7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep 2 burst open and the floodgates of the heavens 3 were opened. 7:12 And the rain fell 4 on the earth forty days and forty nights.
7:13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives. 5 7:14 They entered, 6 along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings. 7 7:15 Pairs 8 of all creatures 9 that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah. 7:16 Those that entered were male and female, 10 just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
1 tn Heb “came upon.”
2 tn The Hebrew term תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean – especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 1:2).
3 sn On the prescientific view of the sky reflected here, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World (AnBib), 46.
4 tn Heb “was.”
5 tn 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.”
6 tn The verb “entered” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “every bird, every wing.”
8 tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”
9 tn Heb “flesh.”
10 tn Heb “Those that went in, male and female from all flesh they went in.”