Genesis 7:21-24

"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died. And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only was left, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days."

These verses give the result of the Deluge, namely, the destruction of all life except that of Noah and his companions in the ark. Genesis 7:24 gives the duration of the flood as some five months when the waters reached their zenith. This also includes the forty days and forty nights of rain. At this point, the waters began to subside, or at least ceased rising. Some have objected that there is not enough water on earth to cover all the high mountains, but this is a mistake. A change in the level of the ocean floor could easily have done what is recorded here. As Whitelaw accurately discerned, what is indicated in this description is a "change in the land level."[18] And, speaking of the amount of water on earth, an unbelievable number of cubic miles of water is stacked upon the earth's polar caps in the form of ice.

Efforts to determine the exact time involved in the Deluge are frustrating, because of the uncertainty regarding whether or not some of the calculations are included in others. Following one scheme, the duration of the flood was one year and ten days, but Whitelaw's calculations gave the total time between the onset of the rains and the disembarkation from the ark as 417 days.[19] It is correct to say that it lasted somewhat over a year.