Chapter 7

1 Noah, with his family, and the living creatures, enter into the ark. 17 The beginning, increase, and continuance of the flood.

1. Come thou. For 120 years God has continued long-suffering beyond measure (1 Peter 3:20), and Noah’s life and labor had “condemned the world” (Heb. 11:7). But human beings carelessly and indifferently hastened onward to their doom. In saving one family and destroying all others God was not arbitrary. Noah alone had qualified for admission to the new earth that was to follow purification of the earth by water.

2. Of every clean beast. Instruction to take more clean than unclean animals with him into the ark presupposes that Noah knew how to distinguish between the two classes. It is clear that this distinction did not originate with Moses. It reached back to the very earliest times, to divine instructions concerning sacrifices—for which only clean animals might be used (see ch. 8:20).

Since ancient times the number of clean animals to be taken into the ark has been the subject of dispute among Bible translators and commentators. The Hebrew text, reading literally, “Thou shalt take to thee seven seven, a male with his female,” can be understood as meaning “seven pairs” or “seven of each kind” of animal. The LXX, Vulgate, and many ancient and modern scholars favor the translation “seven pairs,” whereas certain church Fathers, the Reformers, and in fact some scholars in all ages, have expressed themselves in favor of “seven individuals.” Whatever the exact explanation may be, it is obvious that more clean animals were to find room in the ark than unclean. Foreseeing the need for emergency food after the Flood had destroyed all vegetation, God knew man would need to eat, temporarily, the flesh of clean animals. Furthermore, they were needed for sacrificial purposes. For these obvious reasons God made provision to preserve enough clean animals that they might not become extinct. That in His first instructions to Noah (ch. 6:19) God made no distinction between clean and unclean animals can be explained by the fact that at that time, 120 years before the Flood, such minute instructions were not necessary (see on v. 9).

5. All that the Lord commanded him. As Noah had fulfilled all commands of God during the previous 120 years (see ch. 6:22), so he acted in like manner during the last hours before the Flood came. How much he must have suffered as he saw the multitude of human beings with whom he had lived for six centuries, indifferently and carelessly drifting to their doom! Knowing that all of them were to die at the end of one week, and seeing them carouse as if nothing would happen (Matt. 24:37–39), he must have redoubled his final efforts to warn and invite them to enter the ark with him. But all was to no avail.

6. Noah was six hundred years old. See on ch. 5:32.

7. Noah went in. That Noah did not wait until the last day prior to the Flood to enter the ark is obvious from a comparison of vs. 7 and 10. Moved with fear and impelled by faith, Noah and his family lost no time in obeying the command to enter the ship of refuge. Peter tells us that only eight persons were saved from the Flood (1 Peter 3:20); whence it is obvious that Noah and his three sons each had but one wife. Polygamy, common among the Cainites, was not yet practiced by the followers of the true God.

9. There went in two and two. In obedience to a mysterious impulse, animals of all kinds moved into the ark. Nothing less than divine power could have effected such a timely and orderly entrance into the huge vessel. What a vivid warning this must have been for the ungodly who witnessed it! Here were domesticated and wild beasts, creeping and flying animals, all making their way into the ark, apparently of their own volition. What a contrast—dumb brutes obedient to their Creator, and intelligent beings refusing to heed His warning call of mercy! If anything could do so, this should have made an impression upon the sinners; but they had hardened their hearts so long that even this miracle left them unimpressed.

11. Six hundredth year. The first of many exact chronological statements in the OT. So careful a statement as to the exact day, month, and year of the Flood stands in sharp contrast to the legendary accounts of ancient pagan peoples concerning the activity of their gods in relation to this world.

The fountains of the great deep. This earth, which had never before experienced rain (see on Gen. 2:6), was suddenly flooded by huge masses of water. A heavy and incessant rain set in. Simultaneously the crust of the earth was broken open, with the result that masses of water from beneath the surface of the earth gushed forth to work havoc and completely to inundate the once-dry land.

16. The Lord shut him in. This statement emphasizes the miraculous nature of events during the week immediately preceding the Flood. This divine act signified also that the time of grace for the fallen race had reached its end. As in the days of Noah the door of mercy closed a short time prior to the day of God’s visitation, so in these last days God’s people are to be warned, “Shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself” (Isa. 26:20, 21; Matt. 24:37–39; 2 Peter 3:6, 7).

17. The waters increased. The tremendous extent and intensity of the Flood is well expressed by a graphic series of verbs and adverbs: the waters “increased” (v. 17), “prevailed” and “increased greatly” (v. 18), “prevailed exceedingly” (v. 19), and even “prevailed” 15 cubits (about 26 ft.) above the mountains (v. 20). The description is simple, majestic, and vivid. An immeasurable volume of water covered the whole earth. The universal extent of the Flood could hardly have been expressed in more forceful words than these.

This description renders utterly foolish and impossible the view set forth by some that the Flood was a local affair in the Mesopotamian valley. Deposits of silt uncovered by archeologists at Ur of the Chaldees, for example, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be made to answer to the Genesis account of the Deluge (PP 107, 108).

Everywhere over the surface of the earth we find fossil remains of plants and animals obviously deposited by water. These deposits extend, in certain localities, to depths of at least three miles, but the average depth is somewhat over half a mile. The universal distribution of these remains and the depth of their burial testify unmistakably to both the worldwide extent and the terrific violence of the Noachian Deluge.

The universality of this catastrophe is also attested by the Flood legends preserved among the people of nearly every race on the face of the earth. Most complete among these accounts is that of the ancient Babylonians, who settled in close proximity to the place where the ark rested after the Flood and whence the human race again began to spread abroad. The Epic of Gilgamesh bears many conclusive similarities to that of Genesis, and yet differs from it in such a way as to prove it a corrupted version of the same story. A comparison of the two accounts presents impressive evidence of the inspiration of the Genesis narrative.

The ark is mentioned twice in vs. 17 and 18 as being “borne” or “lifted up.” That it “went” with safety “upon the face of the waters” provides all future generations with assurance of God’s ability to save those who trust and obey Him. The very elements loosed to destroy the wicked, safely bore up the faithful family of Noah. God is never at a loss for means to save His own. At the same time it is His will that man should exercise to the full the intelligence and strength God has given him. God miraculously preserved the ark, but He had Noah build it.

21. All flesh died. The word “all” is thrice used, and accompanied by a detailed list of the different forms of life, “fowl,” “cattle,” “beasts,” “creeping things,” and “man.” Now, to make it still more emphatic, “every” is used twice.

24. The waters prevailed. That the 150 days include the 40 days of vs. 4, 12, 17, and so must be counted from the beginning of that period, is seen from v. 11, and ch. 8:4, where it is said that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the 7th month, exactly 5 months after the beginning of the rain. The reckoning is in terms of 30-day months.

Ellen G. White comments

1-24PP 97-105; SR 65-69

1 DA 634; EW 284; FE 504; PP 98, 117; SR 65, 76, 408

2, 3 PP 97

4 SR 65

9, 10 PP 98

10 SR 65

11 AA 572; PP 99, 104

11, 12 EW 284

11-24Ed 129

13 FE 504

16 PP 98; SR 65

18, 19 CD 49

20 PP 105

23 PP 112