Genesis7:24

Translation

And the waters prevailed

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on the earth fifty and one hundred days.

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Paraphrase

Now the flood waters had the entire world controlled in their mighty grasp for one hundred and fifty days.

Footnotes

1: "prevailed":

This word means “to be strong, to be mighty, to prevail.”

2: The number 150

For the symbolic meaning of the number 150, see my comment after Gen 8:3.

DOES THE NUMBER 150 HAVE SYMBOLIC MEANING?

It appears that the number 150 was another way to communicate completeness in ancient times, possibly because it three units of 50. Sometimes soldiers were divided into units of 50 rather than 100, and then combined as desired. Hebrews society was organized in such a way that certain men were over 100 other men, other were over 50, and others over 10 men. The number three was usually a symbol of completeness, thus three times fifty was completeness on a large scale.

Therefore, this verse communicates that the waters were strong and prevailed completely; no one was able to successfully resist them. By the 150th day, the day of fullness, the water had already accomplished its purpose and was obviously receding. It had successfully proven that it was victorious.

Notice that the flood narrative in Genesis used two numbering systems. It used what we call dates, specific days and months, and it used the number of days counting up from the beginning of something. The numbers that are not dates are all symbolic of completeness – 7, 40 and 150. The two numbering systems have different purposes. The dates are to show the passage of time, while the symbolic numbers are to show emphasis on a theme, e.g. they show the completeness of God’s judgment and the need for patient trust on the part of the righteous ones inside the ark.