The big picture
Human violence and corruption have filled the earth, and God has announced a flood as judgment. Noah is the man God chose to preserve with his family. He has already built the ark, a huge vessel for people and animals. His wife, his three sons and their wives are with him. Genesis 7 begins with God's final instructions. It then tells how the flood starts, rises over the land and kills the life outside the ark.
In this chapter
- Noah Enters Before the Flood Genesis 7:1-10
God tells Noah to enter the ark with his whole household.
- The Waters Break Open Genesis 7:11-16
The flood begins on a carefully marked day in Noah's six hundredth year.
- Floodwaters Overwhelm All Dry Land Genesis 7:17-24
For forty days, the floodwaters keep rising.
Central truth
Genesis 7 shows God's announced judgment arriving while Noah, his family and the creatures inside the ark remain alive.
Scripture beside the summary
Genesis · King James Version · 24Genesis 7:1-10
Noah Enters Before the Flood
God tells Noah to enter the ark with his whole household. God says Noah has been seen as righteous in his generation. For clean animals and birds, God gives a larger number. Other animals come by twos, male and female. These animals will keep life going after the flood. God gives seven more days before rain starts. The rain will last forty days and nights and destroy living things on the land. Noah obeys. He is six hundred years old when the flood comes. His wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives enter with him. The animals also enter as God commanded. After seven days, the floodwaters arrive.
In everyday life
A coastal father loads medicine, papers, pets and food into the family car after an evacuation order. The order gives a firm deadline, so the family leaves before flooded roads trap them. Preparation has to happen before the danger arrives. Unlike that family, Noah is obeying God before a judgment that will cover the earth.
Notice
Genesis 7:2 Clean and unclean animals are already treated as different categories here. Genesis has not yet given the later food laws, so this chapter does not explain the full distinction.
Genesis 7:1-10
King James Version1And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
2Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
3Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
4For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
5And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
6And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Genesis 7:11-16
The Waters Break Open
The flood begins on a carefully marked day in Noah's six hundredth year. Water comes from below and above. The great deep breaks open, and rain pours from heaven for forty days and nights. Noah enters that same day with Shem, Ham, Japheth, and all four wives. Animals, birds and creeping creatures also enter by their kinds. Males and females go in as God commanded. The final act belongs to the LORD. Once every person and creature is inside, the LORD shuts Noah in. Preparation is over. The disaster has begun, and those inside are enclosed while the waters rise.
In everyday life
A mine foreman ushers the last trapped workers into a rescue chamber and seals the heavy door. The crew inside cannot stop the collapse outside. Their lives now depend on the shelter holding until rescue comes. Here the key difference is that the LORD himself closes Noah in, not a worker or engineer.
Notice
Genesis 7:15 Verse 15 calls the entering creatures living flesh with the breath of life. They are not cargo alone; the ark is preserving living beings through the flood.
Genesis 7:11-16
King James Version11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
14They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
16And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Genesis 7:17-24
Floodwaters Overwhelm All Dry Land
For forty days, the floodwaters keep rising. They lift the ark above the ground and carry it on the water. The water grows deeper until even the high hills and mountains are covered. Genesis says all air-breathing life on dry land outside the ark dies. That includes people, livestock, wild animals, birds and crawling creatures. The destruction is not described as a local inconvenience. It is death across the dry land. The account then states who survives inside the vessel. After the forty days of rain, the water still rules the landscape. It remains high for one hundred and fifty days.
In everyday life
A riverfront homeowner climbs to the attic as a failed levee sends water across the neighborhood. Roads vanish, roofs disappear, and every normal route out is cut off. The family sees how fast water can erase the shape of familiar ground. Genesis describes a far greater disaster, with death across the dry land rather than one flooded town.
Notice
Genesis 7:20 Verse 20 gives a depth measure after saying the mountains were covered. Fifteen cubits is about 22 feet or 7 metres, though the verse does not say how it was measured.
Genesis 7:17-24
King James Version17And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
18And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
20Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
21And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
22All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
23And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
24And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Genesis 7:1 begins with “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”
Where the chapter turns
Genesis 7:10 forms a natural hinge: “And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.”
The final note
Genesis 7:24 leaves the reader with “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words earth, Noah, waters, days, female, forty help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- clean beast
- An animal in a category accepted for sacrifice; later biblical law also uses this category for food.
- fowls
- Birds, especially when the word is used broadly for flying creatures.
- cubits
- Ancient length units based on a forearm, about 18 inches or 45 centimetres each.
- prevailed
- Rose and remained overwhelming; here the waters kept increasing and covering the land.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
