And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Parallel translations
- WEB It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
- BSB And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
- NKJV And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
- NASB The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
- NLT The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. The downpour matches God's earlier announcement.
Overview
The forty days and nights mark a sustained, overwhelming judgment, fulfilling exactly what God had said. The number forty recurs in Scripture as a period of testing and judgment. This relentless rain shows the thoroughness of God's righteous response to a world filled with violence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Gen 7:4For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
- Matt 4:2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
- Gen 7:17And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
- Deut 10:10And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also, and the LORD would not destroy thee.
- Exod 24:18And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
- Deut 9:9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
- 1 Kgs 19:8And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
- Deut 9:18And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 7:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.