Genesis 7
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · Beginnings · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
24 verses · 491 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
The Great Flood
1Then the Lordsaid to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; 3and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. 4For 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.”
5And Noah did all that the Lordhad commanded him.
6Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. 7And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground 9came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
10And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth. 11In the six hundredth year of Noahʼs life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons— 14they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. 15They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. 16And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lordshut him in.
17For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. 18So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 19Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.
20The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. 21And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. 22Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained.
24And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.
Footnotes (3)
- a v2 Or by sevens; also in verse 3
- b v15 Literally of all flesh; similarly in verses 16 and 21
- c v20 15 cubits is approximately 22.5 feet or 6.9 meters.
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Noah's flood and baptism
Peter says that in the ark a few people were saved through water, and that baptism corresponds to this (the Greek word antitypos means 'corresponding' or 'answering'). Jesus also compares the days of Noah to the days of the Son of Man, and Peter elsewhere cites the flood as an example of judgment.
When: Genesis (primeval history); 1 Peter, c. AD 60–65.
Ways people read this (2)
- Peter stresses the saving power of God through water and the resurrection, not the water itself.
- Traditions differ on what baptism accomplishes, but most read the flood as a pattern of judgment and salvation.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.