Genesis 6:17

וַ אֲנִי הִנְנִי מֵבִיא אֶת הַ מַּבּוּל מַיִם עַל הָ אָרֶץ לְ שַׁחֵת כָּל בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר בֹּו רוּחַ חַיִּים מִ תַּחַת הַ שָּׁמָיִם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר בָּ אָרֶץ יִגְוָע

`And myself, behold-me,²⁵⁶ is he-who-causes to come in אֶת-the Flow²⁵⁷ of dual-waters upon the Earth to lay-waste the whole of the flesh, which in-himself is a wind of living-ones²⁵⁸ from underneath the Dual-Heavens, the whole which is in the Earth, he is breathing out.²⁵⁹

257

The Flowing Deluge

Strong’s #3999, hamabbul. The Flow. The definite article and its many contexts have led commentators and scholars to see this as a proper name, “always absolute and always with [definite] article except Genesis 9:11,15…seems in all the other passages to be almost equal to a proper name of the flood” – Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon.

The verb root is yabal #2986, to flow, conduct-along, bear-along. As things are “carried” along somewhere by procession (Hos. 10:6, 12:1, Isa. 55:12, etc.). This “flood” is not merely a “submerging” or “rising of waters” but a flowing surge that covers every mountain on earth.

A derivative of this root is tebel תֵּבֵל world, and tubal תּוּבַל she bears-along/conducts (stream, procession, flow).