Genesis 7:12

12 And the rain came upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 7:12

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights,
&c.] So long it was falling upon it, after the windows of heaven were opened. Aben Ezra would have it, that all things were in such confusion, during the flood, that there was no difference between day and night, since, it is said, "day and night shall not cease any more"; and that after the waters ceased, then Noah knew that forty days and nights had passed, for God had revealed this secret to him; but the text seems more to make against him than for him.

Genesis 7:12 In-Context

10 And it happened [that] after seven days the waters of the flood came over the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month--on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the rain came upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On this same day, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark,

14 they and all the living creatures according to their kind, and all the domesticated animals according to their kind, and all the creatures that creep upon the earth according to their kind, all the birds according to their kind, every winged creature.