Genesis 7:5 | 35
6:8 k Ge 19:19 ; Ex 33:12 , 13 , 17 ; Lk 1:30 ; Ac 7:46
6:9 l Ge 7:1 ; Eze 14:14 , 20 ; Heb 11:7 ; 2Pe 2:5 m Ge 5:22
6:10 n Ge 5:32 6:11 o Eze 7:23 ; 8:17
6:12 p Ps 14:1‐3 6:13 q ver 17 ; Eze 7:2‐3
6:14 r Heb 11:7 ; 1Pe 3:20 s Ex 2:3
6:17 t Ge 7:4 , 21-23 ; 2Pe 2:5
6:18 u Ge 9:9-16 v Ge 7:1 , 7 , 13
6:20 w Ge 7:15 6:22 x Ge 7:5 , 9 , 16
7:1 y Mt 24:38 z Ge 6:9 ; Eze 14:14
7:2 a ver 8 ; Ge 8:20 ; Lev 10:10 ; 11:1‐47
7:5 b Ge 6:22 the ground — for I re gret that I have made them .” 8 But Noah found fa vor in the eyes of the Lord . k
Noah and the Flood 9 This is the ac count of Noah and his fam ily .
Noah was a righ teous man , blame less among the peo ple of his time , l and he walked faithfully with God . m
10 Noah had three sons : Shem , Ham and Ja pheth . n
11 Now the earth was cor rupt in God ’ s sight and was full of vi o lence . o 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had be come , for all the peo ple on earth had cor rupted their ways . p 13 So God said to Noah , “ I am go ing to put an end to all peo ple , for the earth is filled with vi o lence because of them . I am surely go ing to de stroy both them and the earth . q 14 So make your self an ark of cy press a wood ; r make rooms in it and coat it with pitch s in side and out . 15 This is how you are to build it : The ark is to be three hun dred cu bits long , fifty cu bits wide and thirty cubits high . b 16 Make a roof for it , leav ing be low the roof an open ing one cu bit c high all around . d Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower , mid dle and up per decks . 17 I am go ing to bring flood wa ters on the earth to de stroy all life un der the heav ens , ev ery crea ture that has the breath of life in it . Ev ery thing on earth will per ish . t 18 But I will es tab lish my cov enant with you , u and you will en ter the ark v — you and your sons and your wife and your sons ’ wives with you . 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all liv ing crea tures , male and fe male , to keep them alive with you . 20 Two w of ev ery kind of bird , of ev ery kind of an i mal and of ev ery kind of crea ture that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive . 21 You are to take ev ery kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them .” 22 Noah did ev ery thing just as God com manded him . x
7 The Lord then said to Noah , “ Go into the ark , you and your whole fam ily , y be cause
I have found you righ teous z in this gen er a tion . 2 Take with you seven pairs of ev ery kind of clean a an i mal , a male and its mate , and one pair of ev ery kind of un clean an i mal , a male and its mate , 3 and also seven pairs of ev ery kind of bird , male and fe male , to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth . 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights , and I will wipe from the face of the earth ev ery liv ing crea ture I have made .”
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him . b
a 14 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain . b 15 That is , about 450 feet long , 75 feet wide and 45 feet
high or about 135 meters long , 23 meters wide and 14 meters high c 16 That is , about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters d 16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain .
6:8 Ezekiel twice mentions Noah first in a list of righteous men who , despite the enormity of their merit , could not prevent the city of Jerusalem from facing judgment ( Ezek 14:14,20 ). favor . Of the dozens of times that the Bible mentions favor or grace , this is the first ( see “ Love and Grace ,” p . 2370 ). Noah represents the minority who remain righteous despite evil all around ; he was the first , but not the last . It is this small group of believers that God calls out in each generation — Abram ( Gen 12:1 – 3 ), Israel ( Exod 1 – 19 ), faithful exiles ( 2 Kgs 19 ; Isa 10:20 – 22 ) — until the coming of Christ , who though abandoned by his disciples remains faithful to death . 6:9 — 8:22 Noah and the Flood . The story of the flood has many parallels with ancient Bab ylonian accounts . Agreement in details ( e . g ., a single man and his family rescued , a window , birds sent from the ark , the sequence in a larger narrative ) make coincidence unlikely to explain the relationship . There was a memory of a great flood , but the reasoning for it in the fictional stories of Bab ylonia have to do with divine decisions to deal with too much human noise and overpopulation . In contrast , the biblical account connects the flood with God ’ s judgment for sin , especially violence . In some ways the flood story resembles the opening account of creation and may be viewed as a re-creation of the earth after it has been cleansed from the defilement of human sin . 6:9 – 22 Righteous Noah ( v . 9 ; 7:1 ) explicitly obeys God ’ s detailed commands ( 6:22 ). He saves his family through faith and is heir to the righteousness that comes by faith ( Heb 11:7 ). 6:9 – 10 account . This “ account ” of Noah and his sons and all their families as they survive the flood signals an important new unit in Genesis by describing a major event rather than listing a genealogy . 6:11 violence . The fundamental nature of harmful and destructive corruption ( cf . 9:6 ). 6:15 Noah would build a rectangular ark , six times longer than it was wide and ten times longer than it was high . Estimates suggest that all the land animals could be accommodated in the ark with more than half of it remaining for other uses . 6:18 covenant . Hebrew bĕrît . This is its first occurrence in the Bible . God here prophesies the covenant of 9:8 – 17 . As with the later covenants , God promises salvation and preservation . See “ Covenant ,” p . 2334 .
6:22 did everything just as God commanded him . Noah models perfect obedience ( 7:5 ).
7:2 seven pairs . . . clean . . . one pair . . . unclean . The additional clean animals might be used for sacrifice ( 8:20 ) or food ( 9:2 – 4 ). Although details about clean and unclean animals occur later ( Lev 11 ; Deut 14 ), there was early awareness of the correct animals for proper sacrifices ( Gen 22:13 ). 7:4 forty days and forty nights . Forty years characterizes a generation of wilderness wandering ( Num 14:33 – 34 ; 32:13 ) and rulership
Artistic representation of the size of the ark ( see Gen 6:15 ). © 1993 by Zondervan