For 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
- BSB 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.”
- NKJV For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”
- NASB For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
- NLT Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”
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
God announces that in seven days he will send rain for forty days and nights to destroy all living things. The judgment is precisely timed and certain.
Overview
The seven-day warning gives a final window of patience, while the forty days and nights mark a complete and overwhelming judgment. The number forty recurs in Scripture for periods of testing and trial. God's clear announcement shows that the flood is his deliberate, righteous act, not random catastrophe, and that he keeps his word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Gen 7:12And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
- 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.
- Gen 6:13And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
- Gen 6:17And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
- Gen 6:7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
- Ps 69:28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
- Job 37:11–12Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
- Gen 8:12And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
- Amos 4:7And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
- Job 28:25To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
- Job 22:16Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
- Rev 3:5He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
- Gen 7:10And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
- Gen 7:21–23And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
- Job 36:27–32For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
- Exod 32:32–33Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
- Gen 29:27–28Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
- Gen 2:5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
- Gen 8:10And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
- Gen 6:3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
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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 7:4 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
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