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Gen 7:1(top)
Gen 7:2

“seven pairs.” The Hebrew text of Genesis 7:2 simply repeats the number seven twice, and literally reads, “seven seven,” which in this context means “seven pairs” (cp. CJB; HCSB; NAB; NIV2011; NJB; NLT; NRSV; RSV). What the “seven seven” means is clarified by the words that follow. The Hebrew text reads more literally, “seven seven, a male and his mate.” So Genesis 7:2 should be understood to mean “seven males, seven females; a male and his mate.” Thus, there was to be seven males and seven females of each clean animal on the ark. There was also to be seven pairs of the different kinds of birds on the ark (Gen. 7:3). The tradition that the animals went on only in twos comes from misunderstanding Genesis 6:19, which says that “two” of each animal was put on the ark, but in that context the word “two” refers to “pairs,” not just “two” animals. See commentary on Genesis 6:19, “pairs.” The fact that there were seven pairs of clean animals and birds on the ark also explains how Noah could get off the ark and sacrifice some of the clean animals and birds and still have animals and birds to reproduce the species (Gen. 8:20).

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Gen 7:8(top)
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Gen 7:13(top)
Gen 7:14(top)
Gen 7:15(top)
Gen 7:16(top)
Gen 7:17(top)
Gen 7:18(top)
Gen 7:19

“exceedingly, yes, exceedingly.” By repeating the word “exceedingly” (or, “greatly”), the Hebrew text emphasizes the way the water covered the earth. Noah’s Flood was not a local event, as some people would have us believe. The Bible is clear that the water covered all of the earth that was under heaven. Besides, if the flood was local, God would have just had Noah and his family move away. That would have taken much less time and effort than building the ark.

The verse gets emphasis from the figure of speech epizeuxis. If a word is repeated in a sentence in exactly the same form, as it is in the Hebrew text here, it is the figure of speech epizeuxis (Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible; Oxford English Dictionary). In fact, if the words are repeated right next to each other as these are, Bullinger refers to it as a subset of epizeuxis called geminatio. If the root word is repeated but the word is inflected differently, that is the figure of speech polyptoton. [For more on polyptoton in the Bible, see commentary on Genesis 2:16].

Gen 7:20(top)
Gen 7:21(top)
Gen 7:22(top)
Gen 7:23(top)
Gen 7:24

“150 days.” Scripture says the waters prevailed for 150 days. There are commentators who assert that the 150 days proves that there is something they call a “prophetic month” of 30 days. They claim that prophetic times in Scripture are calculated on a premised 30-day month. However, there is no traditional source for such a thing—it seems to be a concept built to accommodate their calculations. The Jews based their month from the moon, and there is no Jewish concept of a straightforward 30 day month. That concept is being read back into history, but is not a part of it. Some of the authors who try to defend the 30-day month use for their first proof that the flood year with the statement of the 17th of the second month, when the rains started, to the rain’s end, the 17th of the 7th month, is listed as 150 days. So, they say from 17th of Marcheshvan to the 17th of Nisan (of course, counting the first of the year being Tishri, as it was supposed to be in remote antiquity) is the 150 days, counting months as having 30 days. This would seem to be so, since counting that time as lunar months should come out to 147 days or so.

The first volume of “The Book of Genesis” under the series “Books of the Bible” published by the Judaica Press contains the Hebrew text, their own translation, and extensive commentaries taken from Rashi, Rambam, Eben Ezra, and others. What they say is that the “seventh month” means not the month on the calendar, but the seventh month, counting from when the rain started. Their calculation goes:

Kislev —3 days (after the 40 days of rain beginning in the “second month” Marcheshvan, leaving three days in Kislev)
Tevet 29, Shvat 30, Adar 29, Nisan 30, Iyar 29, = 150

These are Jews commenting on their own Scripture and we would give them more than a little weight on this issue.


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