Here we have the effects and evidences of the ebbing of the waters. 1.
The ark rested. This was some satisfaction to Noah, to feel the house
he was in upon firm ground, and no longer movable. It rested upon a
mountain, whither it was directed, not by Noah's prudence (he did not
steer it), but by the wise and gracious providence of God, that it
might rest the sooner. Note, God has times and places of rest for his
people after their tossings; and many a time he provides for their
seasonable and comfortable settlement without their own contrivance and
quite beyond their own foresight. The ark of the church, though
sometimes tossed with tempests, and not comforted (Isa. liv. 11), yet
has its rests, Acts ix. 31. 2. The tops of the mountains were seen,
like little islands, appearing above the water. We must suppose that
they were seen by Noah and his sons; for there were none besides to see
them. It is probable that they had looked through the window of the ark
every day, like the longing mariners, after a tedious voyage, to see if
they could discover land, or as the prophet's servant (1 Kings xviii.
43, 44), and at length they spy ground, and enter the day of the
discovery in their journal. They felt ground above forty days before
they saw it, according to Dr. Lightfoot's computation, whence he infers
that, if the waters decreased proportionably, the ark drew eleven
cubits in water.