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Genesis 7:17-8:14
New English Translation

17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 18 The waters completely overwhelmed[a] the earth, and the ark floated[b] on the surface of the waters. 19 The waters completely inundated[c] the earth so that even[d] all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered. 20 The waters rose more than 20 feet[e] above the mountains.[f] 21 And all living things[g] that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath[h] of life in its nostrils died. 23 So the Lord[i] destroyed[j] every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky.[k] They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.[l] 24 The waters prevailed over[m] the earth for 150 days.

8 But God remembered[n] Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over[o] the earth and the waters receded. 2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed,[p] and the rain stopped falling from the sky. 3 The waters kept receding steadily[q] from the earth, so that they[r] had gone down[s] by the end of the 150 days. 4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.[t] 5 The waters kept on receding[u] until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.[v]

6 At the end of forty days,[w] Noah opened the window he had made in the ark[x] 7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying back and forth[y] until the waters had dried up on the earth.

8 Then Noah[z] sent out a dove[aa] to see if the waters had receded[ab] from the surface of the ground. 9 The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered[ac] the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah[ad] in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove,[ae] and brought it back into the ark.[af] 10 He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark. 11 When[ag] the dove returned to him in the evening, there was[ah] a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again,[ai] but it did not return to him this time.[aj]

13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year,[ak] in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that[al] the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth[am] was dry.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 7:18 tn Heb “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is וַיִּגְבְּרוּ (vayyigberu, from גָּבַר, gavar), meaning “to become great, mighty.” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it.
  2. Genesis 7:18 tn Heb “went.”
  3. Genesis 7:19 tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters.
  4. Genesis 7:19 tn Heb “and.”
  5. Genesis 7:20 tn Heb “rose 15 cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about 18 inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “15 cubits” has been rendered “more than 20 feet.”
  6. Genesis 7:20 tn Heb “the waters prevailed 15 cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of 20 feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about 20 feet above the highest mountain.
  7. Genesis 7:21 tn Heb “flesh.”
  8. Genesis 7:22 tc The MT reads נִשְׁמַת רוּחַ חַיִּים (nishmat ruakh khayyim, “breath of the breath/spirit of life”), but the LXX and Vulgate imply only נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat khayyim). Either the LXX translator omitted translation of both words because of their similarity in meaning, or the omission in LXX shows that the inclusion of רוּחַ in the MT is the addition of an explanatory gloss.
  9. Genesis 7:23 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  10. Genesis 7:23 tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).
  11. Genesis 7:23 tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”
  12. Genesis 7:23 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (shaʾar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root šʾr,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.
  13. Genesis 7:24 sn The Hebrew verb translated “prevailed over” suggests that the waters were stronger than the earth. The earth and everything in it were no match for the return of the chaotic deep.
  14. Genesis 8:1 tn The Hebrew word translated “remembered” often carries the sense of acting in accordance with what is remembered, i.e., fulfilling covenant promises (see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel [SBT], especially p. 34).
  15. Genesis 8:1 tn Heb “to pass over.”
  16. Genesis 8:2 tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.
  17. Genesis 8:3 tn The construction combines a Qal preterite from שׁוּב (shuv) with its infinitive absolute to indicate continuous action. The infinitive absolute from הָלָךְ (halakh) is included for emphasis: “the waters returned…going and returning.”
  18. Genesis 8:3 tn Heb “the waters.” The pronoun (“they”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  19. Genesis 8:3 tn The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite here describes the consequence of the preceding action.
  20. Genesis 8:4 tn Heb “on the mountains of Ararat.” Obviously a boat (even one as large as the ark) cannot rest on multiple mountains. Perhaps (1) the preposition should be translated “among,” or (2) the plural “mountains” should be understood in the sense of “mountain range” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 53). A more probable option (3) is that the plural indicates an indefinite singular, translated “one of the mountains” (see GKC 400 §124.o).sn Ararat is the Hebrew name for Urartu, the name of a mountainous region located north of Mesopotamia in modern day eastern Turkey. See E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 29-32; G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:184-85; C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:443-44.
  21. Genesis 8:5 tn Heb “the waters were going and lessening.” The perfect verb form הָיָה (hayah) is used as an auxiliary verb with the infinitive absolute חָסוֹר (khasor, “lessening”), while the infinitive absolute הָלוֹךְ (halokh) indicates continuous action.
  22. Genesis 8:5 tn Or “could be seen.”
  23. Genesis 8:6 tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayehi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.
  24. Genesis 8:6 tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.
  25. Genesis 8:7 tn Heb “and it went out, going out and returning.” The Hebrew verb יָצָא (yatsaʾ), translated here “flying,” is modified by two infinitives absolute indicating that the raven went back and forth.
  26. Genesis 8:8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  27. Genesis 8:8 tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.
  28. Genesis 8:8 tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.
  29. Genesis 8:9 tn The words “still covered” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  30. Genesis 8:9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  31. Genesis 8:9 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the dove) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  32. Genesis 8:9 tn Heb “and he brought it to himself to the ark.”
  33. Genesis 8:11 tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.
  34. Genesis 8:11 tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.
  35. Genesis 8:12 tn The word “again” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  36. Genesis 8:12 tn Heb “it did not again return to him still.” For a study of this section of the flood narrative, see W. O. E. Oesterley, “The Dove with the Olive Leaf (Gen VIII 8-11),” ExpTim 18 (1906/07): 377-78.
  37. Genesis 8:13 tn Heb In the six hundred and first year.” Since this refers to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, the word “Noah’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
  38. Genesis 8:13 tn Heb “and saw and look.” As in v. 11, the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the dry ground with their own eyes.
  39. Genesis 8:14 tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, haʾadamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, haʾarets) is dry.
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