Genesis 7:20

7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet ¹  above the mountains. ² 

Genesis 6:16

6:16 Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches ³  from the top. ⁴  Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.

Genesis 22:9

22:9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there ⁵  and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up ⁶  his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

[7:20]  ¹ tn 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.”

[7:20]  ² tn 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.

[6:16]  ³ tn Heb “a cubit.”

[6:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “to a cubit you shall finish it from above.” The idea is that Noah was to leave an 18-inch opening from the top for a window for light.

[22:9]  ⁵ sn Abraham built an altar there. The theme of Abraham’s altar building culminates here. He has been a faithful worshiper. Will he continue to worship when called upon to make such a radical sacrifice?

[22:9]  ⁶ sn Then he tied up. This text has given rise to an important theme in Judaism known as the Aqedah, from the Hebrew word for “binding.” When sacrifices were made in the sanctuary, God remembered the binding of Isaac, for which a substitute was offered. See D. Polish, “The Binding of Isaac,” Jud 6 (1957): 17-21.