Genesis 7:6-16

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth.

7 He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. ¹

8 A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean,

9 went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded.

10 Seven days later the flood came.

11 When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, ²

12 and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights.

13 On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.

14 With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird.

15 A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah,

16 as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.

Genesis 7:6-16 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.

Cross References

• 1. 7.7Matthew 24.38, 39;Luke 17.27.
• 2. 7.11 2 Peter 3.6.