For how many days does Genesis say rain fell during the Flood in Noah’s Ark story?

Genesis says rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights during Noah’s Ark story.

Genesis 7:12 states that rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. The number describes the period of continuous rain at the beginning of the Flood narrative. It should not be confused with the longer period during which the floodwaters remained high. Genesis separately says that the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days.

The number forty has a prominent symbolic and narrative role in the Bible. Other biblical episodes also use periods of forty days or years, including Moses’ time on Mount Sinai and Jesus’ fast in the wilderness. In the Ark story, however, the immediate wording is a duration of rainfall, not the entire time Noah spent aboard the vessel.

This distinction explains why summaries sometimes give different numbers for the Flood’s length. Forty days refers to the rain, while the complete sequence of rising waters, waiting, recession, and leaving the Ark covers a much longer span in the Genesis chronology.