Genesis 8:3

3 And [the] waters turned again from (off) the earth, and went again, and began to be decreased, or assuaged, after an hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 8:3

And the waters returned from off the earth continually,
&c.] Or "going and returning" ^F19; they went off from the earth, and returned to their proper places appointed for them; some were dried up by the wind, and exhaled by the sun into the air: and others returned to their channels and cavities in the earth, or soaked into it:

and after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were
abated;
or began to abate, as Jarchi and the Vulgate Latin version; which days are to be reckoned from the beginning of the flood, including the forty days' rain; though Jarchi reckons them from the time of the ceasing of it; so that there were from the beginning of the flood one hundred and ninety days; six months, and ten days of the year of the flood now past; and in this he is followed by Dr. Lightfoot ^F20: but the former reckoning seems best, and agrees better with what follows.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (bwvw Kwlh) , "eundo et redeundo", Pagninus, Montanus.
F20 Works, vol. 1. p. 6.

Genesis 8:3 In-Context

1 Forsooth the Lord had mind of Noe, and of all living beasts, and of all work beasts, that were with him in the ship; and [he] brought a wind on the earth. And [the] waters were decreased, or assuaged, (And the Lord remembered Noah, and all the living beasts, and all the work beasts, that were with him in the ship; and he brought forth a wind on the earth. And the waters decreased,)

2 and the wells of the sea were closed, and the windows of (the) heaven(s) were closed, and (the) rains of (the) heaven(s) were ceased. (and the wells of the sea were closed, and the windows of the sky were closed, and the rains from the sky ceased.)

3 And [the] waters turned again from (off) the earth, and went again, and began to be decreased, or assuaged, after an hundred and fifty days.

4 And the ship rested in the seventh month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, on the hills of Armenia. (And the ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Mount Ararat.)

5 And soothly the waters went and decreased till to the tenth month, for in the tenth month, in the first day of the month (on the first day of the month), the tops of [the] hills appeared.