And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. This is the testimony of a spectator recording his impressions of what he witnessed, and therefore all the hills were those within the range of his visible horizon - i:e., the highlands of Armenia. It is evident, from the imperfect knowledge which the ancients possessed of geography, as well as the structure of the earth, that the phrase "under the whole heaven," cannot be taken in its literal sense, but must be understood with limitation; and there are various other passages of Scripture in which the same universal term is used with a restricted signification. See instances in Deuteronomy 2:25, where a promise is made that the fear of the Jews would be put "upon the nations that are under the whole heaven;" but upon comparing this with Genesis 11:25, which lays their "fear" and "dread" "upon all the land" that they should "tread upon," it will be seen-what, indeed, requires no proof-that the statement applied only to the people of Canaan and the neighbouring nations: in Acts 2:5, where it is said that, on the day of Pentecost, "there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven;" but the subsequent enumeration of the names (Acts 2:9-11) does certainly not include all people: and in Colossians 1:23, where the Gospel is declared to have been "preached to every creature under heaven," though it appears that the chief countries composing the Roman empire are meant.