The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Preparing the Ark
Genesis 6:13–22 — Preparing the Ark. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
13Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yō·mer lə·nō·aḥ qêṣ kāl- bā·śār bā lə·p̄ā·nay kî- mip·pə·nê·hem hā·’ā·reṣ mā·lə·’āh ḥā·mās wə·hin·nî maš·ḥî·ṯām ’eṯ- hā·’ā·reṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-said God to-Noah, ‘The-end-of all flesh has-come before-my-face, for the-earth is-full-of violence from-their-faces; and-behold-me destroying-them with the-earth.’”
Where the English smooths the original
Because all flesh had destroyed its way, it should be destroyed with the earth by God. The lex talionis is obvious here.Pinpoints the wordplay: the same root שׁחת for both the corruption (vv. 11–12) and the destruction (vv. 13, 17).
I will destroy them. —Not the verb used in Genesis 6:7 , but that translated had corrupted in Genesis 6:12 . It means “to bring to ruin, devastate.”
There is retribution here, for the words "corrupt" and "destroy" are the same in the original.
How startling must have been the announcement of the threatened destruction! There was no outward indication of it. The course of nature and experience seemed against the probability of its occurrence.
14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
‘ă·śêh lə·ḵā tê·ḇaṯ ḡō·p̄er ‘ă·ṣê- ta·‘ă·śeh qin·nîm ’eṯ- hat·tê·ḇāh wə·ḵā·p̄ar·tā ’ō·ṯāh bak·kō·p̄er mib·ba·yiṯ ū·mi·ḥūṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Make for-yourself an-ark of-gopher woods; nests you-shall-make the-ark, and-you-shall-cover-it with-the-covering from-inside and-from-outside.”
Where the English smooths the original
The root (cf. English, cover) signifies also to pardon sin, i.e. to cover them from God's sight ( Psalm 65:3 ; Psalm 78:38 ; 2 Chronicles 30:18 ), and to make expiation for sin, i.e. to obtain covering for themThe pitch-verb כפר is the atonement-verb. The vessel that bears Noah over the waters is built by an act of “covering.”
The word here used, têbâh , is only found in this passage and in Exodus 2:3-5 . It is of foreign origin; according to some, an Egyptian word; according to others, derived from the Assyrian.
Têbâh, a word so archaic that scholars neither know its derivation, nor even to what language it belongs. It is certain, however, that it was an oblong box, not capable of sailing, but intended merely to float.
it is no proof to the contrary that in later Hebrew the cypress is called berosh, for gopher belongs to the pre-Hebraic times.Keil treats גֹפֶר as a hapax of the pre-Hebraic stratum — its meaning is a learned reconstruction (cypress), not a settled lexical fact.
15And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·zeh ’ă·šer ta·‘ă·śeh ’ō·ṯāh hat·tê·ḇāh šə·lōš mê·’ō·wṯ ’am·māh ’ō·reḵ ḥă·miš·šîm ’am·māh rā·ḥə·bāh ū·šə·lō·šîm ’am·māh qō·w·mā·ṯāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-this is-how you-shall-make it: three hundred cubits the-length-of the-ark, fifty cubits its-breadth, and-thirty cubits its-height.”
Where the English smooths the original
According to the description, the ark was not a ship, but an immense house in form and structure like the houses in the East, designed not to sail, but only to float.
It will be noticed that the breadth is exactly one-sixth, and the height exactly one-tenth, of the length. In the Assyrian account we miss these proportions.The Genesis dimensions are orderly ratios; the Babylonian flood-ship is a cube — a quiet mark of the Hebrew account’s distinct character.
it was a just and regular proportion, the length being six times more than the breadth, and ten times more than the height.
16You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ta·‘ă·śeh ṣō·har lat·tê·ḇāh wə·’el- tə·ḵa·lɛn·nå̄h ’am·māh mil·ma‘·lāh tā·śîm ū·p̄e·ṯaḥ bə·ṣid·dāh hat·tê·ḇāh ta·‘ă·śe·hā taḥ·tî·yim šə·nî·yim ū·šə·li·šîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“A-light you-shall-make for-the-ark, and-to a-cubit you-shall-finish-it from-above; and-the-door-of the-ark you-shall-set in-its-side; lower, second, and-third [decks] you-shall-make-it.”
Where the English smooths the original
As the meaning light for צהר is established by the word צהרים, "double-light" or mid-day, the passage can only signify that a hole or opening for light and air was to be so constructed as to reach within a cubit of the edge of the roof.
The word so rendered ( ṣôhar ) only occurs here in the singular: in the dual it is the regular Heb. word for “noonday.”
The door into the ark may signify Christ, who, and faith in him, may be said to be the door into the church, and to all the ordinances of itGill’s typology — the single side-door as figure of the one way of entry. Read as figural application, not as the verse’s plain sense.
the ark requiring a roof, and that sloping, that the rain might slide off from it, and not sink into it; for which end the roof in the middle was to be higher than the ark by a cubit.
17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·’ă·nî hin·nî mê·ḇî ’eṯ- ham·mab·būl ma·yim ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ lə·ša·ḥêṯ kāl- bā·śār mit·ta·ḥaṯ haš·šā·mā·yim ’ă·šer- bōw rū·aḥ ḥay·yîm kōl ’ă·šer- bā·’ā·reṣ yiḡ·wā‘
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-I, behold-me, am-bringing the-flood, waters, upon the-earth, to-destroy all flesh in-which is breath-of life from-under the-heavens; everything that is-on-the-earth shall-expire.”
Where the English smooths the original
Mabbul, another archaic word. It is used only of the deluge, except in Psalm 29:10 , where, however, there is an evident allusion to the flood of Noah.
This catastrophe is due to the interposition of the Creator. It does not come according to the ordinary laws of physics, but according to the higher law of ethics.
I, even I, which is thus emphatically repeated, to signify that this flood did not proceed from natural causes, but from the immediate hand and judgment of God
18But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·hă·qi·mō·ṯî ’eṯ- bə·rî·ṯî ’it·tāḵ ū·ḇā·ṯā ’el- hat·tê·ḇāh ’at·tāh ū·ḇā·ne·ḵā wə·’iš·tə·ḵā ḇā·ne·ḵā ū·nə·šê- ’it·tāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“But-I-will-establish my-covenant with-you; and-you-shall-enter the-ark — you and-your-sons and-your-wife and-your-sons’-wives with-you.”
Where the English smooths the original
God established his covenant with Noah. This is the first place in the Bible where the word 'covenant' is foundThe lexical landmark: the Bible’s first בְּרִית. Henry hears in it both a covenant of providence and a covenant of grace.
Here is the first appearance of a covenant between God and man on the face of Scripture. A covenant is a solemn compact, tacit or express, between two parties, in which each is bound to perform his part.
It is this relationship of covenant ( διαθήκη ) which is renewed by our Lord and ratified at the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Matthew 26:28 .
My covenant concerning the sending of the promised Seed, and the redemption of mankind by the Messias, who shall come out of thy loins, and therefore thou shalt be preserved.Poole offers a second, messianic reading of the covenant — Noah preserved as a link in the line of promise. Offered as one of two options, not asserted as the verse’s sole sense.
19And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark—male and female—to keep them alive with you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·mik·kāl- tā·ḇî šə·na·yim mik·kōl hā·ḥay mik·kāl bā·śār ’el- hat·tê·ḇāh zā·ḵār ū·nə·qê·ḇāh yih·yū lə·ha·ḥă·yōṯ ’it·tāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-from-all the-living, of-all flesh, two of-every[-kind] you-shall-bring into the-ark to-keep-alive with-you; male and-female they-shall-be.”
Where the English smooths the original
the animals in the ark could not have been more in number than four men and four women could attend toEllicott constrains the scope by the labor of eight caretakers — a reasoned limit, his own, on how “all flesh” is to be read.
Two at least of every sort, even of the unclean; but of the clean more, as is noted Genesis 7:2 .
For the sake of Noah, the animal species also shall be preserved, "two of each, male and female." They are to come in pairs for propagation.
20Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·na·yim mik·kōl ū·min- mê·hā·‘ō·wp̄ lə·mî·nê·hū hab·bə·hê·māh lə·mî·nāh mik·kōl re·meś hā·’ă·ḏā·māh lə·mî·nê·hū yā·ḇō·’ū ’ê·le·ḵā lə·ha·ḥă·yō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Two of-every-kind: of the-bird after-its-kind, and-of-the-cattle after-its-kind, of every creeper-of the-ground after-its-kind — two of-every[-kind] shall-come to-you to-be-kept-alive.”
Where the English smooths the original
Probably the order of the account of the Creation in chap. 1 is followed, where the creation of the fowls is recorded in Genesis 1:20-22 , and of the cattle and creeping things in Genesis 1:24 .The catalogue replays Genesis 1’s sequence — the ark as a gathered, re-orderable creation.
They shall come unto thee of their own accord, by my impulse, or by the conduct of angels, as Genesis 2:19 .
two of every sort were to come to the ark, to be preserved alive there, that they might propagate their species.The creatures gather by providence (Gill: “of themselves … the providence of God so directing”), the Qal “they shall come” over against Noah’s Hifil “bring” in v. 19.
21You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’at·tāh qaḥ- lə·ḵā mik·kāl ma·’ă·ḵāl ’ă·šer yê·’ā·ḵêl wə·’ā·sap̄·tā wə·hā·yāh lə·’āḵ·lāh ’ê·le·ḵā lə·ḵā wə·lā·hem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-you, take for-yourself of every-kind-of food that is-eaten, and-gather [it] to-you; and-it-shall-be for-food for-you and-for-them.”
Where the English smooths the original
of all food that is eaten ] Presumably vegetables, cereals, and fruit. Cf. Genesis 1:29 .The ark’s diet is the diet of Eden — the food-grant of Genesis 1:29 carried through the flood.
What we do in obedience to God, we and our families are likely to have the benefit of.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten,.... By man and beast
22So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nō·aḥ way·ya·‘aś kə·ḵōl ’ă·šer kên ‘ā·śāh ’ĕ·lō·hîm ṣiw·wāh ’ō·ṯōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-did Noah according-to-all that commanded him God; so he-did.”
Where the English smooths the original
Christ, the true Noah, which same shall comfort us, hath by his sufferings already prepared the ark, and kindly invites us by faith to enter in.Henry’s Christ-reading: Noah’s finished ark prefigures the salvation Christ has already prepared. Figural, widely held in the tradition.
we shall not wonder that the faith whereby he surmounted all these difficulties should be so celebrated in the Scriptures. See Hebrews 11:7 .
he obeyed God's commandment in all points without adding or taking away.
Noah, without doubt, was all that while the song of the drunkards, and the sport of the wits of that age. So that it is not strange that this is mentioned as an heroic act of faith in Noah, Hebrews 11:7
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a sentence of doom whose force lives in a single Hebrew verb. “I will destroy them” (v. 13) and “to destroy all flesh” (v. 17) both render shâchath — the very word translated “corrupt” two verses earlier (6:12). Keil & Delitzsch name the principle exactly: “Because all flesh had destroyed its way, it should be destroyed with the earth by God. The lex talionis is obvious here.” Ellicott and Barnes see the same thing from the English side — Barnes: “the words ‘corrupt’ and ‘destroy’ are the same in the original.” The judgment is not arbitrary; it is the corruption rebounding on its authors. The ground is named once and named plainly: the earth is “full of ḥāmās” (v. 12, echoed in v. 13), violence — and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown stress how invisible this verdict was to the world it fell on: “There was no outward indication of it. The course of nature and experience seemed against the probability of its occurrence.”
Three of the unit’s most freighted words are old and rare. The vessel is a têbâh (v. 14) — not a ship but a chest; Ellicott: “a word so archaic that scholars neither know its derivation, nor even to what language it belongs.” Cambridge records its one other home in all Scripture: “only found in this passage and in Exodus 2:3–5” — the basket that floats the infant Moses. Two deliverances, one word. The timber is gōp̄er, a hapax (Keil: “gopher belongs to the pre-Hebraic times”). And the waterproofing carries a buried theology: the verb is kâphar, “to cover,” which the Pulpit Commentary traces to its other use — “to pardon sin, i.e. to cover them from God's sight … to make expiation,” the root of kappōreṯ, the mercy-seat. The ark that bears Noah above the wrath of God is, etymologically, a thing covered. Its dimensions are not cubic but proportioned; Cambridge notes the breadth is one-sixth and the height one-tenth of the length — “In the Assyrian account we miss these proportions.” The light-opening of v. 16 is ṣōhar, “brightness,” which Keil grounds in ṣohorayim, “mid-day.” A box, then — but a measured, lighted, covered one.
Into the announcement of universal death drops the Bible’s first bᵉrîṯ. Matthew Henry: “This is the first place in the Bible where the word ‘covenant’ is found.” Cambridge traces its line forward: “this relationship of covenant (διαθήκη) which is renewed by our Lord and ratified at the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Matthew 26:28.” The verb is qûm in the Hifil — God will raise it up and make it stand. What follows is creation in miniature: the animals come “after their kind” (the refrain of Genesis 1), and Cambridge observes the catalogue “follows the order of the account of the Creation in chap. 1.” In v. 19 Noah is to bring them (Hifil); in v. 20 they come of their own accord (Qal) — and the Pulpit Commentary relays Augustine’s epigram for the difference: “Non hominis actu, sed Dei nutu,” not by man’s act but by God’s nod. Even the food (v. 21) is the food-grant of Eden renewed (Cambridge: “Cf. Genesis 1:29”). Judgment and new-creation are folded into the same ark.
The unit closes on five Hebrew words that frame obedience as an answer in kind: Noah ‘āśāh (“did”) all that God ṣiwwāh (“commanded”) — Noah’s “make” mirroring God’s “make” (v. 14). The Geneva Study Bible: “he obeyed God's commandment in all points without adding or taking away.” It reads as a flat report, but the tradition hears thunder under it — Benson, Poole, and Keil all send the reader to Hebrews 11:7, where this sentence becomes the named act of saving faith. Poole pictures the cost: Noah “was all that while the song of the drunkards, and the sport of the wits of that age.” The man built the ridiculous box anyway, “so did he.”
Salvation is by a door God opens, into a vessel God covers. Read whole, under Sola Scriptura, the passage refuses to let the ark be merely engineering. The very verb for its waterproofing is the atonement-verb kâphar (v. 14) — to cover, to expiate — and the structure has exactly one way in, a single peṯaḥ in the side (v. 16), which Genesis 7:16 says the LORD Himself shut. The text gives no second entrance and no self-rescue. Yet salvation is not passive: God commands and Noah makes, comes in, takes, gathers — four imperatives obeyed (vv. 14, 18, 21) — and Scripture later calls that obedience faith (Hebrews 11:7). So the unit holds two truths without strain: the covenant is raised up by God alone (v. 18, the Hifil of qûm), and it is entered by a man who built when the sky was clear. This is the Berean shape of things — God’s word announced, believed, and acted on against the “course of nature and experience.” The ancient reading of the ark as a figure of Christ (Matthew Henry, Gill) is a figural application to be tested against the New Testament, not a claim the Hebrew makes on its own; held as such, it is illuminating, not load-bearing here.
The ark is a box God commands a man to build, and then a covering God Himself shuts him inside — judgment outrun by obedience, not by escape. (A reading to be weighed — not Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The earth “corrupted” itself (6:11–12, shâchath), so God will “destroy” it (6:13, 17, the same shâchath). The Verifier confirms the shared root across these verses; Barnes, Ellicott, Keil, and the Pulpit all read it as deliberate retributive wordplay. The corruption is not punished by an unrelated penalty — it is unmade by its own name.
Genesis 6:11 · Genesis 6:12 · Genesis 6:13 · Genesis 6:17
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared lexeme H7843 shâchath (in 135 vv), recurring as ‘corrupt’ (6:11–12) and ‘destroy’ (6:13, 17); same root, deliberate talionic reuse — verbal echo, not a quotation, so tiered structural.
The word for the ark, têbâh (H8392), is rare — the Verifier finds it in only 25 verses across the whole Hebrew Bible — and apart from the Flood narrative it occurs only in Exodus 2:3–5, the basket that saves the infant Moses. The same uncommon noun frames both rescues: a vulnerable life sealed inside, drawn safe through deadly water. Cambridge and Ellicott both flag the singularity of the term.
Genesis 6:14 · Genesis 6:18 · Genesis 7:7 · Exodus 2:3
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared rare lexeme H8392 têbâh (in only 25 vv, all in Gen 6–9 + Exod 2:3–5); a pointed verbal link by a near-hapax noun, but a shared object/motif rather than a quotation — tiered structural, not verbal.
“The flood” of 6:17 is mabbûl (H3999), an archaic term that, as Ellicott, Cambridge, and Keil all note, is used of nothing but Noah’s deluge — its only other occurrence in Scripture is Psalm 29:10, “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood.” The link is lexical and singular: one word reserved for one event, reappearing once to set the LORD above it.
Genesis 6:17 · Psalm 29:10
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared rare lexeme H3999 mabbûl, which occurs ONLY in the Flood narrative and Psalm 29:10 (a near-hapax); the extreme rarity of the term makes the verbal link confirmable. Provenance per Ellicott/Cambridge/Keil, not the Verifier’s candidate list.
The Verifier’s top candidates are the verses of Genesis 7 where Noah (Nôach, H5146) and the ark (têbâh, H8392) recur together as the waters rise — 7:1, 7:7, 7:9, 7:13, 7:23. These are the narrative continuation: the command to build (our unit) executed when the flood comes. Shared proper noun plus the rare vessel-word bind the build to the boarding.
Genesis 7:1 · Genesis 7:7 · Genesis 7:13 · Genesis 7:23
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew shared lexemes H5146 Nôach (in 39 vv) + H8392 têbâh (in 25 vv) per Verifier thread_candidates; recurring named subject and object across the same narrative — structural continuity, no quotation claim.
Genesis 6:22 — “Noah did … so he did” — is the act the New Testament singles out: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7). Benson, Poole, and Keil each anchor v. 22 to this verse. Because this is a cross-Testament link (Greek↔Hebrew), it cannot rest on a shared Strong's number; it is a thematic/typological reading of the same event, not a verbal quotation of the Hebrew.
Genesis 6:22 · Hebrews 11:7
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek NT ↔ Hebrew OT): no shared Strong's possible, so not ‘verbal’. Hebrews 11:7 reads Noah’s ark-building as the exemplary act of faith — a widely-held figural reading of the same event; attestation ancient (named by Benson, Poole, Keil).
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Matthew Henry, on 6:22: “Christ, the true Noah, which same shall comfort us, hath by his sufferings already prepared the ark, and kindly invites us by faith to enter in.” Gill develops the same figure: the ark is “a type of the church of God,” and the single door a figure of Christ, “the door into the church.” The vessel’s one entrance, shut by the LORD’s own hand (Genesis 7:16), reads in the tradition as the one way of salvation, entered by faith.
Genesis 6:14 · Genesis 6:16 · Genesis 6:22
The waterproofing of the ark (6:14) is the verb kâphar — the atonement-word; the Pulpit Commentary traces it to “make expiation for sin … to obtain covering,” the root of the mercy-seat (kappōreṯ, ἱλαστήριον, Romans 3:25). And the covenant of 6:18 is the first bᵉrîṯ in Scripture, the line Cambridge runs forward to the cup of the new covenant in Christ’s blood (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:16–17, cited by Ellicott). The ark that is covered and the covenant that is raised up together prefigure a salvation secured by atoning blood and a standing covenant. This particular synthesis of the two threads is the tool’s own reading, offered to be tested.
Genesis 6:14 · Genesis 6:18
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is entirely Hebrew, so the Verifier’s computed bases are all Hebrew↔Hebrew shared-Strong's links and are tiered structural unless the shared lexeme is genuinely rare. Two words drive the strongest threads: têbâh (H8392, only ~25 verses, confined to Gen 6–9 and Exod 2:3–5) and mabbûl (H3999, only the Flood narrative + Psalm 29:10). The mabbûl→Psalm 29:10 link is tiered ‘verbal — confirmed’ on the strength of the word’s near-hapax rarity, attested by Ellicott, Cambridge, and Keil; it did not appear in the Verifier’s candidate list (which is keyed to this unit’s lexemes), so its provenance rests on those named commentators, not on a machine-computed shared number. The Hebrews 11:7 thread is cross-Testament and therefore cannot use a shared Strong's number; it is tiered typological, not verbal. Several voices (Gill, Henry) carry figural readings — the ark as church, the door as Christ — which are marked as figural application in the notes, not as the plain sense of the Hebrew. No Joshua 1:5 material is present in this unit, so the mandatory Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply here. Where commentators disagree (e.g. whether qêṣ in 6:13 means ‘destruction’ or ‘consummation/fullness’, and whether the deluge was universal or local), the synthesis reports the dispute rather than resolving it, and the parses above follow the Berean/Strong's data and are not contradicted.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)