Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Genesis 7:11 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 11. 11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
On a precise date in Noah's six hundredth year, the fountains of the great deep burst and the floodgates of heaven open. The story portrays waters from below and above overwhelming the ordered land in a reversal of creation.
Read It With
- Genesis 7:1–24
Read verses 10–12 together and compare Genesis 1:2, 1:6–10, and 8:2. Floodwaters arrive, deep and heaven open, rain continues, and the same sources later close as the waters begin to recede.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The general arrival is dated and expanded into waters from deep and heaven, giving the flood creation-reversal scale.
Read Genesis 7:11–16 together
Why these verses belong together: Deep, heaven, and rain open on the precise date while household and creature entry is fully reported and the LORD shuts Noah in.
Verse 11. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Verse 12. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Verse 13. 13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Verse 14. 14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
Verse 15. 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Verse 16. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Follow the Context
- The LORD commands Noah's household to enter, distinguishes clean and unclean animal numbers, announces seven more days and forty days of rain, and receives Noah's obedience (7:1–5).
- Noah's age, household, clean and unclean creatures, paired entry, and the seven-day wait are reported before the flood arrives (7:6–10).
- A precise date locates the bursting great deep and opened heavens; rain falls, the complete household and creature community enters, and the LORD shuts Noah in (7:11–16).
- For forty days the waters increase, lift the ark, prevail across the earth, cover the mountains, and rise fifteen cubits above them (7:17–20).
- Every breathing land creature outside dies; Noah and those with him remain; and the waters prevail for 150 days (7:21–24).
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“six hundredth year ... second month ... seventeenth day”
In plain language: The event is located precisely within Noah's life calendar.
This date starts the longer flood chronology that continues into chapter 8.
Why it matters: It provides narrative sequence without an absolute modern date.
How certain? strong“fountains of the great deep”
In plain language: Water sources of the great primeval deep burst open.
The deep from the creation setting returns over habitable land.
Why it matters: The flood is narrated as de-creation, not ordinary seasonal rain alone.
How certain? strong“windows of heaven”
In plain language: The floodgates or openings above are opened.
Water comes from above as well as below in the ancient narrative picture.
Why it matters: The phrase should be translated culturally, not forced into modern atmospheric mechanics.
How certain? strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The fountains and floodgates do not provide a modern scientific description of subterranean reservoirs, atmospheric structure, plate tectonics, or hydrology.
The exact date does not by itself identify the flood's year in a modern calendar.
The creation-reversal imagery does not make the waters or material world morally evil.
What Remains True
Creation's habitable order is a gift, and violence that ruins the earth is answered here by a terrifying loss of that ordered space.
How It Can Shape Life
- Treat ecological and social order as entrusted goods: oppose violence and destructive practices before their effects spread across the shared conditions of life.
Teach It Back
Explain Genesis 7:11's contribution to Genesis 7:1–24. Include why the nearby verses are required, what the verse clearly says, and one conclusion it does not justify.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Genesis 7:1–24 — The Flood Covers the EarthSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
The text's ancient cosmological picture is clear at the literary level; its relationship to a reconstructed physical event remains disputed.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Reader-facing Scripture wording, verse numbering, paragraph data, and supplied-word markup.
Exact location: Pinned eBible/CrossWire standardized 1769 KJV corpus, Genesis 7:1–24
Open source ↗hebrew text morphology and lemma data
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible — Genesis
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, Version 2.2 released 2021; repository inspected 2026
Supports: Righteousness, clean and unclean terms, repeated numerals, wipe-away language, deep and floodgates, entry formulas, prevail language, breath of life, dry land, survival, and 150 days.
Exact location: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible, wlc/Gen.xml, Genesis 7:1–24
Open source ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Genesis with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, Digital edition accessed 2026
Supports: Prominent 'you,' seven or seven pairs, male-and-mate wording, seven days, forty days, paired entry, deep and heaven imagery, prevail language, fifteen cubits, breath of life, survival, and 150 days.
Exact location: NET Bible, Genesis 7:1–24 translator notes 1–39
Open NET Genesis 7 ↗modern critical open study guide
Genesis 6–9:17: The Flood — Study Guide
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2021 course; page inspected 2026
Supports: Animal-number, water-source, entry, chronology, vocabulary, and divine-name doublets; influential Priestly and non-Priestly reconstruction; de-creation pattern.
Exact location: Genesis 6–9:17: The Flood study guide, sections 'The Problem with the Flood Narrative' and 'Two Flood Stories'
Open source ↗peer reviewed open final form and intertextual study
Sintflut and Sinai: Genesis 6–8’s allusion to Exodus 24–40
Zara Zhang
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 50.3, 2026
Supports: Current review of source divisions, competing harmonizations, final-form numerical pattern, and proposed flood-Sinai coherence.
Exact location: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 50.3 (2026), especially section 2.2 and Table 1 on animal, entry, water, destruction, and chronology doublets
Open source ↗