Genesis Chapter 8 verse 3 Holy Bible
and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.
read chapter 8 in ASV
And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower.
read chapter 8 in BBE
And the waters retired from the earth, continually retiring; and in the course of a hundred and fifty days the waters abated.
read chapter 8 in DARBY
And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
read chapter 8 in KJV
And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
read chapter 8 in WBT
The waters receded from off the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.
read chapter 8 in WEB
And turn back do the waters from off the earth, going on and returning; and the waters are lacking at the end of a hundred and fifty days.
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - And the waters returned from off the earth continually. Literally, going and returning. "More and more" (Gesenius). The first verb expresses the continuance and self-increasing state of the action involved in the second; cf. Genesis 26:13; 1 Samuel 6:12; 2 Kings 2:11 (Furst). Gradually (Murphy, Ewald). The expression "denotes the turning-point after the waters had become calm" (T. Lewis). May it not be an attempt to represent the undulatory motion of the waves in an ebbing tide, in which the water seems first to advance, but only to retire with greater vehemence, reversing the movement of a flowing tide, in which it first retires and then advances - in the one case returning to go, in the other going to return? The LXX., as usual, indicates the visible effect rather than the actual phenomenon: καὶ ἐνεδίδου τὸ ὕδωρ πορεύομενον ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. Literally, were cut off, hence diminished; imminsutae sunt (Vulgate); ἠλαττονοῦτο τὸ ὕδωρ (LXX.). The first stage was the quieting of the waters; the second was the commencement of an ebbing or backward motion; the third was a perceptible diminution of the waters.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) The waters returned from off the earth.--This backward motion of the waters also seems to indicate that a vast wave from the sea had swept over the land, in addition to the forty days of rain.Were abated.--Heb., decreased. Those in the ark would notice the changing current, and would know, by their being aground, that the flood was diminishing. But it was not till the first day of the tenth month that the tops of the mountains were seen. This slow abatement of the waters and their stillness, described in Genesis 8:1, makes it probable that the ark had grounded on some land-locked spot.
