“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.”
My Notes
What Does Genesis 7:11 Mean?
Genesis records the date of the flood with the precision of a ship's log: Noah's six hundredth year, second month, seventeenth day. On that specific day, two things happened simultaneously: the fountains of the great deep burst open and the windows of heaven opened. Water from below and water from above. The earth attacked from both directions.
The "fountains of the great deep" represent subterranean water reserves — the primordial waters that Genesis 1 describes God separating and containing. The flood is a partial un-creation: the boundaries God established in Genesis 1 are released. The waters He restrained now break free.
The "windows of heaven" represent atmospheric water — the firmament of Genesis 1:7. Both systems — above and below — fail simultaneously. The ordered creation that God built in seven days is being dismantled. The flood isn't just water. It's creation in reverse.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does the flood as 'un-creation' (reversing Genesis 1) change your understanding of what happened?
- 2.Does the precise dating (year, month, day) make the flood feel more historical and less mythological?
- 3.What does the dual source (above and below) say about the totality of God's judgment?
- 4.How does knowing that creation's boundaries are maintained by God affect your sense of security?
Devotional
The fountains of the deep broke open. The windows of heaven opened. Water from below and above. At the same time. On the same day.
The flood isn't just a rainstorm. It's un-creation. The boundaries God established in Genesis 1 — separating the waters above from the waters below, containing the deep, holding the sky in place — are released. What God carefully ordered is deliberately disordered. The creation reverses.
The date is precise: year, month, day. God records the beginning of the flood with the same specificity He'll later use for the Exodus, the temple's destruction, and Christ's birth. Dates matter. The day the world ended (for everyone except eight people) has a calendar entry.
The dual source — fountains below, windows above — means there was no escape. You couldn't climb higher than the rain because the water was also coming from under your feet. The attack was total, from both directions. The earth itself was participating in its own destruction.
This is what judgment looks like when God decides to start over: the creation He built becomes the instrument He uses. The water He separated in Genesis 1 is the water He reunites in Genesis 7. The same elements that sustained life now consume it.
The flood teaches something about the relationship between creation and creator: what God orders, God can un-order. What He separates, He can reunite. The boundaries that hold your world together are maintained by the same God who can release them.
The fountains broke. The windows opened. And the world God made returned to the water it came from.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights,.... So long it was falling upon it, after the windows of…
- XXV. The Flood The date is here given, at which the flood commenced and the entrance into the ark was completed. “In…
In the six hundredth year, etc. - This must have been in the beginning of the six hundredth year of his life; for he was…
Here is, I. The date of this great event; this is carefully recorded, for the greater certainty of the story.
1. It was…
the second month, on the seventeenth day P gives, according to its fondness for statistics, the exact date in years,…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture