And the waters returned from off the earth continually,.... Or "going and returning" s; they went off from the earth, and returned to their proper places appointed for them; some were dried up by the wind, and exhaled by the sun into the air: and others returned to their channels and cavities in the earth, or soaked into it:
and after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated; or began to abate, as Jarchi and the Vulgate Latin version; which days are to be reckoned from the beginning of the flood, including the forty days' rain; though Jarchi reckons them from the time of the ceasing of it; so that there were from the beginning of the flood one hundred and ninety days; six months, and ten days of the year of the flood now past; and in this he is followed by Dr. Lightfoot t: but the former reckoning seems best, and agrees better with what follows.
s הלוך ושוב, "eundo et redeundo", Pagninus, Montanus. t Works, vol. 1. p. 6.