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.”
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.”
- KJV 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.
- 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.”
- 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 7:12It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
- Gen 7:17The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
- Gen 6:13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
- Gen 6:17I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
- Gen 6:7Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground — man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky — for I am sorry that I have made them.”
- Ps 69:28Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
- Job 37:11–12Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
- Gen 8:12He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him anymore.
- Amos 4:7“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
- Job 28:25He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
- Job 22:16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
- Rev 3:5He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
- Gen 7:10After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.
- Gen 7:21–23All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
- Job 36:27–32For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
- Exod 32:32–33Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin — and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”
- Gen 29:27–28Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.”
- Gen 2:5No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
- Gen 8:10He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship.
- Gen 6:3Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred 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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