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 came upon the earth] as a result of the upheaval, v.$11$.—The words forty days are a gloss based on 7$4. 12$ (v.i.); the Redactor treating J's forty days as an episode in the longer chronology: see on v.$12$ (J).

18-21, 24. Magnitude and effect of the Flood.—While J confines himself to what is essential—the extinction of life—and leaves the universality of the Flood to be inferred, P not only asserts its universality, but so to speak proves it, by giving the exact height of the waters above the highest mountains.—18, 19. prevailed], lit. 'be strong' (G , Aq. ). The Flood is conceived as a contest between the water and the dry land.—20. fifteen cubits] is just half the depth of the ark. The statement is commonly explained in the light of 8$4$: when the Flood was at its height the ark (immersed to half its depth, and therefore drawing fifteen cubits of water) was just over one of the highest mountains; so that on the very slightest abatement of the water it grounded! The explanation is plausible enough (on the assumption that 8$4$ belongs to P); but it is quite as likely that the choice of the number is purely arbitrary.—24. 150 days] the period of 'prevalence' of the Flood, reckoned from the outbreak (v.$11$): see p. 168.

'''VIII. 1, 2a, 3b-5, 13a, 14. Abatement of the Flood.'''—The judgement being complete, God remembers the survivors in mercy. The Flood has no sooner reached its maximum than it begins to abate ($3b$), and the successive stages of the subsidence are chronicled with the precision of a calendar.—1. remembered] in mercy, as 19$29$ 30$22$ etc. The inclusion of the animals in the kindly thought of the Almighty is a touch of nature in P which should not be overlooked.—1b. The mention of the wind ought certainly to follow the arrest of the cause of the Deluge ($2a$). It is said in defence of the present order that the sending of the wind and the stopping

19. ] G, with as subj. (better). So v.$20$.—20. ] G , is preferable to MT (cf. Ps. 103$11$).—] G (and S) add as in $19$.—21. ] here distinguished from.

1. The addition of G is here very much in place.—] The [root] is rare and late: Nu. 17$20$ (P),