Genesis 7:11 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

The six hundredth year of Noah's life, was 1656 years from the creation. In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month — Which is reckoned to be about the beginning of November; so that Noah had had a harvest just before, from which to victual his ark. The same day the fountains of the great deep were broken up — There needed no new creation of waters; God has laid up the deep in store — houses, 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 of the sea returned to cover the earth, as they had done at first, 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.