Genesis Deeper ㉙ Only Noah Was Left · What Did Noah Do While the Waters Rose? (Genesis 7:17~24)
This series takes one Bible passage at a time and looks at it a little more closely. The images are free to use in worship, class, and on social media.
The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.
Genesis 7:17~24 (World English Bible)
1. After the Door Was Shut
Just before this, in verse 16, Yahweh shut Noah in. From verse 17 the text turns to what happened outside that door. The waters increase and lift the ship off the earth. The waters rise further, and the ship floats on them. At last all the high mountains under the whole sky are covered. Everything that breathed on the earth dies, and the waters flood the earth for one hundred fifty days.
These eight verses record heavy days, days in which every living thing on the earth dies. Noah spent those days inside the ship, yet his name appears only once, in verse 23. So a question arises. During the days the waters flooded the earth, what did Noah do?
2. The Scene We Fill In
It is easy to fill in an answer to this question. We picture Noah feeding the animals, calming his family, and praying as he looks out the window. Picture books and films usually show that kind of Noah. There is no reason to call those scenes wrong. Even inside the ship there must have been daily work to do.
But that is a scene we fill in, not a scene the text records. For these days the text records nothing that Noah did. Before filling that gap with imagination, it is better to look first at what the text did write. Following the verbs shows who did what.
3. Going Deeper · Only One Verb for Noah
Here is the answer first. In 7:17~24 Noah does nothing. What moves is the water, and the ship is lifted and carried by it. The only verb attached to Noah’s name is ‘was left’ in verse 23, and in Hebrew it too is a passive form. The text records the Noah of those days not as a man who survived by his own strength, but as one God left alive.
Let us see who does what in these eight verses, in order.
The waters ‘increased’ (verses 17 and 18), ‘rose’ (verses 18, 19, and 20), and ‘flooded’ the earth (verse 24).
The high mountains ‘were covered’ (verses 19 and 20).
The ship ‘was lifted up’ (verse 17) and ‘floated’ (verse 18).
Living things on the earth ‘died’ (verses 21 and 22).
Every living thing on the surface of the ground ‘was destroyed’ (verse 23).
Noah ‘was left’ (verse 23).
Read to the end, and there is not one verb in which Noah does anything. The one verb in verse 23 that has Noah as its subject does not say what he did. It says he was left. In 6:22, “He did all that God commanded him,” and in 7:1~16 he went into the ship with his family and the animals. The man who did so much does not appear even once as someone at work in these eight verses after the door was shut.
Within verse 23 two verbs stand side by side: destroyed and was left. The World English Bible says every living thing ‘was destroyed,’ but in Hebrew the first verb of the verse is active: he destroyed. It is the same verb God used in 7:4, “I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.” Verse 23 happens just as God said beforehand. In the verse where God is the one who destroys, Noah is on the side of those who were left. Noah did not remain because he beat the water. He remained in the place God did not destroy.
4. Word Study · Gabar · Vayyishsha’er · Akh
① rose · gabar(גָּבַר). A verb meaning ‘to be strong, to prevail.’ It appears four times: vayyigberu(וַיִּגְבְּרוּ) in verse 18, gaveru(גָּבְרוּ) in verse 19, gaveru(גָּבְרוּ) in verse 20, and vayyigberu(וַיִּגְבְּרוּ) in verse 24. All four times its subject is the waters. The World English Bible renders it ‘rose’ three times (verses 18, 19, and 20) and ‘flooded’ once (verse 24). The Hebrew says the waters prevailed: over the earth, and fifteen cubits above the mountains.
② was left · vayyishsha’er(וַיִּשָּׁאֶר). A form of the verb sha’ar, ‘to remain,’ used in the passive (Niphal), so it is close to ‘was left.’ The World English Bible keeps that passive sense. This word first appears in the Bible right here in verse 23. In these eight verses it is the only verb attached to Noah’s name.
③ only · akh(אַךְ). A short word meaning ‘only, but.’ This word, too, first appears in the Bible in verse 23. Where everything on the earth was swept away, ‘only’ Noah and those in the ship were left. The text records this with two words used here for the first time.
5. One More Thing · What Floated on the Waters
In the days the waters prevailed, what happened to the ship? Verse 17 says, “The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.” The verb in ‘lifted up the ship’ is vayyis’u(וַיִּשְׂאוּ), and its subject is the waters. The same waters covered the mountains, and under them everything that breathed died. What they did to the ship was lift it up.
Verse 18 says the ship “floated on the surface of the waters.” In Hebrew, ‘on the surface of the waters’ is al pene hammayim(עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם), literally ‘on the face of the waters.’ In Genesis this phrase occurs twice. Once is here, and the other is 1:2.
“…Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)
At the beginning, before the dry land appeared (1:9), God’s Spirit was over the waters that covered the earth. In chapter 7 the waters cover all the high mountains, and the earth goes back under the water as at the beginning. The text does not say the two scenes are the same. It only uses the same Hebrew phrase, and the World English Bible lets English readers see it too: ‘the surface of the waters’ in both places. And on these waters that covered everything, one thing that was not covered floated. It was the ship carrying Noah, whom God had left alive, and those who were with him.
6. For Us Today
This passage leaves us with one message. In the days the waters flooded the earth, the text shows Noah doing nothing, yet he is the one God left alive.
Noah did everything he had to do: he built the ship, took in the animals, and went inside with his family. Once the door was shut and the waters flooded the earth, there was nothing his hands could do about the water or the ship. He could not make the water go down, and he could not steer the ship. The text neither blames the Noah of those days nor makes him look great. It simply records him as the one God left alive.
Our lives, too, have days when nothing is in our hands. A day of waiting for a result, a day when work comes to a stop, a day when there is nothing we can do for someone we love. Such days can feel empty. Yet in the text, the one hundred fifty days the waters flooded the earth are not recorded as days when nothing happened to Noah. They are recorded as the days in which God kept Noah alive. If today is such a day, may it be a day to count first that God is still holding on to you, before counting what you managed to do.
“God who kept Noah alive on the waters, we believe that you hold us even on days when we can do nothing. When such days feel long, help us not to forget this. When the day is over, let us count first what you have kept, before what we have managed to do. Amen.”
🕊 How to Use This in Ministry
Opening question
Ask, “On a day when it rained so much that you had to stay inside all day, what did you do?” and listen to the children’s answers. Then say, “Today the Bible tells us about a man who had to stay inside a ship for a very long time,” and move into the passage.
Activity
Draw four columns on the board: ‘Water,’ ‘Ship,’ ‘God,’ and ‘Noah’. Read 7:17~24 slowly together from the World English Bible. Each time the water does something (increased, lifted up, rose, flooded), draw a mark in the ‘Water’ column. Each time something happens to the ship (was lifted up, floated), draw a mark in the ‘Ship’ column. Words like ‘died’ and ‘were covered’ get no mark. When living things ‘were destroyed,’ mark the ‘God’ column, because in 7:4 God said, “I will destroy.” Let the children come up and draw the marks. When you finish, point to the ‘Noah’ column and ask, “How many things did Noah do?” After checking together that there are none, find the words written about Noah in verse 23, ‘was left,’ and write them in the ‘Noah’ column. Tell them, “This is not something Noah did. It is God leaving Noah safe.” Then show the image captioned ‘The ship on the surface of the waters’ from today’s images. Point out that inside that ship were Noah, his family, and the animals God had kept alive.
Application
Give each child a small card. Have them think of one “day when I could not do anything, but God kept me safe.” They write or draw it (a day they were sick, a time they almost got lost, a scary night). When they finish, say together, “Like Noah, God kept me safe too,” and have each child put the card in their bag to take home.
🖼️ Today’s Four Images · Press and hold or right click to save
The ship on the surface of the waters |
The waters increased, and lifted up the ship |
Only Noah was left, and those who were with him |
The mountains were covered |
📄 Image license CC0 (public domain) · Free to use, modify, and redistribute without attribution.
🤖 These images were created with AI (ChatGPT).
📖 Genesis Deeper ㉗ The Earth Was Corrupt · where God tells Noah to build the ship and the covenant is first mentioned
Origin Bible · Mission Zedero
Contact joypej@gmail.com
✍️ This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by a person.
The text is CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to use it for noncommercial purposes with attribution.
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