Genesis 7:12

Modern

And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

Traditional

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Literal

And rain was upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

Latin

…et facta est pluvia super terram quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus.

Hebrew

English

And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

on the seventeenth day of the second month: This specific detail gives the flood account a sense of seriousness. It shows that the event is presented as something that happened in history.
fountains of the great deep: See 2:6.
the floodgates of the heavens were opened: The great flood undid the boundaries established on the second and third days of creation (1:6–13). Other parts of the Bible describe God's judgment as undoing creation (see Jeremiah 4:23–26; Amos 7:4).
forty days and forty nights: See study note on 7:4.

Theme notes and profiles

Genesis 7:4
For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”
Matthew 4:2
After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
Genesis 7:17
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.
Exodus 24:18
Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Deuteronomy 9:18
Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.
Deuteronomy 9:9
When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
1 Kings 19:8
So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Deuteronomy 10:10
I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.