Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
20. Fifteen cubits ] P describes a depth of water of 15 cubits (= 22 feet) above the mountains. Why should 15 cubits be mentioned? Very possibly, because the height of the ark was 30 cubits (Gen 6:15), and the ark was considered to be submerged for half its depth. It would thus just touch the top of “the mountains of Ararat” (Gen 8:4).
21 (P). And all flesh died ] Cf. Gen 6:17. P here describes the death by drowning of all living creatures.
creeping thing ] Literally, as marg., swarming thing that swarmeth. See note on Gen 1:20. The word used is characteristic of P.
22 (J). all ] The account in this and the following verse gives J’s description of the destruction of all life. The repetition is obvious.
in whose nostrils, &c.] The expression is evidently based upon the words in Gen 2:7, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” But “the breath of life” of that passage is combined here with “the spirit of life” which we find in Gen 6:17, Gen 7:15 (P). The one is a phrase characteristic of J, the other of P. The combination is not found elsewhere. Possibly the word “spirit” has been introduced by the compiler or by a copyist.
in the dry land ] as if to emphasize the thought that the marine animals survived. The word in the Heb. rendered “the dry land” is different from that so rendered in Gen 1:9 (P).
23 (J). was destroyed were destroyed ] The better reading is that rendered in the R.V. marg., and he destroyed every living thing. For the word “destroyed,” Heb. blotted out, see Gen 6:7, Gen 7:4.
24 (P). an hundred and fifty days ] The duration of the Flood, corresponding to the 40 days of J in Gen 7:12. According to P, the rising of the waters, described in Gen 7:18-20, continued or “prevailed” for 150 days, after which the waters began to fall: see Gen 8:3 b, 4 a.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 20. Fifteen cubits upward] Should any person object to the universality of the deluge because he may imagine there is not water sufficient to drown the whole globe in the manner here related, he may find a most satisfactory answer to all the objections he can raise on this ground in Mr. Ray’s Physico-theological Discourses, 2d edit., 8vo., 1693.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fifteen cubits were sufficient for the destruction of the highest men, or other creatures, though placed upon the highest mountains.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Fifteen cubits upward . . . andthe mountains were coveredtwenty-two and a half feet above thesummits of the highest hills. The language is not consistent with thetheory of a partial deluge.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail,…. Either to such an height above the earth, upwards from that, or from the high hills; for though the words do not necessarily imply that, yet it may be allowed, since there was water enough to cover the highest of them; and fifteen cubits of water were enough to drown the tallest man, or largest beast that should be upon the top of any of them:
and the mountains were covered, with water, even it may be allowed fifteen cubits high; nor will this furnish out so considerable an objection to the history of the flood as may be thought at first sight, since the highest mountains are not near so high as they are by some calculated. Sir Walter Raleigh allows thirty miles for the height of the mountains, yet the highest in the world will not be found to be above six direct miles in height. Olympus, whose height is so extolled by the poets, does not exceed a mile and a half perpendicular, and about seventy paces. Mount Athos, said to cast its shade into the isle of Lemnos (according to, Pliny eighty seven miles) is not above two miles in height, nor Caucasus much more; nay, the Peak of Teneriff, reputed the highest mountain in the world, may be ascended in three days (according to the proportion of eight furlongs to a day’s journey), which makes about the height of a German mile perpendicular; and the Spaniards affirm, that the Andes, those lofty mountains of Peru, in comparison of which they say the Alps are but cottages, may be ascended in four days’ compass o.
o See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 218. marg. Bedford’s Scripture Chronology, ch. 12. p. 152, 153.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(20) Fifteen cubits upward.This apparently was the draught of the ark, computed after it had settled. in the region of Ararat. Fifteen cubits would be about twenty-two feet, and as the ark floated onward without interruption until it finally grounded, there must have been this depth of water even on the highest summit in its course. Continuous rains for forty days and nights would scarcely produce so vast a mass of water, unless we suppose that the admh was some low-lying spot of ground whither the waters from many regions flowed together; but this is negatived by the ark having travelled into Armenia. In England the whole average mean rainfall in a year is not more than twenty-eight or thirty inches in depth. If we suppose this amount to have fallen in every twenty-four hours, the total quantity would be about 100 feet. Such a rain would denude the mountains of all soil, uproot all trees, sweep away all buildings, dig out new courses for the rivers, completely alter the whole surface of the ground, and cover the lower lands with dbris. Wherever there was any obstacle in their way, the waters would deepen in volume, and quickly burst a passage through it. But as they would be seeking the lower grounds during the whole forty days, it is difficult to understand how they could cover any of the heights to the depth of twenty-two feet, unless there were some cosmic convulsion (see Note on Gen. 7:11), by which the waters from the equator were carried towards the poles, and in this way there would be no difficulty in the ark being carried against the current of the Tigris and Euphrates up to the high lands of Armenia.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Fifteen cubits upward The arithmetical exactness here is noteworthy . Here, as in the minute specifications of time, which are given as carefully as if they had been set down in a logbook, we have the language of one who was in the midst of the scene a spectator who was profoundly impressed by the rushing floods, the rising and slowly moving ark, the sinking hills, the drowning men and beasts, yet was not confused or bewildered amid the awful scene . He notes and records the precise date of each critical event, and coolly fathoms the deluge itself . Probably the ark drew fifteen cubits of water, and as it did not ground upon the hills, the spectator saw that they were covered to this depth. Shut in with Jehovah, though in the unwieldy ark, floating he knew not whither, faith gave Noah a confidence more calm and grand than skill and science can ever give the navigator, though in a seaworthy ship traversing familiar waters.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 7:20. Fifteen cubits upward That is, fifteen cubits, or twenty-two feet and a half, upward, or above the highest mountains. It is plain, as words can make it, from this and the foregoing and the subsequent verses, that the deluge was universal, and not, according to the opinion of some, confined to a certain tract of country only.
One of our most celebrated philosophers observes, that the rain of forty days and forty nights will be found to be a very small part of the cause of such a deluge as Moses describes. For supposing it to rain all over the globe as much in each day, as it is now found to do in one of the most rainy counties in England in the whole year, viz. about forty inches of water a day, forty such days could cover the whole earth with but about twenty-two fathom water, which would only drown the low-lands next the sea: but the greater part would escape. Therefore, he says, we may reasonably conclude, that by the opening of the windows of heaven, is meant an extraordinary fall of waters from the heavens, not as rain, but in one great body; as if the firmament, supposed by Moses to sustain a supra-aerial sea, had been broken up, and, at the same time, the ocean did flow in upon the land to cover all with water. See Phil. Trans. abridged, vol. 6: part 2: p. 1. Perhaps ordinary continued rain for forty days and nights would be found adequate to the effect, if this philosopher took in, as he does in the conclusion, the rupture of the great deep, and the union of its waters with those from above.
The reader will find great satisfaction by consulting Saurin’s eighth and ninth Dissertations.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
Ver. 20. Fifteen cubits upward. ] So, above any mountain. The Popish fable of Enoch, preserved alive in some high place of the earthly paradise, shall as soon be believed as the Jewish tale of Og (one of the old giants, say they), escaping death by riding astride upon the ark.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and the mountains: Psa 104:6, Jer 3:23
Reciprocal: Gen 6:15 – cubits