Pastor Jerry A. Burns
On Genesis 7:17-20
And 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 (verse 17).
The flood came for forty days. The waters increased, and the ark was lifted and began to float. The same waters that destroyed the world lifted the ark above it. The judgement that fell on the world became the very thing that carried Noah to safety.
And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters (verse 18).
But the waters did not stop rising. The word prevailed means to be mighty, to be strong, to be great. The waters overpowered everything, until all was destroyed. Yet the ark was safe, floating on the surface.
All Noah and his family could see was water. Water everywhere. When I was a teenager, I went fishing with my uncle and cousin. We travelled four or five hours out into the ocean. When I woke up that morning, all I could see in every direction was water. It was terrifying. Imagine what Noah's family saw when they looked out from the ark.
The mountains covered
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered (verses 19 and 20).
The waters rose until all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven were covered, and then fifteen cubits more, about 22 feet above the highest point.
Many today teach that the flood was not worldwide, that it only covered the region where people lived. But notice the language. All the high hills. Under the whole heaven. Water cannot stand 22 feet above the highest mountains in one region while the rest of the world stays dry. Water finds its level. I believe these verses, along with the evidence we see in the world, such as the massive layers of the Grand Canyon, show that the flood was universal.
Today, Mount Ararat stands nearly 17,000 feet high. Many believe the mountains before the flood were not as high as they are now, and that much of the earth's present landscape was shaped by the flood itself. Either way, Scripture is clear that every mountain under heaven was covered. And today about 71 percent of the earth's surface is still covered by water.
The Lord Jesus treated the flood as real history, and as worldwide. The flood came, and destroyed them all (Luke 17:27). Peter did the same, Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (2 Peter 3:6).
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Pastor Jerry A. Burns
On Genesis 7:17-20
And 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 (verse 17).
The flood came for forty days. The waters increased, and the ark was lifted and began to float. The same waters that destroyed the world lifted the ark above it. The judgement that fell on the world became the very thing that carried Noah to safety.
And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters (verse 18).
But the waters did not stop rising. The word prevailed means to be mighty, to be strong, to be great. The waters overpowered everything, until all was destroyed. Yet the ark was safe, floating on the surface.
All Noah and his family could see was water. Water everywhere. When I was a teenager, I went fishing with my uncle and cousin. We travelled four or five hours out into the ocean. When I woke up that morning, all I could see in every direction was water. It was terrifying. Imagine what Noah's family saw when they looked out from the ark.
The mountains covered
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered (verses 19 and 20).
The waters rose until all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven were covered, and then fifteen cubits more, about 22 feet above the highest point.
Many today teach that the flood was not worldwide, that it only covered the region where people lived. But notice the language. All the high hills. Under the whole heaven. Water cannot stand 22 feet above the highest mountains in one region while the rest of the world stays dry. Water finds its level. I believe these verses, along with the evidence we see in the world, such as the massive layers of the Grand Canyon, show that the flood was universal.
Today, Mount Ararat stands nearly 17,000 feet high. Many believe the mountains before the flood were not as high as they are now, and that much of the earth's present landscape was shaped by the flood itself. Either way, Scripture is clear that every mountain under heaven was covered. And today about 71 percent of the earth's surface is still covered by water.
The Lord Jesus treated the flood as real history, and as worldwide. The flood came, and destroyed them all (Luke 17:27). Peter did the same, Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (2 Peter 3:6).
Adam Clarke
On Genesis 7:16-19
The Lord shut him in - This seems to imply that God took him under his especial protection, and as he shut Him in, so he shut the Others out. God had waited one hundred and twenty years upon that generation; they did not repent; they filled up the measure of their iniquities, and then wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
On Genesis 7:17-19
the waters increased, and bare up the ark - It seems to have been raised so gradually as to be scarcely perceptible to its occupants.
John Gill
On Genesis 7:17
And the flood was forty days upon the earth,.... This is said with respect to what follows, and the meaning is, that when and after the flood had been upon the earth so long, then
the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth; after this they were so many and so strong that they lifted up the ark from the place where it stood, and bore it up, that it touched not the earth; and Aben Ezra from hence infers, that the ark did not remove from its place after the flood began, until forty days.
Keil & Delitzsch
On Genesis 7:17-24
Gen 7:17-24 contain a description of the flood: how the water increased more and more, till it was 15 cubits above all the lofty mountains of the earth, and how, on the one hand, it raised the ark above the earth and above the mountains, and, on the other, destroyed every living being upon the dry land, from man to cattle, creeping things, and birds. "The description is simple and majestic; the almighty judgment of God, and the love manifest in the midst of the wrath, hold the historian fast. The tautologies depict the fearful monotony of the immeasurable expanse of water: omnia pontus erant et deerant litera ponto." The words of Gen 7:17, "and the flood was (came) upon the earth for forty days," relate to the 40 days' rain combined with the bursting forth of the foundations beneath the earth. By these the water was eventually raised to the height given, at which it remained 150 days (Gen 7:24). But if the water covered "all the high hills under the whole heaven," this clearly indicates the universality of the flood. The statement, indeed, that it rose 15 cubits above the mountains, is probably founded upon the fact, that the ark drew 15 feet of water, and that when the waters subsided, it rested upon the top of Ararat, from which the conclusion would very naturally be drawn as to the greatest height attained. Now as Ararat, according to the measurement of Perrot, is only 16,254 feet high, whereas the loftiest peaks of the Himalaya and Cordilleras are as much as 26,843, the submersion of these mountains has been thought impossible, and the statement in Gen 7:19 has been regarded as a rhetorical expression, like Deu 2:25 and Deu 4:19, which is not of universal application. But even if those peaks, which are higher than Ararat, were not covered by water, we cannot therefore pronounce the flood merely partial in its extent, but must regard it as universal, as extending over every part of the world, since the few peaks uncovered would not only sink into vanishing points in comparison with the surface covered, but would form an exception not worth mentioning, for the simple reason that no living beings could exist upon these mountains, covered with perpetual snow and ice; so that everything that lived upon the dry land, in whose nostrils there was a breath of life, would inevitably die, and, with the exception of those shut up in the ark, neither man nor beast would be able to rescue itself, and escape destruction. A flood which rose 15 cubits above the top of Ararat could not remain partial, if it only continued a few days, to say nothing of the fact that the water was rising for 40 days, and remained at the highest elevation for 150 days. To speak of such a flood as partial is absurd, even if it broke out at only one spot, it would spread over the earth from one end to the other, and reach everywhere to the same elevation. However impossible, therefore, scientific men may declare it to be for them to conceive of a universal flood of such a height and duration in accordance with the known laws of nature, this inability on their part does not justify any one in questioning the possibility of such an event being produced by the omnipotence of God. It has been justly remarked, too, that the proportion of such a quantity of water to the entire mass of the earth, in relation to which the mountains are but like the scratches of a needle on a globe, is no greater than that of a profuse perspiration to the body of a man. And to this must be added, that, apart from the legend of a flood, which is found in nearly every nation, the earth presents unquestionable traces of submersion in the fossil remains of animals and plants, which are found upon the Cordilleras and Himalaya even beyond the limit of perpetual snow.
(Note: The geological facts which testify to the submersion of the entire globe are collected in Buckland's reliquiae diluv., Schubert's Gesch. der Natur, and C. v. Raumer's Geography, and are of such importance that even Cuvier acknowledged "Je pense donc, avec MM. Deluc et Dolomieu, que s'il y a quelque chose de constat en gologie; c'est que la surface de notre globe a t victime d'une grande et subite rvolution, dont la date ne peut remonter beaucoup au del de cinq ou six mille ans" (Discours sur les rvol. de la surface du globe, p. 190, ed. 6). The latest phase of geology, however, denies that these facts furnish any testimony to the historical character of the flood, and substitutes the hypothesis of a submersion of the entire globe before the creation of man: 1. because the animals found are very different from those at present in existence; and 2. because no certain traces have hitherto been found of fossil human bones. We have already shown that there is no force in these arguments. Vid., Keerl, pp. 489ff.)
In Gen 7:23, instead of ויּמּח (imperf. Niphal) read ויּמח (imperf. Kal): "and He (Jehovah) destroyed every existing thing," as He had said in Gen 7:4.
Matthew Henry
On Genesis 7:17-20
We are here told,
I. How long the flood was increasing - forty days, Gen 7:17. The profane world, who believed not that it would come, probably when it came flattered themselves with hopes that it would soon abate and never come to extremity; but still it increased, it prevailed. Note, 1. When God judges he will overcome. If he begin, he will make an end; his way is perfect, both in judgment and mercy. 2. The gradual approaches and advances of God's judgments, which are designed to bring sinners to repentance, are often abused to the hardening of them in their presumption.
II. To what degree they increased: they rose so high that not only the low flat countries were deluged, but to make sure work, and that none might escape, the tops of the highest mountains were overflowed - fifteen cubits, that is, seven yards and a half; so that in vain was salvation hoped for from hills or mountains, Jer 3:23. None of God's creatures are so high but his power can overtop them; and he will make them know that wherein they deal proudly he is above them. Perhaps the tops of the mountains were washed down by the strength of the waters, which helped much towards the prevailing of the waters above them; for it is said (Job 12:15), He sends out the waters, and they not only overflow, but overturn, the earth. Thus the refuge of lies was swept away, and the waters overflowed the hiding-place of those sinners (Isa 28:17), and in vain they fly to them for safety, Rev 6:16. Now the mountains departed, and the hills were removed, and nothing stood a man in stead but the covenant of peace, Isa 54:10. There is no place on earth so high as to set men out of the reach of God's judgments, Jer 49:16; Oba 1:3, Oba 1:4. God's hand will find out all his enemies, Psa 21:8. Observe how exactly they are fathomed (fifteen cubits), not by Noah's plummet, but by his knowledge who weighs the waters by measure, Job 28:25.
III. What became of Noah's ark when the waters thus increased: It was lifted up above the earth (Gen 7:17), and went upon the face of the waters, Gen 7:18. When all other buildings were demolished by the waters, and buried under them, the ark alone subsisted. Observe, 1. The waters which broke down every thing else bore up the ark. That which to unbelievers is a savour of death unto death is to the faithful a savour of life unto life. 2. The more the waters increased the higher the ark was lifted up towards heaven. Thus sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions; and as troubles abound consolations much more abound.
Tyndale Study Notes
On Genesis 7:17-21
7:17 floodwaters grew deeper (literally waters multiplied): The same word used for the proliferation of humans and animals during creation (see 1:22, 28) is now used ironically of the water that would annihilate them. • covering the ground: The Hebrew word translated “ground” or “earth” is mentioned eight times in eight verses (7:17-24). The earth is the domain that humankind had polluted and that was now the object of a cleansing deluge.
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