Bereshis 7:12

12 And the geshem was upon ha’aretz arba’im yom and arba’im lailah.

Bereshis 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.

Bereshis 7:12 In-Context

10 And it came to pass after shivat hayamim, that the waters of the mabbul were upon ha’aretz.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noach’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of Shomayim were opened.

12 And the geshem was upon ha’aretz arba’im yom and arba’im lailah.

13 On that very yom entered Noach, and Shem, and Cham, and Yephet, the bnei Noach, and Noach’s isha, and the three nashim of his banim with them, into the tevah (ark);

14 They, and every beast after its kind, and kol habehemah after their kind, and every remes that crawls upon ha’aretz after its kind, and kol haoph after its kind, every bird of every sort.