Genesis 7:18

Summary

The verse reports two consequences of the flood in sequence: the waters gaveru ("increased/prevailed", H1396) and ravu ("increased", H7235A) exceedingly over the earth, and as a result the ark halakh ("went/moved", H1980I) upon the surface of the waters. The Hebrew presents this as three linked narrative actions.

Key words

• va-yigberu ("and they increased/prevailed", H1396) — qal verb with narrative vav, masculine plural, referring to ha-mayim ("the waters"); marks the first event in the sequence.
• va-yirbu ("and they increased", H7235A) — second qal narrative verb, also masculine plural, forming a pair with yigberu; both verbs share the same subject, the waters, intensifying the description of their rise.
• me'od ("exceedingly", H3966) — an adverbial modifier following yirbu, marking the degree of increase as extreme.
• va-telekh ("and it went", H1980I) — qal narrative verb, feminine singular, agreeing with ha-tevah ("the ark", feminine noun); shows the ark as the grammatical subject of movement.
• penei ("surface of", H6440J) — masculine plural noun in construct state, meaning literally "face of," linking to ha-mayim ("the waters") that follows.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three narrative clauses, each introduced by the vav-consecutive construction (va- + prefixed verb form), which in Biblical Hebrew narrative indicates sequential action: "and then X happened, and then Y happened." The first two verbs, yigberu ("they increased/prevailed", H1396) and yirbu ("they increased", H7235A), both take ha-mayim ("the waters", H4325G) as their subject and appear to describe the same waters with two different verbal roots — one emphasizing strength or dominance, the other simple increase in quantity — reinforced by the adverb me'od ("exceedingly", H3966).

The third clause shifts subject to ha-tevah ("the ark", H8392), a feminine noun, matched by the feminine verb form telekh ("it went", H1980I). The verb root here (halakh, "to walk/go") is the ordinary verb of motion, not a specialized nautical term; the text describes the ark's movement without additional verbs of floating specific to the Hebrew root. The final phrase, al-penei ha-mayim ("upon the surface of the waters"), uses the construct noun penei ("face of", H6440J) to indicate the ark's position on top of the water's surface, echoing the same construction used earlier in the flood narrative to describe surfaces of water and land.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-mayim with singular τὸ ὕδωρ ("the water") rather than a plural, and uses ἐπεκράτει ("prevailed") and ἐπληθύνετο ("was multiplied") for the two Hebrew verbs. For the ark's motion, the LXX uses ἐπεφέρετο ("was borne/carried"), a passive form, differing from the Hebrew active verb telekh ("it went"). The Vulgate similarly shifts to ferebatur ("was carried"), also passive, and adds "omnia repleverunt" ("[they] filled all things"), an expansion not present in the Hebrew clause structure.