What are the windows of heaven (Genesis 7:11)?

The term, "windows of heaven," is very expressive. It denotes an outpouring from God above; it may be in blessing, as Malachi 3:10 shows, but here it was in judgment. The devastating waters descended for forty days and forty nights, a period that we meet again in the Scripture several times, indicating a full period of testing. But also there was from beneath a breaking up of the established order. What exactly is signified, when we read that, "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up," it is impossible to say. The tremendous event had never happened before, and it will never happen again, for we read, "neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11). So obviously we must be content to know that there were immense internal convulsions, that produced a mighty upsurge of earth's waters, to meet the waters descending from above.

There are several Hebrew words so translated. Windows were openings to admit light and for ventilation; not glazed, but furnished with latticed work, through which persons could, though themselves unobserved, see what was passing outside. Some had shutters attached. There was a window in the ark Noah built, and windows in the temple; and many are to be made in the temple described by Ezekiel. Gen. 6:16; Gen. 8:6; 1 Kings 7:4-5; Ezek. 40:16-36.

In the East windows were usually made to open horizontally, which explains how a person sitting in a window could fall out. Acts 20:9. The passage in Isa. 54:12, "I will make thy windows of agates'' is better translated, "I will make thy battlements, or pinnacles, of rubies." At the flood the expression the 'windows of heaven' is in the sense of the 'floodgates,' as in the margin. Gen. 7:11.

Here we see that the destruction of the early population of the earth was effected by the vast store of water God provided above and below to overwhelm man and beast save those preserved in the ark with Noah by His command. To this exceeding overflow the language of Gen. 7:11 points: "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up," "and the windows (or, the flood gates) of heaven opened," as on the other hand that of Gen. 8:2, when the assuagement set in.

Mr. N. asserts as to the question, "Whence could the water come?" (Phases, p. 122) that it is represented as coming from the clouds, and perhaps from the sea. Scripture states that "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Gen. 7:11. Now this last may be a figurative expression for a very extraordinary quantity of rain from clouds; but it is either descriptive of what for quantity would be a miracle (for it uses an expression never repeated), or else it is some miraculous outletting of water other than from the clouds. The expression, "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, if it is not some miraculous outpouring of the sea itself, must mean some outbreak of waters from below, which, as never repeated, is to be called, so far as such events can be, miraculous.

145 Mr. N.'s statement of what scripture narrates is as unfounded as possible. Language never used elsewhere is used for the purpose of shewing that it was an extraordinary, and, save in this one case, unheard of, outbreak of waters in some never else known way. Mr. N. says, "from the clouds and perhaps from the sea:" as if clouds were certainly one source of the waters of the flood; and, if there were anything else, the thing to be added was the sea. Now something besides the clouds is certainly mentioned. Would any one suppose, from Mr. N.'s words, that if it was not the sea, it certainly was some divinely-caused outbreak of waters from some hidden source? He certainly does not dream of a "miraculous creation and destruction of water." (Phases, p. 123.) Be it so. But why two extraordinary words? Does not the narrative speak of some outburst of water known on no other occasion? But let us be more precise as to the fact. The passage speaks neither of clouds nor sea. But besides rain, it speaks of the fountains of the great deep being broken up, and the windows of heaven opened. It is never said the water drained back into the sea, but that "the waters returned from off the earth continually;" and declares the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. That is, the narrator does present it as having its source and its arrest in the extraordinary intervention of God — call it "miracle" or what you please.

In a word, it is certain that the sacred writer does, in the distinctest way, point out some very overwhelming outbreak of waters from an extraordinary source.

The fountains of the great deep were all broken up, and the windows of heaven opened, that is, above and below, all together broken up: in what way we cannot tell, but they were. Then we hear of a raven, an unclean thing, which could fly about in this world without difficulty, whilst the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot.

In verse 11 God gives the date of the beginning of the flood in relation to the age of Noah, not only the general time, but the exact day, the 17th day of the second month, in Noah's 600th year. The many dates, names and places recorded in scripture are an invitation to anyone to check as he pleases as to the accuracy of the word of God. In this verse we are told however that, not only were the windows of heaven opened, but first that the fountains of the great deep were broken up. This must have involved a tremendous tidal wave, the seas throwing up such waters as to cover the whole habitable earth. For it is claimed that the skies above us would be absolutely full to saturation point it they contained enough water to cover the earth to a depth of only thirty feet. One scientist has written that if a planet, — Saturn for instance, — were to come into close proximity to the earth, and make two passes around the earth, it could cause a tidal wave that would cover the whole earth, lasting 150 days. Of course, God could use such means as this if He pleased, or He could accomplish what He did apart from such means. But to add to the awesome inundation, the rain fell for forty days and forty nights (v. 12).

In verse 11 God gives the date of the beginning of the flood in relation to the age of Noah, not only the general time, but the exact day, the 17th day of the second month, in Noah's 600th year. The many dates, names and places recorded in scripture are an invitation to anyone to check as he pleases as to the accuracy of the word of God. In this verse we are told however that, not only were the windows of heaven opened, but first that the fountains of the great deep were broken up. This must have involved a tremendous tidal way, the seas throwing up such waters as to cover the whole habitable earth. For it is claimed that the skies above us would be absolutely full to saturation point if they contained enough water to cover the earth to a depth of only thirty feet. One scientist has written that if a planet, -- Saturn for instance, -- were to come into close proximity to the earth, and make two passes around the earth, it could cause a tidal wave that would cover the whole earth, lasting 150 days. Of course, God could use such means as this if He pleased, or He could accomplish what He did apart from such means. But to add to the awesome inundation, the rain fell for forty days and forty nights (v.12).

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, and the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were broken up all the fountains of the great deep, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind — every bird of every wing. And they went unto Noah into the ark, two [and] two of all flesh wherein was the breath of life. And they that came came male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Jehovah shut him in (lit. after him)" (vers. 11-16).

As we have seen the double form of prophecy, more distant and more immediate, and yet both unmistakably of God only, so we have in the great event which befell the ungodly world of that day a stupendous miracle of destruction from His hand which swept away the entire generation of unbelievers, with subordinate creation, from the face of the earth, when man's corruption and violence in the face of testimony from God became insupportable. So tremendous an event is recorded with the utmost precision and solemnity. We are told of it to the year, month, and day, when the judgment was executed. From below as from above, the brief but clear account tells us of what was never before man's creation and has never been since; and we may add on God's assurance, what will never be again, but a still more solemn and significant and all-pervading dissolution of the world. It was no mere question of the clouds or of the sea, as ordinarily. The inspired narrator speaks of quite different and altogether unexampled sources. All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens, as the phrase is, were opened. Neither the one nor the other was according to the course of nature God established before or since. This is exactly what makes a miracle evident and impressive; for all admit the regular action of the physical principles by which God orders the universe. But only scepticism is unwilling to own His title, especially in a morally ruined system, to interfere whether in judgment of evil, or in the testimony and triumph of grace: both alike worthy of His goodness and due to His character, fraught too with the richest blessing to His creatures, and subserving His glory.

The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep and sudden opening of the windows of heaven were the miraculous execution of God's purpose to destroy the life of all creatures upon earth; it is a serious lesson — the end of all flesh had come, and after long patience, the sentence was carried out.

In Genesis 7:11 we read, "the windows of heaven were opened," a scene in which the wrath of heaven was poured out upon a world of violence and corruption. In Malachi 3:10 we read of God's desire and promise to "open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." A deluge of judgment — necessitated because of the holy character of God; but a deluge of blessing expressive of the love of God's heart.