The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Genesis 7
Chapter VII · Vol. I, pp. 223–224
1 Noah, with his family, and the living creatures, enter into the ark. 17 The beginning, increase, and continuance of the flood.
1 And the aLORD said unto Noah, Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark: for thee have I bseen righteous before me in this generation.
a Is. 26.20. Eze. 9. 4, 5. 2 Pe. 2. 5. 1 Pe. 3. 20. He. 11.7. ver. 13; ch. 17. 10. Ac. 2.39.
b ch. 6. 9. Ps. 33. 18. Phi. 2.15,16. Pr. 10. 6,7, 9; 11. 4-8. Thee only have I found, in this corrupt and depraved age, free from the common infection of wickedness, and sincere-hearted towards me.—Bp. Hall.
2 Ofc every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.4
A.M. 1656. B.C. 2348.
c De. 14. Le. 11. ch. 6. 19-21. Ac. 10.11,12.
4 This is not at variance with the command recorded in ch. 6.19. The spirit of that command, if not the letter, is to the effect that the animals should be taken in by pairs; here more specific instructions are given, and the number of pairs indicated—seven pairs of clean, and one of unclean.—P.
3 Of fowls5 also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
5 Clean ones.
4 For yet seven days, and dI will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy6 from off the face of the earth.
d ch. 6.17; 2.5. Am. 4. 7. Job 28. 25; 22. 16; 36. 27,28,32; 37.11,12.
6 Heb. blot out, Job 22.16. ch. 6.7,13,17; ver. 21,23.
5 And Noah did eaccording unto all that the LORD commanded him.
e Ex. 39.32,42; 40.16, with Mat. 3. 15. Jn. 8. 28,29. Phi. 2.8. He. 5.8.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And fNoah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
f 1 Pe. 3.20. Pr. 22. 3. He. 11. 7. Mat. 24. 38. Lu. 17. 27. ver. 13-15. 2 Pe. 2.5.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There gwent in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
g ch. 2.19. Je. 8.7. Is. 11.6. ver. 16. Ac. 10.11, 12. Ps. 22.27-31. Ga. 3. 28. Col. 3.11. Re. 7.9.
10 And it came to pass after seven days,7 thath the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
7 Or, on the seventh day.
h Job 22.16. Zec. 1.5, 6. ch. 6.17; ver. 4.17-20. Lu. 17. 27. Mat. 24. 38, 39.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day8 were all the ifountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows9 of heaven were opened.1
8 About Nov. 28.
i Ps. 33.7; 74.15. ch. 1. 7. Is. 24.19. 2 Ki. 7.2,19. Mal. 3.10. Ps. 78.23.
9 Or, flood-gates.
1 The causes of the terrible inundation are described in the highly figurative style of the East. The first clause conveys the idea of the sea—'the great deep'—swelling beyond its natural boundaries, and, in consequence of some physical convulsion, covering the dry ground. The second clause implies that rain of unexampled heaviness poured incessantly from the clouds.—P.
12 And the rain was upon the earth kforty days and forty nights.
k De. 9.9,18. 1 Ki. 19. 8. Mat. 4.2. ver. 17.
13 Inl the self-same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark:
l See ver. 7-9.
14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.2
2 Heb. wing.
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD mshut him in.
17 And the flood3 was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
3 Deluging rain, ver. 12.
18 And nthe waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19 And the waters oprevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered.
A.M. 1656. B.C. 2348.
o Bearing down everything before them.
20 Fifteen cubits[≈ 6.9 m · 22 ft]4 upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
4 Nine yards and a quarter.
21 And pall flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
p ch. 6. 7, 13, 17. Lu. 17.27. Job 22.16. 2 Pe. 2. 5; 3.6. Ro. 5.12,14; 6.23; 8. 20, 22. Is. 24. 1-6, 19. Je. 4.22-27; 12.3,4. Ho. 4. 3. Joel 1. 17-20; 2. 3. Zep. 1.3.
22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life,5 of all that was in the dry land, died.
5 Heb. the breath of the spirit of life.
23 Andq every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth:6 and rNoah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
q See ver. 21,22.
6 'I conclude that if there be a fact well established in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated farther back than five or six thousand years.'—Cuvier.
r 2 Pe. 2.5,9. Eze. 14. 14. Pr. 11. 4. 1 Pe. 3.20. He. 11.7. Job 5. 19. Ps. 91.1,9,10. Is. 26.20.
24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth san hundred and fifty days.
s ver. 11. Ge. 8. 3, 4. Ps. 29.10.
Notes
Reflections.—Behold, my soul, the goodness and severity of God! His goodness—in saving the man whom his own grace had qualified for that mercy—in saving others, even the wicked part of his family, for his sake—in saving the brute animals in proportion to their serviceableness to man. in adding seven days' space of repentance to the wretched profligates who had abused the former reprieve of 120 years, and, after all, bringing the flood gradually on them, for their awakening, and to give them still further space to repent! But let me tremble at his righteous judgments! How the clouds from above, the wells from below, so long beneficial to mankind, now concur to destroy them! What multitudes who had despised his warnings now perish by his hand! And how ineffectual is every attempt to escape! While the ark of God's testament, his new covenant, is open, let me escape thither for my life, and bring with me, of my fellow-sinners, all whom I can. The day is at hand when the earth and the works thereof shall be burned up, and the door of mercy for ever shut. God forbid that I should be among those multitudes who shall then be shut out into outer darkness, where there is 'weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth!'
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.