Genesis 7

Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and your whole household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me among the people of this time."

1And 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.

Note"LORD" printed in capitals stands where the Hebrew has God's personal name, the four letters YHWH, which Jewish readers traditionally did not pronounce aloud; "God" elsewhere translates the ordinary Hebrew word for deity. "Ark" translates a Hebrew word meaning a box or chest, not any of the normal words for a ship or boat; the only other place it appears is the basket in which the baby Moses is set afloat. "Righteous" is a courtroom word: someone whose conduct would stand up if examined, in the right rather than in the wrong.

2"Of every kind of clean animal, take seven with you, the male and its female; and of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and its female."

2Of 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.

Note"Clean" and "not clean" divide animals into those fit and unfit for sacrifice and for eating, a distinction spelled out much later in Israel's law, and assumed here without explanation. The Hebrew literally says "seven seven," which can mean seven animals of each kind or seven pairs; translators divide over it, and the phrase "the male and its female" that follows can be read either way.

3"Take birds of the sky by sevens too, the male and the female, so that their kind stays alive all over the earth."

3Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

4"Seven days from now I will make rain fall on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe every living thing I have made off the face of the earth."

4For 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.

NoteForty days and nights is a standard span in Hebrew narrative for a long, complete stretch of time, the way English uses "a month of Sundays"; it recurs at Sinai and in the wilderness wanderings. The verb behind "wipe off" means to blot out writing or scrub a dish clean.

5And Noah did everything the LORD commanded him.

5And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.

6And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

NoteGenesis gives the people before the flood lifespans of many centuries; the ages are part of the same reckoning that runs through the genealogy in chapter 5, not a separate claim being made here.

7Noah went into the ark, and his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives went in with him, because of the waters of the flood.

7And 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.

8Clean animals, and animals that are not clean, and birds, and everything that crawls on the ground

8Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

9they came to Noah and went into the ark two by two, the male and the female, just as God had commanded Noah.

9There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

10And after the seven days, the waters of the flood came on the earth.

10And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were 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 very day all the springs of the great deep burst open, and the windows of the sky were opened.

11In 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.

NoteMonths are counted from the start of the year, but Genesis does not say which reckoning is in use, Israel later used both an autumn and a spring new year, so the date fixes the day within Noah's six hundredth year without telling us the season. "The springs of the great deep" and "the windows of the sky" describe the world as the ancient Near East pictured it: a vast body of water beneath the land, and more water held above a solid sky, both now let loose. The flood comes from below as well as above, not from rain alone.

12And the rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

12And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13On that very same day Noah went into the ark, and with him Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's sons, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons.

13In 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;

14They went in, and with them every wild animal of its kind, all the livestock of their kinds, every crawling thing that crawls on the ground of its kind, and every bird of its kind, every winged creature of every sort.

14They, 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.

Note"Of its kind" repeats the phrase used through the creation account in chapter 1; it marks the sorts of creature as they were made, and does not correspond to any modern biological category such as species.

15They came to Noah and went into the ark, two by two, out of all creatures that have the breath of life in them.

15And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

16Those that went in went in male and female, out of all living creatures, just as God had commanded him. Then the LORD shut him in.

16And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

Note"The LORD shut him in" is literal, the door is closed from outside by God, not by Noah.

17The flood was on the earth for forty days. The waters rose and lifted the ark, and it was raised up above the earth.

17And 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.

18The waters grew strong and rose greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

18And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19The waters grew stronger and stronger on the earth, until all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered.

19And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "earth" here can mean the whole world or a particular land or region, and the same double sense runs through the chapter; the phrase "under the whole sky" pushes toward the wider reading, but the ambiguity is in the original.

20The waters rose fifteen cubits higher than the mountains, and the mountains were covered.

20Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

NoteA cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip; fifteen cubits is something over twenty feet. The Hebrew does not make clear whether the water stood that deep above the mountaintops or rose that much beyond its earlier level, a depth of twenty feet over the peaks and a hull draft deep enough to clear them have both been read out of the line.

21And every living thing that moved on the earth died: birds, livestock, wild animals, every crawling thing that crawls on the ground, and every human being.

21And 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:

22Everything on the dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

22All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

Note"Breath of life in its nostrils" is the ordinary Hebrew way of saying a creature is alive and breathing; the same phrase is used of the first human in chapter 2.

23Every living thing on the face of the ground was wiped out: people, livestock, crawling things, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

23And 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.

24And the waters stayed high on the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

24And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

NoteA hundred and fifty days is about five months. Whether this stretch includes the forty days of rain or follows them is not stated, and the chronology of the flood has been counted both ways since antiquity.