Lexical Definition

‎מַבּוּל‎ mabbûwl (mab-bool') flood ^H:N-M
from ‎יָבַל‎ in the sense of flowing

flood.

• a deluge

1) flood, deluge.
1a) Noah's flood that submerged the entire planet earth under water for about a year
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Some think Noah's flood was only local. However the description of it found in Gen. 6 through 8 makes this patently absurd. If it was local, Noah had 120 years to migrate out of the area to safe ground! Why waste all that effort building a ship? He only had to move less than 1500 feet a day to reach the farthest point on the globe! With the possible exception of Ps 29:10, this word always refers to Noah's flood. The real reason for insisting on a local flood is the acceptance of evolution with its long geological ages. Most holding that view are not willing to allow a global world wide flood to have happened less than 5000 years ago. To admit such eliminates the need for the geological ages for most of the geological column would have been rapidly laid down by Noah's flood.

See Greek: κατακλυσμός

Brown-Driver-Briggs

‎מַבּוּל‎ noun masculine^{Gen 7:6} flood in time of Noah (Late Hebrew id.; Jewish-Aramaic ‎מַבּוּלָא‎; Syriac ; derivation dubious; Thes and others √ ‎יבל‎, but improbable, see Dl^{Prol. 122 f.}; possibly old Assyrian (Babylonian) loan-word (yet form unkn. in Assyrian ), or from √ ‎נבל‎ = Assyrian nabâlu, destroy Dl^{HWB 443 f.}; compare Dl^{Par. 156; Prol. 122} Che^{Psalm 29:10 critical note, Hebraica. iii. 3, 175 f.}, O. Whitehouse^{COT ii. 293}); — ‎׳‎‎מ‎ only Genesis and Ps 29:10 always absolute and always with article except Gen 9:11; Gen 9:15 — ‎׳‎‎וַיְהִי הַמּ‎ Gen 17:7 ‎׳‎‎לֹא יִהְיֶה עוֺד מ‎ Gen 9:11 following by ‎מַיִם‎ as appositive) Gen 6:17; Gen 7:6 ‎׳‎‎מֵי הַמּ‎ Gen 7:7; Gen 7:10; Gen 9:11 ‎לֹאיִֿהְיֶה‎ ‎׳‎‎עוֺד הַמַּיִם לְמ‎ Gen 9:15 as epoch, in phrase ‎׳‎‎אַחַר הַמּ‎ Gen 9:28; Gen 10:1; Gen 10:32; Gen 11:10 (strike out as gloss Bu Di); ‎יָשָׁ֑ב‎ ‎׳‎‎לַמּ‎ ‎׳‎‎י‎ Ps 29:10 ‎׳‎‎י‎ at the flood sat enthroned (so most; Che^{see critical note} ' at the storm ' (destruction = destructive storm Id^{Hebraica. 1.c}.), but ‎׳‎‎הַמּ‎ seems in all the other passages to be almost = proper name of the flood; compare also ‎מֵי נֹחַ‎ Isa 54:9 (twice in verse)).

Brown-Driver-Briggs References