Noah and the Great Flood

The words

1. Ararat

   The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat; Genesis names a mountainous area rather than identifying a single peak.

   Genesis 8:4 (opens a new tab)

2. Destroy

   God announces the destruction of people and animals because the earth is filled with violence; the flood account later describes their deaths.

   Genesis 6:7 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 6:11–13 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 7:21–23 (opens a new tab)

3. Door

   Noah is told to put the door in the ark’s side; later, Genesis says the LORD shut him in.

   Genesis 6:16 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 7:16 (opens a new tab)

4. Flood

   As the floodwaters increase, they lift the ark from the ground and carry it on the surface of the water.

   Genesis 7:17–18 (opens a new tab)

5. Forty

   Forty counts the days and nights of rain; Genesis separately gives 150 days for the waters prevailing on the earth.

   Genesis 7:12 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 7:24 (opens a new tab)

6. Fountains

   Sources or springs of water.

   The fountains of the great deep break open on the same day that heaven’s windows open, beginning the flood.

   Genesis 7:11 (opens a new tab) · Strong’s H4599 (spring) (opens a new tab)

7. Fowls

   Here, birds generally, not just domestic poultry.

   The birds enter with Noah and the other creatures; Genesis expands the description to every bird of every sort.

   Genesis 7:13–14 (opens a new tab)

8. Gopher Wood

   A kind of wood whose identity is uncertain.

   God specifies gopher wood for the ark, then gives instructions for rooms and a coating of pitch inside and outside.

   Genesis 6:14 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Genesis 6:14–16 (opens a new tab)

9. Heaven

   Here, the sky from which rain falls.

   Genesis pairs heaven’s opened windows with the fountains of the deep; later both are stopped, and rain from heaven is restrained.

   Genesis 7:11 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 8:2 (opens a new tab)

10. Japheth

    Japheth enters the ark with Noah, Shem, Ham, Noah’s wife and the three sons’ wives as the flood begins.

    Genesis 7:13 (opens a new tab)

11. Noah

    Noah receives the command to build an ark, follows the instructions, and enters it with his family before the flood.

    Genesis 6:14 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 6:22 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 7:7 (opens a new tab)

12. Pitch

    Noah’s instructions call for coating the ark with pitch both inside and outside, alongside the command to make rooms within it.

    Did you know?

    Exodus describes another coated ark: a bulrush basket covered with slime and pitch and placed at the edge of the river.

    Genesis 6:14 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 2:3 (opens a new tab)

13. Rooms

    God’s instructions divide the ark into rooms before specifying its measurements, its door in the side, and its three levels.

    Did you know?

    The Hebrew noun behind rooms also means nest; Brown-Driver-Briggs describes the ark’s spaces as cells like nests.

    Genesis 6:14–16 (opens a new tab) · Strong’s H7064 (nest, room) (opens a new tab)

14. Shem

    Shem is one of Noah’s three sons. He enters the ark with Noah, his brothers, Noah’s wife and the sons’ wives.

    Did you know?

    Genesis 11 continues the line through Shem and Arphaxad, dating Arphaxad’s birth to two years after the flood.

    Genesis 6:10 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 7:13 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 11:10 (opens a new tab)

15. Window

    The KJV calls this feature a window; the NET Bible calls it a roof, showing that the Hebrew word is read differently.

    Did you know?

    In Genesis 8, Noah opens a window and sends out a raven; a dove follows to check whether the water has receded.

    Genesis 6:16 (opens a new tab) · Genesis 8:6–8 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Genesis 6:14–16 (opens a new tab) · Strong’s H6672 (window, roof) (opens a new tab)