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Exiting the Ark
Genesis 8:13–19 — Exiting 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.
13In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî wə·šêš- mê·’ō·wṯ bə·’a·ḥaṯ šā·nāh bə·’e·ḥāḏ la·ḥō·ḏeš bā·ri·šō·wn ham·ma·yim ḥā·rə·ḇū mê·‘al hā·’ā·reṣ nō·aḥ ’eṯ- way·yā·sar miḵ·sêh hat·tê·ḇāh way·yar wə·hin·nêh pə·nê hā·’ă·ḏā·māh ḥā·rə·ḇū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-came-to-pass, in the six hundred and first year, on the first of the month, in the first [month], the waters had dried up from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dried.”
Where the English smooths the original
The covering of the ark. —The word is elsewhere used of the covering of skins for the Tabernacle ( Exodus 26:14 ; Numbers 4:25 ), and it has probably a similar meaning here. To have removed the solid framework of the roof would have been a very laborious task, and still more so to have broken up the roof itself.
The intervals of seven days between the sending forth of the birds prove that the division of time into weeks was fully established, and also suggests that religious observances were connected with it.
the first day of the month; so that it was the first day of the year, New Year's Day, and a joyful one it was to Noah and his family, when they saw dry ground; which they had not seen for above ten months
Noah waited some time, and then, on the first day of the first month, in the 601st year of his life, removed the covering from the ark, that he might obtain a freer prospect over the earth.
14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bə·šiḇ·‘āh wə·‘eś·rîm yō·wm la·ḥō·ḏeš haš·šê·nî ū·ḇa·ḥō·ḏeš hā·’ā·reṣ yā·ḇə·šāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dry.”
Where the English smooths the original
The word rendered “dried” at the end of this verse is different from that translated “dried up” and “dry” in Genesis 8:13 , and marks a further stage in the process. It should be translated, was thoroughly dry.
The three Hebrew verbs employed to depict the gradual cessation of the floods express a regular gradationExcerpted from a longer note that lays out qālal → ḥāraḇ → yāḇēš and cites the Septuagint and Isaiah 19:5.
Not only from water, as it was Genesis 8:13 , but from mud and dirt also. So the flood continued ten days more than a year, by comparing this with Genesis 7:11 .
it was not till the 27th day of the second month, 57 days, therefore, after the removal of the roof, that the earth was completely dried up.
15Then God said to Noah,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ĕ·lō·hîm way·ḏab·bêr ’el- nō·aḥ lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And God spoke to Noah, saying —”
Where the English smooths the original
it was, no doubt, very rejoicing to him, since he had not heard his voice for a year or more, at least that we read of
The vast extent of the flood, and the total destruction of all that had existed before, is indicated by the repetition of the primæval command, in Genesis 1:22 , “to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
For which command doubtless the patriarch waited, as he had done for instructions to enter in ( Genesis 7:11 ), "being restrained by a hallowed modesty from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature till he should hear the voice of God directing him to do so" (Calvin).The Pulpit Commentary here quotes Calvin within its own note.
Noah is commanded to leave the Ark, and to replenish the Earth. (P.)
16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ṣê min- hat·tê·ḇāh ’at·tāh wə·’iš·tə·ḵā ’it·tāḵ ū·ḇā·ne·ḵā ḇā·ne·ḵā ū·nə·šê-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and the wives of your sons with you.”
Where the English smooths the original
As Noah expected the command of God for his going into the ark, Genesis 7:1-2 , so for his coming forth of it.
Noah declares his obedience, in that he would not leave the ark without God's express commandment, as he did not enter in without the same: the ark being a figure of the Church, in which nothing must be done outside the word of God.
when they went into it then went the men by themselves, and the women by themselves, and so continued apart in the ark, the use of the marriage bed being forbidden them, being a time of distress; but now when they came out they are coupled togetherGill is reporting the Jewish tradition (Pirke Eliezer, Rashi), not asserting it as plain text.
They went forth in the most orderly manner—the human occupants first, then each species "after their kinds"
17Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hō·ṣē ’it·tāḵ kāl- ha·ḥay·yāh mik·kāl bā·śār ’ă·šer- ’it·tə·ḵā bā·‘ō·wp̄ ū·ḇab·bə·hê·māh ū·ḇə·ḵāl hā·re·meś hā·rō·mêś ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ wə·šā·rə·ṣū ḇā·’ā·reṣ ū·p̄ā·rū wə·rā·ḇū ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Every living thing that is with you, of all flesh — among the birds, and among the cattle, and among every creeper that creeps upon the earth — bring out with you, that they may swarm in the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
Where the English smooths the original
be fruitful, and multiply ] as in Genesis 1:22 ; Genesis 1:24-28 . The repetition of the Creation command marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the world.
There is a various reading of the word for "bring forth"; according to the margin, as Jarchi observes, the sense is, order them to come forth; and according to the Scripture, if they will not, oblige them to come
The same God who made all these creatures, and caused them to come first to Adam, and afterwards to Noah, could afterwards both incline and empower them to go whither he pleasedPoole is answering the old question of how the creatures reached distant lands and islands.
so far as the latter were concerned, He renewed the blessing of the creation ( Genesis 8:17 cf. Genesis 1:22 ).
18So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nō·aḥ way·yê·ṣê- ’it·tōw ū·ḇā·nāw wə·’iš·tōw ḇā·nāw ū·nə·šê-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and the wives of his sons with him.”
Where the English smooths the original
in all eight persons, and no more were saved in the ark, as Peter observes, 1 Peter 3:20
and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him , - in obedience to Noah, to whom alone the Divine instructions were communicated; - an early instance of filial subjection to parents.
As Noah had a command to go into the ark, so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set him before us in all our removals.
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
19Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kāl- ha·ḥay·yāh kāl- hā·re·meś wə·ḵāl hā·‘ō·wp̄ kōl rō·w·mêś ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ yā·ṣə·’ū min- hat·tê·ḇāh lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯê·hem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Every living thing, every creeping-thing, and every bird, every thing that moves upon the earth — according to their families — went out of the ark.”
Where the English smooths the original
It is in accordance with P’s fondness for method and order that, in his description, the animals are made to leave the ark “after their families”; they had entered it “after their kind” ( Genesis 7:14 P).
they went out after their kind; not in a confused disorderly manner, mixing with one another; but as they went in by pairs, male and female of every sort, so they came forth in like manner
then each species "after their kinds" [Ge 8:19], literally, "according to their families," implying that there had been an increase in the ark.
"After their families." This word denotes their tribes. It is usually applied to families or clans.
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 not with a leap but with a long exhale. On New Year’s Day of Noah’s six-hundred-and-first year the waters have at last ḥārəḇū — “dried up” — “from off the earth,” and Noah lifts a corner of the miḵsêh, the covering, to look. Gill catches the human warmth of the moment: it was “New Year's Day, and a joyful one it was to Noah and his family, when they saw dry ground; which they had not seen for above ten months.” Yet the very next verse refuses to let him rush. Ellicott shows that the closing verb of v. 14, yāḇəšāh, is a different Hebrew word — “it should be translated, was thoroughly dry” — and the Pulpit Commentary lays the three verbs out as a deliberate gradation: the waters first abate (qālal, v. 11), then disappear (ḥāraḇ, v. 13), then the very ground is desiccated (yāḇēš, v. 14). Poole presses the practical point: the second drying is “not only from water… but from mud and dirt also.” Fifty-seven days separate the opened covering from the firm earth (K&D), and Noah does not stir. The Hebrew text itself preaches the lesson Henry draws over the whole passage: “God's time of showing mercy is the best time.”
Then, after a year of silence, wayḏabbēr ʼĕlōhîm — “and God spoke.” The verb is the heavy one, dāḇar, the speech of command and covenant, and the speaker is named with the Creator-title ʼĕlōhîm, fitting the re-creation to come. Gill marks the tenderness: Noah “had not heard his voice for a year or more.” The single clipped imperative ṣê — “Go out!” — answers the “Come in” of 7:1, and the whole tradition reads Noah’s waiting as the heart of the matter. The Pulpit Commentary, quoting Calvin, says he was “restrained by a hallowed modesty from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature till he should hear the voice of God.” Geneva turns it into doctrine: “the ark being a figure of the Church, in which nothing must be done outside the word of God.” Even the changed order of persons speaks; where the sexes entered apart (7:7), they leave paired — a detail Gill traces to the rabbis (Pirke Eliezer), held as tradition, not as the plain claim of the text.
The command to the creatures is the theological summit of the unit, and it is built out of quotation. Hōṣē — “bring out” (causative) — sets Noah over the animals as steward; then come three creation-words. They are to šāraṣ, “swarm,” the verb of the fifth day (Genesis 1:20); and to pārāh and rāḇāh, “be fruitful and multiply,” the very syllables of the blessing in Genesis 1:22 and 1:28. Cambridge states it flatly: “The repetition of the Creation command marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the world.” K&D say the same: “He renewed the blessing of the creation (Genesis 8:17 cf. Genesis 1:22).” Ellicott reads the whole flood through this lens — “to Noah and his race absolutely a new beginning of things.” The washed earth is not merely habitable; it is re-seeded, and the mandate first spoken over an unfallen world is spoken again over a world begun a second time.
Obedience answers command word for word: the imperative ṣê (“go out!”) is met by wayyêṣê (“and he went out”). Noah heads the procession; Gill counts the company — “in all eight persons, and no more were saved in the ark, as Peter observes, 1 Peter 3:20.” The creatures follow ləmišpəḥōṯêhem, “according to their families” — not the “kind” of the entry (7:14) but, as Cambridge notes, a word marking the writer’s “fondness for method and order.” JFB hears more in it: the “families” language implies “that there had been an increase in the ark.” They leave as they came, Gill says, “not in a confused disorderly manner… but as they went in by pairs.” The great in-and-out movement of the whole flood narrative closes on the perfect verb yāṣəʼū, “they went out,” set at the very end of the Hebrew sentence.
Tested against Scripture alone as the final rule, three things press out of this short passage — offered as a reading to be weighed, not a verdict to be trusted. First, the whole unit is governed by the word of God and waits on it. Noah can see the ground is dry (v. 13), can see it is thoroughly dry (v. 14), and still does not move for fifty-seven days, because no command has come. He enters at a word (7:1) and will not leave but at a word (v. 16). Geneva’s instinct is exactly right — “nothing must be done outside the word of God” — and it is the Berean instinct: life measured against what God has actually said, not against what circumstances seem to permit. Second, salvation and new creation belong together. The same God who shut the door now opens it; the deliverance through judgment (the waters) issues directly in a re-issued creation blessing (v. 17). Grace does not merely rescue from death; it commissions for fruitful life. Third, the eight souls are a remnant, and a remnant is how God keeps His purposes alive through judgment. All flesh perished; a handful, kept by grace and obedience, carries the whole future of the world out of the box. The pattern — judgment that spares a faithful seed and re-begins the world through it — runs from here to the cross and the empty tomb.
Noah looked out on a dry world and would not set a foot on it until God said “Go”: the new creation begins not when the water clears but when the Word comes.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The drying of v. 13 and the exit of v. 19 close a frame opened at the flood’s beginning. The same rare vessel-word têḇāh (the ark, only 25 occurrences) and the same name Nôaḥ bind 8:13 to 7:23 and 8:1, where “the waters returned from off the earth” and God “remembered Noah.” The whole arc is one in-and-out movement: shut in through judgment, brought out into mercy.
Genesis 8:13 · Genesis 8:1 · Genesis 7:23
basis: Verifier (8:13↔7:23): shared rare lexemes H8392 têbâh (25 vv), H5146 Nôach (39 vv), plus H127 ʼădâmâh and H6440 pânîym; (8:13↔8:1): H8392 têbâh, H5146 Nôach, H4325 mayim. The low-frequency têḇāh anchors the verbal link.
God’s charge to the creatures in v. 17 is a deliberate quotation of the creation mandate. Šāraṣ (“swarm,” fifth day), pārāh and rāḇāh (“be fruitful and multiply”) reach back to Genesis 1:20–28 and forward to the post-flood renewal of 9:1, 7. Cambridge and K&D both name the link by verse. The verbal tier rests on the genuinely rare šāraṣ (14 vv).
Genesis 8:17 · Genesis 1:22 · Genesis 1:28 · Genesis 9:7
basis: Verifier (8:17↔1:28): H6509 pârâh (28 vv), H5775 ʻôwph (70 vv), H7235 râbâh, plus H7430 râmas (17 vv); (8:17↔9:7): the rare H8317 shârats (14 vv) with H6509 pârâh, H7235 râbâh. 8:17↔1:22 returns structural/thematic on the shared blessing-verbs alone.
The exit list of vv. 17 and 19 reuses the exact taxonomic vocabulary of the creation and the entry: ʻôwph (bird), bᵉhêmâh (cattle), remes/rāmas (creeping thing). The same triad appears in Genesis 1:26 and 7:14, so the animals leave the ark in the very categories in which they were made and gathered. Two of the shared words — remes and rāmas (both 17 vv) — are rare.
Genesis 8:19 · Genesis 8:17 · Genesis 7:14 · Genesis 1:26
basis: Verifier (8:19↔7:14): rare H7430 râmas (17 vv), H7431 remes (17 vv), with H5775 ʻôwph, H2416 chay; (8:17↔1:21): rare H8317 shârats (14 vv), H7430 râmas, H5775 ʻôwph. The two freq-17 creeping-words carry the verbal weight.
Verses 11–14 stage a gradation the Pulpit Commentary spells out: qālal (abate), ḥāraḇ (dry up), yāḇēš (thoroughly dry). The final pair, ḥāraḇ/yāḇēš, recurs together in Isaiah 19:5 (“the river shall be wasted and dried up”), where the same drying-language describes the Nile’s failure under judgment. Held as shared motif, not quotation: the single common lexeme (yāḇēš, 53 vv) links theme, not citation.
Genesis 8:14 · Genesis 8:13 · Isaiah 19:5
basis: Verifier (8:14↔Isaiah 19:5): single shared lexeme H3001 yâbêsh (53 vv) — a shared drying-motif, not a rare-word quotation. Tiered structural/thematic on purpose; the parallel is the Pulpit Commentary’s observation, recorded honestly.
Ezekiel 38:20 gathers the same creeping-creatures-bird-and-soil vocabulary (remes, rāmas, ʻôwph, ʼădāmāh) into its vision of the great eschatological upheaval, where “every creeping thing that creeps upon the ground” trembles before the LORD. Held with care: the words are shared and two are rare, but the direction is opposite — Genesis re-seeds a quieted earth; Ezekiel shakes one. This is shared canonical vocabulary deployed to a contrary end, so the connection is real but should not be over-read as a citation of Genesis.
Genesis 8:19 · Ezekiel 38:20
basis: Verifier returns rare shared lexemes H7430 râmas (17 vv), H7431 remes (17 vv), H5775 ʻôwph, H2416 chay — by the numbers a verbal link. Downgraded by the author to structural/thematic because the shared vocabulary serves an opposite movement (re-creation vs. cataclysm); under-claiming on purpose, no quotation is asserted.
The going-out roster of v. 18 echoes the going-in roster of 7:7 and 7:13, sharing Nôaḥ, têḇāh, and ʼishshâh (wife). Ambrose (via the Pulpit Commentary) and the rabbis noticed the changed order of the sexes between entry and exit; the structural parallel is what makes the difference visible. The shared words are mostly common (ʼishshâh, ʼêth), so this is a pattern-link, not a quotation.
Genesis 8:18 · Genesis 7:7 · Genesis 7:13
basis: Verifier (8:16↔7:7): H8392 têbâh (25 vv), H802 ʼishshâh (686 vv), H854 ʼêth; (8:18↔7:13): H5146 Nôach (39 vv), H802 ʼishshâh, H854 ʼêth. The household-roster pattern, not a rare-word quotation — tiered structural.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The New Testament reads Noah’s deliverance as a figure of salvation in Christ. Peter sets the eight souls “saved through water” as the antitype of baptism, “which now saves you… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:20–21); the same flood is the type of the final judgment from which the Son rescues (2 Peter 2:5; Matthew 24:37–39). The têḇāh through which the remnant passes the waters of death and emerges into a cleansed world is, on this reading, the gospel pattern in advance: death and resurrection, judgment survived in another. Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): this is typological, not a verbal link — no shared Strong’s numbers are possible across the languages.
Genesis 8:18 · 1 Peter 3:20-21 · 2 Peter 2:5 · Matthew 24:37-39
Noah’s name was given “to comfort us concerning… the ground which the LORD has cursed” (Genesis 5:29) — a name built on the root for rest. He brings the survivors out onto an ʼădāmāh dried at last, and God re-issues the creation blessing (v. 17), a world begun again. The pattern strains toward its fulfillment in Christ, the true bringer of rest (Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9–10) and the firstfruits of a creation made new (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5). The flood’s end is a small Genesis; the empty tomb is the great one. Held as typology — a figural reading of the new-beginning motif, not a lexical claim across Testaments.
Genesis 8:17 · Genesis 5:29 · Hebrews 4:9-10 · 2 Corinthians 5:17
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:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parses, literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and a standard grammar.
The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries (Ellicott, Benson, Matthew Henry, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Geneva Study Bible, the Pulpit Commentary, Keil & Delitzsch, Cambridge Bible) via BibleHub; each excerpt is a contiguous substring of its source, attributed in place. Where a voice reports a Jewish tradition (Gill on the order of the sexes, from Pirke Eliezer / Rashi) or a critical-source theory (Cambridge’s and Barnes’ “P”), the synthesis flags it as the voice’s own framing, not the plain claim of the text — and this tool takes no position on the documentary hypothesis.
On cross-references: the verbal-tier threads rest on genuinely rare shared lexemes computed by the Verifier — têḇāh (25 vv), remes/rāmas (17 vv each), šāraṣ (14 vv). Two links the Verifier scored as verbal were downgraded by the author to structural/thematic: the Isaiah 19:5 drying-parallel (a single shared word, motif only) and the Ezekiel 38:20 link (shared rare vocabulary, but deployed toward cataclysm rather than re-creation). Both Christ-readings are cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) and so are tiered typological, never verbal — no shared Strong’s numbers exist across the languages. The chronology figures (a year and ten or eleven days; solar vs. lunar reckoning) are reported as the commentators give them and are themselves debated. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = 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)