Verse 2 and the first part of verse 3 form a three-line parallelism. In verse 2a fountains of the deep and windows of the heavens are matched in verse 2b by rain from the heavens and in verse 3a by waters. The matching verbs are closed, restrained, receded.
Fountains of the deep and windows of the heavens are the same expressions used in 7.11. See there for discussion. Rain translates the same noun used in 7.12. See there for comments. Was restrained translates a verb that has the same meaning as closed earlier in the verse. It is used figuratively in Ezek 31.15 for damming up the rivers of Sheol. Some translations are able to use the picture of closing the sources of the flood water; for instance, “God plugged up the holes in the ground and the window-holes in the sky….” Others simply say “the water from under the ground didn’t come up any more….”
Waters receded from the earth continually: waters refers to the flood waters, while receded translates a verb meaning to turn, return, go back. The subject of this verb is normally a person, but when used with water it means “go down, withdraw, lower.” Good News Translation has “The water gradually went down,” and Bible en français courant “The waters progressively withdrew….” Continually is literally “going and receding,” which means the water gradually receded or slowly withdrew. This is expressed by one translation as “the water kept going down little by little,” while another says “the water was smaller progressively.”
At the end of a hundred and fifty days: there are two ways to understand a hundred and fifty days in verse 3. It may be taken as the same period as in 7.24, or as a separate period of time. Most modern versions understand them to be separate, or at least those translations make no effort to equate them. The date given in 8.4 makes us ask if the two periods of one hundred and fifty days are not to be taken as one and the same. In verse 4 we are told that the ark came to rest on the mountain range of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. This is five months from the time the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month in 7.11. Counting a lunar month as thirty days, five months is equivalent to one hundred and fifty days. With Mundhenk we conclude that 7.24 and 8.3 refer to the same one hundred and fifty days.
If this calculation is correct, translations should avoid giving the impression that 7.24 and 8.3 are speaking of two distinct periods. One version that attempts to equate them is New International Version, which says “The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down.” New International Version also has a cross reference to 7.24.
Abated translates a verb whose meaning is the same as recede, diminish, go down. One interpretation is that after 150 days the flood water had gone down far enough for the boat to settle on the ground. Another way to handle this is to make verse 4 the next event in the sequence without marking it as a result. See Good News Translation. Two suggestions from existing translations are “The water kept going down for 150 days” and “After 150 days it was almost low tide.”
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 .