assessment from 6:9. Noah's righteousness is validated by God himself. The qualification 'in this generation' (baddor hazzeh) is maintained, as in 6:9.
Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, a male and its mate, and of the animals that are not clean, two, a male and its mate,
KJV Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Seven pairs' translates shiv'ah shiv'ah (שִׁבְעָה שִׁבְעָה), literally 'seven seven.' This distributive expression most likely means 'seven pairs' (seven of each sex = fourteen total) or possibly 'seven' (three pairs plus one for sacrifice). The KJV's 'by sevens' is ambiguous in the same way. 'Seven pairs' is adopted following the majority reading.
'Clean' (tehorah, טְהוֹרָה) — the distinction between clean and unclean animals presupposes categories that are formally codified only later in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. The narrative assumes this knowledge without explaining its origin. The additional clean animals presumably provide for sacrifice (8:20) without endangering the species.
This instruction supplements 6:19–20, which mentioned only 'two of every kind.' The additional clean animals in chapter 7 address the need for sacrifice and may reflect a different literary strand, though the text as it stands is coherent: the general instruction (two) is supplemented by the specific (seven pairs of clean animals).
and also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
KJV Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'To keep their offspring alive' (lechayot zera, לְחַיּוֹת זֶרַע) — literally 'to keep seed alive.' The purpose is the continuation of species — preserving the capacity for reproduction. Zera ('seed/offspring') connects to the seed-language of 1:11–12 and 3:15.
For in seven more days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out every living thing that I have made from the face of the ground."
KJV For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Seven more days' — a final grace period before judgment. The number seven echoes the seven days of creation; the destruction will begin after a creation-week of waiting.
'Forty days and forty nights' (arba'im yom ve'arba'im laylah) — forty is a significant number throughout the Bible, typically associated with periods of testing, judgment, or transition (Israel's 40 years in the wilderness, Moses's 40 days on Sinai, Elijah's 40-day journey, Jesus's 40 days of temptation).
'Blot out' (machiti, מָחִיתִי) — the same verb from 6:7. God reaffirms the sentence.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came upon the earth.
KJV And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The precise dating of the flood (Noah's age, and the exact month/day in v. 11) gives the narrative a chronicle-like specificity. The flood is presented as a datable historical event within the genealogical framework of Genesis 5.
Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.
KJV And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Eight people total enter the ark: Noah, his three sons (Shem, Ham, Japheth), Noah's wife, and the three sons' wives. These eight will be the ancestors of all post-flood humanity (cf. 1 Peter 3:20).
two by two they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
KJV There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Two by two' (shenayim shenayim, שְׁנַיִם שְׁנַיִם) — the distributive form, 'in pairs.' The animals come in ordered pairs, male and female, preserving the creation pattern.
'As God had commanded Noah' — the obedience formula again. The pattern is established: divine command, exact human compliance.
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 springs of the great deep burst open, and the windows of the sky were opened.
KJV In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
תְּהוֹם רַבָּהtehom rabbah
"the great deep"—great deep, vast abyss, primordial ocean
The 'great deep' — the subterranean waters restrained since creation. Their eruption signals the undoing of the created order. Tehom connects directly to 1:2, where darkness was 'over the face of the deep.'
Translator Notes
The precise dating (year, month, day) continues the chronicle-like precision of the narrative.
'All the springs of the great deep burst open' (nivqe'u kol-ma'yenot tehom rabbah) — tehom ('deep') recalls the primordial deep of 1:2. The flood is presented as an undoing of creation: the waters that God separated and contained (1:6–10) are now released. The 'great deep' (tehom rabbah) suggests the subterranean ocean beneath the earth in ancient Near Eastern cosmology.
'The windows of the sky were opened' (va'arubot hashamayim niftachu) — the 'windows' or 'floodgates' of the sky are openings in the raqia (expanse/firmament of 1:6–8) through which the waters above the expanse pour down. The flood comes from both below (springs of the deep) and above (windows of the sky) — a systematic reversal of the separations made on day 2 (1:6–7) and day 3 (1:9–10) of creation.
The flood is thus presented not as merely extreme weather but as a cosmic de-creation — a return to the watery chaos of 1:2.
The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
KJV And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The forty-day rainfall fulfills the announcement in verse 4. The word geshem (גֶּשֶׁם, 'rain') is the ordinary word for rain — but the previous verse makes clear this is no ordinary storm. It is cosmic waters pouring through opened floodgates and erupting from ruptured depths.
On that very day, Noah and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's sons, along with Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark—
KJV In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'On that very day' (be'etsem hayyom hazzeh, בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה) — this emphatic temporal phrase emphasizes the precise timing. The same expression is used for significant dates elsewhere (cf. Genesis 17:23, 26; Exodus 12:17, 41, 51; Deuteronomy 32:48). The sons are now named, individualizing the narrative.
they and every wild animal according to its kind, all 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 winged creature.
KJV They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The comprehensive listing echoes the creation categories: wild animals, livestock, crawling things, birds. The phrase 'according to its kind' (leminehu) repeats the creation language of chapter 1. The ark preserves the ordered diversity that God established.
They came to Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
KJV And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'The breath of life' (ruach chayyim) — the same phrase from 6:17. All creatures animated by God's life-giving breath enter the ark. The breath that God breathed into the man (2:7) sustains all animal life.
Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, came as God had commanded him. Then the LORD shut him in.
KJV And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'The LORD shut him in' (vayyisgor YHWH ba'ado, וַיִּסְגֹּר יְהוָה בַּעֲדוֹ) — this brief, remarkable statement says that God himself closes the ark door behind Noah. The divine name YHWH (rather than Elohim) is used for this personal, protective act. God seals Noah inside — an act of care and finality. Those inside are saved; those outside are not. The closing of the door marks the point of no return.
The preposition ba'ad ('behind him' or 'on his behalf') can mean 'behind/around' (God closed the door behind him) or 'for his sake' (God sealed him in for his protection). Both senses are present.
The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and lifted the ark, and it rose above the earth.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The rising waters are described with increasing intensity through verses 17–20. The ark, the vessel of salvation, rises with the waters — the instrument of judgment becomes the means of elevation for those within. The language shifts from passive description to active force: the waters 'increased,' 'lifted,' and the ark 'rose.'
The waters surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.
KJV And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Surged' translates vayyigberu (וַיִּגְבְּרוּ), from gavar (גָּבַר, 'to be strong, to prevail, to overcome'). The waters are described as a conquering force — overpowering the earth. The verb intensifies the sense of unstoppable power.
The waters surged so greatly on the earth that all the high mountains under all the sky were covered.
KJV And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'So greatly' translates me'od me'od (מְאֹד מְאֹד), a doubled intensive — 'exceedingly, exceedingly.' The doubling of me'od is rare and emphatic (cf. 17:2, 6, 20; 30:43).
'All the high mountains under all the sky' (kol-heharim hagevohim asher-tachat kol-hashamayim) — the language is universal and absolute. Whether this reflects a global perspective or the perspective of the ancient Near Eastern world known to the author is a question of interpretation, not translation. The rendering follows the Hebrew.
The waters surged fifteen cubits above, and the mountains were covered.
KJV Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Fifteen cubits (approximately 22.5 feet / 6.9 meters) — the waters rose this distance above the mountaintops. Fifteen cubits is half the ark's height (30 cubits, 6:15), which would ensure the ark could float freely over any submerged peak without grounding.
All flesh perished that moved on the earth—birds, livestock, wild animals, every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, and all mankind.
KJV And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'Perished' translates vayyigva (וַיִּגְוַע), from gava ('to expire, to breathe one's last') — the same visceral verb from 6:17. The listing of destroyed categories reverses the creation order: where chapter 1 built up the animal kingdom category by category, chapter 7 tears it down. The list ends with 'all mankind' (vekhol ha'adam) — humanity, created last in chapter 1, dies last in the account of destruction.
Everything on dry land that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils died.
KJV All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'The breath of the spirit of life' (nishmat-ruach chayyim, נִשְׁמַת רוּחַ חַיִּים) — a compound phrase combining neshamah ('breath,' cf. 2:7) and ruach ('spirit/breath/wind'). This double expression intensifies the description of animate life — everything that breathes, everything sustained by the divine breath, perished. The phrase echoes 2:7, where God breathed the neshamah of life into the man's nostrils. What God breathed in, the waters now extinguish.
'On dry land' (becharavah, בֶּחָרָבָה) — only land-dwelling, air-breathing creatures are destroyed. Aquatic life is not mentioned in the judgment.
He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground—from mankind to livestock to crawling things to birds of the sky. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.
KJV And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
'He blotted out' (vayyimach, וַיִּמַח) — the verb from 6:7 and 7:4 is now fulfilled. What God announced, God has accomplished.
'Only Noah was left' (vayyishsha'er akh-Noach) — the particle akh ('only, alone') emphasizes the solitary survival. From the teeming life of creation, only Noah and his ark-companions remain. The contrast between the universal death and this single remnant is stark.
The verse structure creates a chiasm: God blotted out → the listing of categories → they were blotted out from the earth → only Noah remained. The center focuses on the comprehensive destruction; the frame highlights divine agency and Noah's singular survival.
KJV And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The 150-day duration extends well beyond the 40-day rain (v. 12). The waters continued to dominate the earth even after the rain stopped. The prolonged inundation underscores the totality of the judgment — this is not a flash flood but a sustained undoing of the habitable world. Chapter 8 will describe the gradual recession of these waters.