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Genesis 7:17

in Genesis 7

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up 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.

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This verse in Genesis 7

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
The prevalence of the waters. The forty days are now completed. And at the end of this period the ark had been afloat for a long time. It was drifted on the waters in the direction in which they were flowing, and toward what was formerly the higher ground. Gen 7:19 Upon the land. - The land is to be understood of the portion of the earth’s surface known to man. This, with an unknown margin beyond it, was covered with the waters. But this is all that Scripture warrants us to assert.

This site's exposition

the waters rose and lifted the ark

on Genesis 7:17-18

For forty days the flood keeps coming, and the same water that drowns the world lifts the ark high above it. Genesis gives the ark no rudder, no sail and no oars. It floats on the surface of the waters and goes where they carry it. Noah steers nothing.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Maximus of Turin

SERMONS 50.2 · Written before 465.

proposed

But let us see where this most sacred number of forty days had its beginning. We read first in the Old Testament that in the time of Noah, when criminal wickedness had seized the whole human race, torrents of water poured forth from the opened …

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) · Written before 735.

proposed

And the waters increased and lifted the ark high above the earth, the waters increased greatly and filled everything on the surface of the earth.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

When God judges he will overcome. If he begin, he will make an end; his way is perfect, both in judgment and mercy. The gradual approaches and advances of God's judgments, which are designed to bring sinners to repentance, are often abused to the hardening of them in their presumption.
And the flood was forty days upon the earth,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

When God judges he will overcome. If he begin, he will make an end; his way is perfect, both in judgment and mercy. The gradual approaches and advances of God's judgments, which are designed to bring sinners to repentance, are often abused to the hardening of them in their presumption.

The words behind it

14 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַֽיְהִ֧יand it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • הַמַּבּ֛וּלthe flood

    hamabulH3999 →13 times

  • אַרְבָּעִ֥יםforty

    ʾarbaimH705 →136 times

  • י֖וֹםday[s]

    yomH3117 →2304 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • הָאָ֑רֶץthe earth

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

  • וַיִּרְבּ֣וּand they increased

    vaiyirbuH7235 →227 times

  • הַמַּ֗יִםthe waters

    hamayimH4325 →581 times

  • וַיִּשְׂאוּ֙and they lifted

    vaiyisuH5375 →656 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַתֵּבָ֔הthe ark

    hatevahH8392 →28 times

  • וַתָּ֖רָםand it rose

    vataromH7311 →190 times

  • מֵעַ֥לfrom on

    mealH5921 →5755 times

  • הָאָֽרֶץ׃the earth

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 7:4

    For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 7:12

      And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

    • Genesis 6:13

      Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

    • Genesis 6:17

      And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

    • Genesis 6:7

      So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that…

    • Psalms 69:28

      May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not listed with the righteous.

  • Through

    Genesis 7:12

    And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 7:4

      For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

    • Matthew 4:2

      After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

    • Exodus 24:18

      Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Great Flood — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Great Flood — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 7 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Maximus of Turin, SERMONS 50.2.

Read on in Genesis 7 →