We Have Liftoff (Gen 7:17)

The Flood

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¹⁷ The Flood was on the Earth 40 days. וַֽיְהִ֧י הַמַּבּ֛וּל אַרְבָּעִ֥ים י֖וֹם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ

BHS wonders:

𝔊 + καὶ τεσσαράκοντα νύκτας cf 7,12, ins וְאַרְבָּעִים לַיְלָה?

[The Greek translation adds ‘and forty nights’ — maybe we should add that in to the Hebrew text?]

I don’t think so (though it would do no harm). Does anyone reading the Hebrew text or its translations imagine that the Flood dried up at night? Instead of adding 40 nights, Westermann thinks it would be better to get rid of the 40 days. Bible scholars, whether commentators or editors, like to keep things balanced and regular, so we sometimes “correct” the text the way a teacher might correct a pupil. I try to avoid that tendency; it’s really not the way to go unless there’s an obvious error or insoluble confusion in the text.

NRSV and NJPS both say the Flood “continued” for 40 days. (Why 40? See here.) The issue they’re trying to solve is that we’ve already been told in v. 12 that the rain “was” on the Earth for 40 days and nights. Notice the punctuation (easy to ignore) in the JPS translation: