Genesis 7:11 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, second month, the seventeenth day It must be observed here, that the year among the Hebrews was two-fold: the one sacred, for the celebration of feasts, beginning in March, Exodus 12:12; the other civil, for men's political or civil affairs, beginning in September. Accordingly this second month has been thought by some to have been part of April and part of May, the most pleasant time of the year, when a flood was least expected or feared; by others, part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered in the fruits of the earth and laid them up in the ark: so that the flood came in with the winter, and was, by degrees, dried up by the heat of the following summer. And this latter opinion seems more probable, because the most ancient and first beginning of the year was in September; and the other beginning of it in March, a later institution, which took place among the Jews, with respect to their feasts and religious affairs only, which are not concerned here. The fountains of the great deep were broken up There needed no new creation of waters; God has laid up the deep in storehouses, Psalms 33:7; and now he broke up those stores. God had, in the creation, set bars and doors to the waters of the sea, that they might not return to cover the earth, Psalms 104:9; Job 38:9-11; and now he only removed these ancient mounds and fences, and the waters returned to cover the earth, as they had done at first, chap. Genesis 1:9. And the windows of heaven were opened And the waters which were above the firmament were poured out upon the world; those treasures which God, has reserved against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war, Job 38:22-23. The rain, which ordinarily descends in drops, then came down in streams. We read, Job 26:8, that God binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them; but now the bond was loosed, the cloud was rent, and such rains descended as were never known before or since.