Genesis 7:6

Summary

The verse states Noah's age at 600 years using the Hebrew "son of" idiom for age, then describes the flood as consisting of water that came to be upon the earth. The Hebrew phrasing separates the flood itself (ha-mabul) from its substance (mayim, "water") through the verb hayah ("was").

Key words

• ben ("son of", H1121L) — construct form used idiomatically to express age; literally "a son of six hundred years," a standard Hebrew age formula rather than a biological statement.
• shesh ("six", H8337) — construct form linking to me'ot to form the compound number "six hundred."
• hayah ("was"/"came to be", H1961) — qal perfect, third person; marks completed action and functions as the main verb of the second clause, establishing that the flood became or was water — not merely arrived.
• mabul ("flood", H3999) — definite noun (with ha-, "the"), the subject of hayah; distinct grammatically from mayim ("water"), which follows as a predicate noun rather than in construct with mabul.
• 'aretz ("earth", H0776G) — definite feminine singular; the flood's spatial location, marked by the preposition 'al ("on/upon", H5921A).

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by ve- ("and"). The first clause gives Noah's age using the construct chain ben-shesh me'ot shanah — literally "a son of six hundred years" — a fixed Hebrew idiom for stating age that uses "son of" rather than a verb "to be" or "to have."

The second clause, ve-ha-mabul hayah mayim 'al ha-'aretz, places ha-mabul ("the flood") as subject of the verb hayah ("was"), with mayim ("water") functioning as a predicate noun rather than being joined to mabul in a construct or possessive relationship. The Hebrew therefore states that the flood was water upon the earth — describing what the flood consisted of — rather than saying water arrived or that a flood of water occurred. The verb hayah carries a stative/completed sense here (qal perfect), presenting this as an established fact at the time referenced.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Νῶε δὲ ἦν ἐτῶν ἑξακοσίων καὶ ὁ κατακλυσμὸς ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς) omits any equivalent to mayim ("water"); it states only that "the flood was upon the earth," without the Hebrew's explicit identification of the flood as water.

The Vulgate (Eratque sexcentorum annorum quando diluvii aquae inundaverunt super terram) restructures the sentence: instead of the Hebrew's "the flood was water upon the earth" (with hayah, a stative verb), it uses "diluvii aquae inundaverunt" ("the flood's waters flooded/overflowed"), introducing an active verb of inundation not present in the Hebrew's hayah, and placing "waters" in construct with "flood" (diluvii aquae, "waters of the flood") rather than as a predicate noun as in the Hebrew.