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Noah in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. And if the Flood was indeed regional (not universal in that
the highest mountains were covered with water) then we have a very good explanation of how
these people were still living at the time the book of Genesis was written.

Following the Flood, the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth migrated to various coun-
tries and settled there. Records Genesis 10:5: "By these were the isles [coastlands] of the GEN-
TILES divided in their lands; every one after their tongue, after their families, in their nations."
Then, in Genesis 10:32, we read: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their genera-
tions in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood."

How can we explain the existence of these nations to which Noah's descendants migrated
and which were "divided" by them if the Flood had drowned all but the eight people in the ark?
"The word that is here translated 'divided' (Strong's Concordance, #6504) is translated 'dis-
persed' in Esther 3:8: '...there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people
in all the provinces of thy kingdom.' If we understand this same meaning in connection with Noah's
descendants, they were dispersed among various Gentile nations, implying, it would seem, there
were other nations of people who did not descend from those in the ark" (Noah's Flood, Joshua's
Long Day, and Lucifer's Fall, p. 55).

The Word "Erets"

Admittedly, as we read the Genesis account of the Flood in the various English translations
available to us, it does seem that this deluge was nothing short of world-wide and universal. In the
New King James Bible it is described as a,

flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; and eve-
rything that is on the earth shall die (Genesis 6:17).

And, in the Scofield Bible, we read that when the Flood came,

the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven,
were covered...and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth...Noah only
remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark (Genesis 7:19-23).

In the Jewish Tanakh we read --

For in seven days time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out
from the earth all existence that I created (Genesis 7:4).

We are repeatedly told in the Biblical account that the Flood would cover the EARTH, and
that everything in the EARTH would die. These, and other statements about the EARTH, would
have us believe the entire world was to be inundated -- except for one Hebrew word: ERETS!

Number 776 in Strong's Concordance, the word ERETS (which is translated "EARTH"
throughout the Flood account) frankly does not require a world-wide, all encompassing meaning! If
you check it out, you will find that this word is translated "country" 140 times and "land" 1,476

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