So it's literal unless you don't want it to be? Isn't that what you're accusing other Christians of doing? As you see, every element of the account fits nicely with a large regional flood. And since there is nothing within to indicate a global flood, why not just accept it as it is?
Seems like you do. "Eretz" means "land" not "world." The word for "world" is "tebel." You've just redefined a word to fit your expectations of God.
But not, as you see, the whole world. And the detailed context of the account in no place says it is worldwide in scope.
"Eretz" means "land"; "tebel" means "world." It's really not very hard to make that distinction when you read what is happening in these accounts. I'm just pointing out the irony of you trying to invoke a relativist interpretation to argue for Biblical literalism.
This is just the first example I found showing the term from the flood account in Genesis 7 can just as easily be interpreted as worldwide, as the same word is used to describe the creation of the earth. (Unless you suppose the creation of the earth itself to be a local event within the earth?)
Genesis 1:1 Lexicon: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (ha·'a·retz.). (biblehub.com)
Genesis 7:4 Lexicon: "For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land (ha·'a·retz.) every living thing that I have made." (biblehub.com)
So I don't know where you're getting your information, but it appears to be incorrect.
Not that this particular argument even matters, because even if Eretz exclusively meant worldwide, you would shift your position and just say the account is meant to be figural or metaphorical or allegorical. This will always happen when you try to make scripture conform to the story of evolution.
I will leave you again with the warnings of the apostle Peter:
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. - 2 Peter 3:1-7
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