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Genesis

About this book

The Flood

Chapter 7

1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark,⁠ you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation.⁠ 2 You must take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate,⁠ 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the entire earth.⁠ 4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”⁠ 5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because of the floodwaters. 8 Pairs of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground,⁠ 9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him. 10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth.⁠ 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on⁠ that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.⁠ 12 And the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. 13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.⁠ 14 They entered, along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah. 16 Those that entered were male and female, just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.⁠ 17 The flood engulfed the earth for 40 days.⁠ As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 18 The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.⁠ 19 The waters completely inundated the earth so that even all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered.⁠ 20 The waters rose more than 20 feet above the mountains. 21 And all living things that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 So the Lord destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.⁠ 24 The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 7:11 and Rosh Hashanah 11b

Hebrew Bible · Rabbinic

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Summary

In Genesis, the flood begins on the seventeenth day of the second month. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Rosh Hashanah links that date to the setting of the Pleiades and says the flood began when God made them rise and removed two of their stars.

Passages

Genesis 7:11

Hebrew Bible
10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Rosh Hashanah 11b

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud
And Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua follow their lines of reasoning, as they disagreed about this same issue in another context as well. As it is taught in a baraita: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day were all the fountains of the great deep broken open, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis 7:11). Rabbi Yehoshua says: That day was the seventeenth of Iyyar, the second month of the year counting from Nisan, which is the day that the constellation of Kima sets during the day and the season that the springs diminish with the increased heat. But because the people of the generation of the flood changed their actions for the worse, the Holy One, Blessed be He, changed for them the acts of Creation, and instead of Kima setting, He caused the constellation of Kima to rise during the day and He removed two stars from Kima, and in this way He brought a flood to the world.
450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Rosh Hashanah

References

“... R. Joshua argues that the Pleiades originally set at daybreak in the spring (hence their name), but that they were made to rise at daybreak (which they have done ever since) and two stars were removed thereby 'unplugging' a hole from which the floodwaters came; on the other hand, R. Eliezer argues that the original heliacal rising of the Pleiades in the autumn was changed to heliacal rising in early spring, now setting in the fall. Their arguments accept a causal association of Pleiades and rain: for both, the 'change in the work of the creation' involved reversing the seasons of heliacal risings and settings, as well as reversing the causal association from setting/dry season to rising/dry season. Understood in this way, there is no longer any confusion in the text. ...”
Ellen Robbins, “Studies in the Prehistory of the Jewish Calendar” (PhD diss., New York University, 1989), 13.
“... The specific tale of Asterah may have developed from more “scientific” speculations about the Pleiades and the Flood, as found in b.Rosh Ha-shanah 11b–12a; notably, this source evinces the cultivation of both calendrical and chronographical astronomy among Rabbinic Jews in late antique Mesopotamia, as well as their familiarity with the views on such matters current among their non-Jewish counterparts (consistent with the element of intercultural exchange suggested by the very name “Asterah”). [...] The stress on two stars being removed from heaven to cause the Flood might help to explain the consistent focus on two fallen angels in Jewish traditions about fallen angels ...”
Annette Yoshiko Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 264.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 7:11 and Rosh Hashanah 11b

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