Genesis 7 Footnotes

7:4,11-12,17,24 The chronology of the flood may seem confusing but it is consistent. Noah waited on the ark 7 days before the 40 days of rain began. The waters “surged” for 150 days (five months) of destruction (v. 24). This includes 40 days of rain followed by 110 days, during which the waters began to recede until the ark settled somewhere on the mountains of Ararat. In 40 more days land became visible (8:5-6). For about three weeks Noah sent out birds until the dove failed to return (8:12). But Noah had to wait another three months before he saw that the “ground was drying” (8:13), and another month before he and his shipmates could disembark, 377 days after climbing aboard.

7:20 Where did all that water go? The story is internally consistent with its claims of God’s special intervention in the flood. The Lord “caused a wind to pass over the earth” (8:1). In a similar way, divinely induced wind divided the sea and dried the riverbed to allow the exodus (Ex 14:21). God accomplished the drying of the earth by a unique means in the times of Noah and Moses. Some prefer the explanation that the flood was not global but local, which relieves the question about where all the water went.