For how many days and nights did rain fall during the biblical Flood?

In the biblical Flood account, rain fell for forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:12 gives this duration after Noah, his family, and the animals entered the ark. The same chapter says the waters continued to prevail afterward, so the forty-day rainfall is not the entire length of the Flood episode. Genesis 7:24 says the waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.

The number forty has a recurring literary and religious role in the Bible. It is also associated with Moses’ time on Mount Sinai and Israel’s wilderness journey. In the ark narrative, however, the specific phrase describes continuous rain rather than the whole period Noah remained aboard.

Readers sometimes combine the forty days of rain with the later period of receding waters. The story’s chronology is longer than forty days, and Genesis 8 records the waters gradually diminishing before Noah leaves the ark.