through which the world of that time perished in the flood.
By those waters flowing from both heavens and earth, the then world perished in its occupants and order, though not annihilated. The earth was deluged by the very water out of which it had originally risen, waters that broke up from below and poured down from above.
AI summary
The heaven mentioned here means the region of air between the waters, which Moses described as divided at creation; when the deluge came, that division was confounded and the heavens were submerged along with the earth. The plural 'which' points to heavens and earth together as the instrument of destruction, the windows of heaven and fountains of the deep being opened by God's word.
AI summary
The plural 'which' most naturally refers to the waters Genesis describes as surrounding the earth's making; the apostle means that by those same waters out of which the world was originally formed, it was destroyed. The world and all its inhabitants perished in that universal deluge.
AI summary