1 And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright.
2 Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male and his female;
3 And of the birds of the air, seven males and seven females, so that their seed may still be living on the face of the earth.
4 For after seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, for the destruction of every living thing which I have made on the face of the earth.
5 And Noah did everything which the Lord said he was to do.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the waters came flowing over all the earth.
7 And Noah, with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the flowing of the waters.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts which are not clean, and of birds, and of everything which goes on the earth,
9 In twos, male and female, they went into the ark with Noah, as God had said.
10 And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open;
12 And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13 On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark;
14 And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird.
15 They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life.
16 Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said, and the ark was shut by the Lord.
17 And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth.
18 And the waters overcame everything and were increased greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of the waters.
19 And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and all the mountains under heaven were covered.
20 The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the mountains were covered.
21 And destruction came on every living thing moving on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which went on the earth, and every man.
22 Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of life, came to its end.
23 Every living thing on the face of all the earth, man and cattle and things moving on the face of the earth, and birds of the air, came to destruction: only Noah and those who were with him in the ark, were kept from death.
24 And the waters were over the earth a hundred and fifty days.
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Commentary on Genesis 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
Ge 7:1-24. Entrance into the Ark.
1. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark—The ark was finished; and Noah now, in the spirit of implicit faith, which had influenced his whole conduct, waited for directions from God.
2, 3. Of every clean beast … fowls—Pairs of every species of animals, except the tenants of the deep, were to be taken for the preservation of their respective kinds. This was the general rule of admission, only with regard to those animals which are styled "clean," three pairs were to be taken, whether of beasts or birds; and the reason was that their rapid multiplication was a matter of the highest importance, when the earth should be renovated, for their utility either as articles of food or as employed in the service of man. But what was the use of the seventh? It was manifestly reserved for sacrifice; and so that both during Noah's residence in the ark, and after his return to dry land, provision was made for celebrating the rites of worship according to the religion of fallen man. He did not, like many, leave religion behind. He provided for it during his protracted voyage.
4. For yet seven days—A week for a world to repent! What a solemn pause! Did they laugh and ridicule his folly still? He whose eyes saw and whose heart felt the full amount of human iniquity and perverseness has told us of their reckless disregard (Lu 17:27).
9. There went in two and two—Doubtless they were led by a divine impulse. The number would not be so large as at first sight one is apt to imagine. It has been calculated that there are not more than three hundred distinct species of beasts and birds, the immense varieties in regard to form, size, and color being traceable to the influence of climate and other circumstances.
16. and the Lord shut him in—literally, "covered him round about." The "shutting him in" intimated that Noah had become the special object of divine care and protection, and that to those without the season of grace was over (Mt 25:10).
17. the waters increased, and bare up the ark—It seems to have been raised so gradually as to be scarcely perceptible to its occupants.
20. Fifteen cubits upward … and the mountains were covered—twenty-two and a half feet above the summits of the highest hills. The language is not consistent with the theory of a partial deluge.
21. all flesh died … fowl … cattle, and … creeping thing—It has been a uniform principle in the divine procedure, when judgments were abroad on the earth, to include every thing connected with the sinful objects of His wrath (Ge 19:25; Ex 9:6). Besides, now that the human race was reduced to one single family, it was necessary that the beasts should be proportionally diminished, otherwise by their numbers they would have acquired the ascendancy and overmastered the few that were to repeople the world. Thus goodness was mingled with severity; the Lord exercises judgment in wisdom and in wrath remembers mercy.
24. an hundred and fifty days—a period of five months. Though long before that every living creature must have been drowned, such a lengthened continuance of the flood was designed to manifest God's stern displeasure at sin and sinners. Think of Noah during such a crisis. We learn (Eze 14:14) that he was a man who lived and breathed habitually in an atmosphere of devotion; and having in the exercise of this high-toned faith made God his refuge, he did not fear "though the waters roared and were troubled; though the mountains shook with the swelling thereof" [Ps 46:3].