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.
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.
And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.
And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.
He who overcomes will be dressed in white, and I will not take his name from the book of life, and I will give witness to his name before my Father, and before his angels.
And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste.
When he made a weight for the wind, measuring out the waters;
And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again, but she did not come back to him.
And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth.
In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass had come up: for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to do work on the land.
For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain, Flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the peoples. And who has knowledge of how the clouds are stretched out, or of the thunders of his tent? See, he is stretching out his mist, covering the tops of the mountains with it. For by these he gives food to the peoples, and bread in full measure. He takes the light in his hands, sending it against the mark.
But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not, let my name be taken out of your book. And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book.
Let the week of the bride-feast come to its end and then we will give you the other in addition, if you will be my servant for another seven years. And Jacob did so; and when the week was ended, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel for his wife.
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. Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of life, came to its end. 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.
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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].