Genesis 7:2-12

2 From every clean animal, take seven pairs, a male and his mate; and from every unclean animal, take one pair, a male and his mate;

3 and from the birds in the sky as well, take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring will survive throughout the earth.

4 In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made."

5 Noah did everything the LORD commanded him.

6 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters arrived on earth.

7 Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him entered the ark to escape the floodwaters.

8 From the clean and unclean animals, from the birds and everything crawling on the ground,

9 two of each, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, just as God commanded Noah.

10 After seven days, the floodwaters arrived on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened.

12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 7

This chapter begins with an order to Noah to come with his family and all the creatures into the ark, that they might be safe from the flood, which would quickly be upon the earth, Ge 7:1-4 and then gives an account of Noah's obedience to the divine command in every particular, Ge 7:5-9 and of the time of the beginning of the flood, and its prevalence, Ge 7:10-12 then follows a repetition of Noah, his family, and the creatures entering into the ark, Ge 7:13-16 and next a relation is given of the increase of the waters, and of the height they arrived unto, Ge 7:17-20 and of the consequences of the flood, the death and destruction of every living creature, except those in the ark, fowl, cattle, beast, creeping things, and men, Ge 7:21-23 and the chapter is closed with an account how long the waters continued before they began to ebb, even one hundred and fifty days, Ge 7:24.