But God remembered Noah: But translates the common Hebrew connective, which in this context may be understood as marking a contrast with the clause before it. In this sense we may say, for example, “Although the flood prevailed for 150 days, God remembered Noah…” or “After the earth had been under the flood for 150 days, God remembered….” It is also possible to translate the connective as marking a transition to the next event in a sequence: “Then,” “And then,” “At that time.”
God remembered Noah does not mean that God had forgotten him and then recalled his situation to mind. This verb is used similarly in Gen 30.22, where it is said that “God remembered Rachel … and opened her womb.” Similar are Exo 2.24; 1 Sam 1.19; Jer 31.20. Remembered in this context means taking merciful action in regard to someone who is threatened or in trouble. Good News Translation “God had not forgotten” is a negative way of expressing something of this idea in English. Many translations use the phrase “think of”; for example, New English Bible “God thought of Noah.” New Jerusalem Bible says “God had Noah in mind.” We may also translate idiomatically sometimes: “God’s heart was warm for Noah and he helped him” or “God’s thoughts walked toward Noah.” The fact that God had not forgotten Noah during the downpour is well brought out by one translation that has “God was still thinking of Noah….”
All the beasts and all the cattle is the expression used in 1.24-25 and refers to wild and domestic animals. Bible en français courant translates “all the animals, wild and domestic.” Good News Translation and others combine the two groups into “all the animals.” For ark see discussion of 6.14.
And God made a wind blow: wind is Hebrew ruach, the same word as in 1.2; but here the context requires wind in contrast to “spirit.” Made … blow translates the causative form of the Hebrew verb “to blow through or over.” In some languages the fact that God caused the wind will be expressed differently; for instance, one translation says “God sent a wind that blew on the water….”
Over the earth: the earth is the same word used in 1.1. It refers to the created world rather than just to the surface of the land, which in this context is submerged beneath the water. If readers are likely to have a problem in thinking how the wind can blow over the earth when it is covered by water, it may be necessary to say, for example, “over the water covering the earth” or “over the water standing on the earth.”
And the waters subsided: and introduces a consequence and may need to be marked as such in translation; for example, “and so,” “therefore,” “as a result.” Subsided translates a verb meaning in this context “to go down, abate, lower.” We may translate, for example, “as a result the flood went down” or “and so the water level went down.” The text does not seem to mean that the flood water all disappeared at this time. Accordingly Good News Translation says “began to go down.” In some languages it will be natural to say “the water began to go down again,” indicating that the situation was returning to what it had been before. In some languages of coastal people, who see the tides as their picture of water levels rising and falling, this is expressed as “it began to be low tide progressively.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .