Genesis 8:5 - Exposition

And the waters decreased continually —literally, were going and decreasing — until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month ,— chodesh, a lunar month, beginning at the new moon, from chadash , to be new; νεομηνι ì α , LXX . (of. Exodus 13:5 ). Chodesh yamim, the period of a month (cf. Genesis 29:14 ; Numbers 11:20 , Numbers 11:21 )— were the tops of the mountains seen . "Became distinctly visible". Apparuerunt cacumina montium (Vulgate). The waters had now been subsiding ten weeks, and as the height of the water above the highest hills was probably determined by the draught of the ark, we may naturally reason that the subsidence which had taken place since the seventeenth day of the seventh month was not less than three hundred and fifteen inches, at twenty-one inches to the cubit, or about four and one-third inches a day.