Genesis 7:12-22

12 Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.

13 That's the day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, accompanied by his wife and his sons' wives, boarded the ship.

14 And with them every kind of wild and domestic animal, right down to all the kinds of creatures that crawl and all kinds of birds and anything that flies.

15 They came to Noah and to the ship in pairs - everything and anything that had the breath of life in it,

16 male and female of every creature came just as God had commanded Noah. Then God shut the door behind him.

17 The flood continued forty days and the waters rose and lifted the ship high over the Earth.

18 The waters kept rising, the flood deepened on the Earth, the ship floated on the surface.

19 The flood got worse until all the highest mountains were covered

20 - the high water mark reached twenty feet above the crest of the mountains.

21 Everything died. Anything that moved - dead. Birds, farm animals, wild animals, the entire teeming exuberance of life - dead. And all people - dead.

22 Every living, breathing creature that lived on dry land died;

Genesis 7:12-22 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.