What Does Genesis 7:20 Mean?
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters grow mighty, and the mountains were covered.
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
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.THE KEY
The waters do not merely reach the mountains; they cover them so completely that height itself ceases to be refuge.
THE MEANING
The waters rise fifteen cubits above the mountains, and the mountains vanish beneath them. You are shown a covering so complete that no summit remains above the flood.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every crisis leaves some high ground untouched is undone here: even the mountains lie beneath the waters.
THE ROOT
גָּבְרוּ
gāveru
GROWS FROM
גבר
גָּבַר (gābar): to be strong, prevail, or overcome.
“grow mighty” in this verse is gāveru. The verb grows from גבר (gābar, to be strong or prevail), the same consonantal seed found in גִּבּוֹר (gibbôr, a mighty one) and גְּבוּרָה (gevurah, strength). The waters carry the language of might: their height is not a neutral measurement but a force overcoming the land.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: A mighty one
גִּבּוֹר
This branch shares the root גבר and shows the strength carried by the verse’s word for the waters prevailing.
gevurah: Strength or might
גְּבוּרָה
This branch shares the same root and makes the waters’ overcoming force audible beneath the English word “prevailed.”
וַיְכֻסּוּ
vaykhussu
GROWS FROM
כסה
כָּסָה (kasah): to cover or conceal beneath a layer.
The form וַיְכֻסּוּ (vaykhussu, they were covered) comes from כָּסָה (kasah, to cover). Its family includes מְכַסֶּה (mekhasseh, covering) and מִכְסֶה (mikhseh, a covering); the mountains are not simply touched by the waters but overlaid and hidden beneath them.
ALSO GROWS
mekhasseh: Covering
מְכַסֶּה
This form shares the root consonants כ־ס־ה and carries the image of a layer placed over what lies beneath.
mikhseh: A covering
מִכְסֶה
This noun shares the root consonants כ־ס־ה and echoes the verse’s image of the mountains concealed beneath the waters.
THE PATTERN
When waters prevail beyond their bounds, even the highest ground can disappear beneath them.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stand upon the mountains.Through which the world that then was, being washed over with water, perished.THE THREAD
You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stand upon the mountains.The Hebrew verb for “coveredst,” תְּכַסֵּהוּ (tekhassehu, you cover it), shares the root כָּסָה (kasah, to cover) with the mountains being covered here. Psalm 104 pictures that same covering as a garment, while Genesis measures how far above the peaks it reaches.
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