What Does Genesis 7:17 Mean?
And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters multiplied and lifted the ark, and it was raised high above the earth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.THE KEY
The waters that cover the earth are also the force that carries the ark above it.
THE MEANING
As the waters increase across the earth, they carry the ark upward. The verse holds engulfment and elevation in one movement: what covers the ground bears the vessel above it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the assumption that rising water only swallows: here the same rising water also lifts the ark above the earth.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׂאוּ
vayis'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-s-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
The Hebrew gives two distinct motions: the waters carry or bear the ark (נָשָׂא, nasa), and then it rises above the earth (רוּם, rum: rise, be high). The נשא family can also describe a burden lifted away as forgiven, joining upward bearing with removal.
ALSO GROWS
nesui-pesha: Transgression lifted or carried away; rendered “forgiven” in Psalm 32:1.
נְשׂוּי־פֶּשַׁע
The same root that carries the ark upward can describe what is lifted off and removed.
massa: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
A burden is what gets borne, showing how the root’s sense of carrying extends beyond the ark to what is held and lifted.
THE PATTERN
In scenes of engulfing water or mire, being drawn up is the movement from being overwhelmed toward firm ground.
He stretches out from the height, takes hold of me, and draws me out of many waters.He lifts me out of a roaring pit, out of the clinging mud, and sets my feet on rock, and sets my steps firm.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.Psalm 32:1 uses a form of the same root behind “bare up” for transgression that the KJV renders “forgiven.” Its word picture is rebellion lifted or carried away, extending the ark’s upward bearing into the language of release.
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