¹tn Heb “for you I see [as] godly before me in this generation.” The direct object (“you”) is placed first in the clause to give it prominence. The verb “to see” here signifies God’s evaluative discernment.
²tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).
³sn For a study of the Levitical terminology of “clean” and “unclean,” see L. E. Toombs, “Clean and Unclean,” IDB 1:643.
⁴tn Heb “a male and his female” (also a second time at the end of this verse). The terms used here for male and female animals (vya! [a!v] and hV*a! [a!V*h]) normally refer to humans.
⁵tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).
⁶tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (hb*q@n+W rk*z`, z`k*r Wn+q@b*h).
⁷tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”
⁸tn Heb “for seven days yet,” meaning “after [or “in”] seven days.”
⁹tn The Hiphil participle ryf!m=m^ (m^m=f!r, “cause to rain”) here expresses the certainty of the act in the imminent future.
¹⁰tn Heb “according to all.”
¹¹tn Heb “Now Noah was.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate nominative after implied “to be” verb) provides background information. The age of Noah receives prominence.
¹²tn Heb “and the flood was water upon.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial/temporal in relation to the preceding clause. The verb hyh (h*y`h) here carries the nuance “to come” (BDB 225). In this context the phrase “come upon” means “to engulf.”
¹³tn The preposition /m! (m!/) is causal here, explaining why Noah and his family entered the ark.
¹⁴tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”
¹⁵tn The Hebrew text of vv. 8-9a reads, “From the clean animal[s] and from the animal[s] which are not clean and from the bird[s] and everything that creeps on the ground, two two they came to Noah to the ark, male and female.”
¹⁶tn Heb “came upon.”
¹⁷tn The Hebrew term <ohT= (T=ho<, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean—especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 1:2).
sn The watery deep. The same Hebrew term used to describe the watery deep in Gen 1:2, T=ho<, appears here. The text seems to picture here subterranean waters coming from under the earth and contributing to the rapid rise of water. The significance seems to be, among other things, that in this judgment God was returning the world to its earlier condition of being enveloped with water—a judgment involving the reversal of creation. On Gen 7:11 see G. F. Hasel, “The Fountains of the Great Deep,” Origins 1 (1974): 67-72; idem, “The Biblical View of the Extent of the Flood,” Origins 2 (1975): 77-95.
¹⁸sn On the prescientific view of the sky reflected here, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 46.
¹⁹tn Heb “was.”
²⁰tn Heb “On that very day Noah entered, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah, and the three wives of his sons with him into the ark.”
²¹tn The verb “entered” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
²²tn Heb “every bird, every wing.”
²³tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”
²⁴tn Heb “flesh.”
²⁵tn Heb “Those that went in, male and female from all flesh they went in.”
²⁶tn Heb “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is WrB=g+Y]w~ (w~Y!gB=rW, from rbG), meaning “to become great [or “mighty”].” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it.
²⁷tn Heb “went.”
²⁸tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters.
²⁹tn Heb “and.”
³⁰tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.”
³¹tn Heb “the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of twenty feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about twenty feet above the highest mountain.
³²tn Heb “flesh.”
³³tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”
³⁴tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
³⁵tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).
³⁶tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”
³⁷tn The Hebrew verb rav (v*a*r) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root Só’R,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.
³⁸sn The Hebrew verb translated “prevailed over” suggests that the waters were stronger than the earth. The earth and everything in it were no match for the return of the chaotic deep.