Genesis 8:1-3

Genesis 8:1-14. The Diminution of the Waters

1 (P). God remembered The same expression occurs in Genesis 19:29; Genesis 30:22. It is a form of anthropomorphism which is not infrequent in the O.T. and which is in continual use in the language of devotion.

and all the cattle LXX adds "And all the fowls and all the creeping things." For the expression of pity for the brute beasts, cf. "and also much cattle," in Jonah 4:11.

God made a wind to pass The wind was to drive the waters back into their channels, and to dry up the ground. Cf. the action of the wind in Exodus 14:21.

2 a (P). the fountains, &c. The first clause in this verse describes the closing of the sources of the Flood mentioned in Genesis 7:11 (P).

2 b, 3 a (J). and the rain … continually This is the duplicate account from J, in whose version the rain for 40 days was the cause of the Flood (Genesis 7:12).

3 b (P). after the end, &c. The 150 days are those mentioned in Genesis 7:24.