In Genesis, on which day of the second month did the flood begin?

In Genesis, the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month.

Genesis 7:11 dates the start of the flood precisely: Noah was 600 years old, and the waters came on the seventeenth day of the second month. The verse combines the calendar date with Noah’s age, making this one of the most specific chronological details in the flood narrative.

This date is separate from the account’s statement that rain fell for forty days and forty nights. The forty-day period describes rainfall, while the seventeenth day of the second month identifies when the flood event began. Treating those as the same kind of information can lead to confusion.

The biblical text does not identify the month using a modern calendar name, and later Jewish calendar systems and translations may use different conventions for interpreting ancient dates. The wording in Genesis itself is the stable point: the flood began on day 17 of month 2.