And the waters returned from off the earth continually. Literally, going and returning. "More and more" (Gesenius). The first verb expresses the continuance and self-increasing state of the action involved in the second; cf.
Genesis 26:13; 1 Samuel 6:12; 2 Kings 2:11 (Furst). Gradually (Murphy, Ewald). The expression "denotes the turning-point after the waters had become calm" (T. Lewis). May it not be an attempt to represent the undulatory motion of the waves in an ebbing tide, in which the water seems first to advance, but only to retire with greater vehemence, reversing the movement of a flowing tide, in which it first retires and then advances—in the one case returning to go, in the other going to return?
The LXX; as usual, indicates the visible effect rather than the actual phenomenon: και Ì ἐ νεδι ì δου το Ì ὑ ì δωρ πορευ ì ομενον ἀ πο Ì τῆ ς γῆ ς. And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Literally, were cut off, hence diminished; imminsutae sunt (Vulgate); ἠ λαττονοῦ το το Ì ὑ ì δωρ (LXX.). The first stage was the quieting of the waters; the second was the commencement of an ebbing or backward motion; the third was a perceptible diminution of the waters.