Genesis 6:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 6:16
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
third · conjunction + ordinal number, masculine plural absolute
make
תַּֽעֲשֶֽׂהָTa.'a.Se.ha
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 7:16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Genesis 8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Ezekiel 41:16 The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round…
2 Samuel 6:16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and danci…
2 Kings 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
Ezekiel 42:3 Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for the utter court, was gallery agai…
Luke 13:25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, L…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:13-21
Here it appears indeed that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's favour to him was plainly intimated in what he said of him, Gen 6:8-10, where his name is mentioned five times in five lines, when once might have served to make the sense clear, as if the Holy Ghost took a pleasure in perpetuating his memory; but it appears much more in what he says to him in these verses - the informations and instructions here given him.
I. God here makes Noah the man of his counsel, communicating to him his purpose to destroy this wicked world by water. As, afterwards, he told Abraham his resolution concerning Sodom (Gen 18:17, Shall I hide from Abraham?) so here "Shall I hide from Noah the thing…
A window--probably a skylight, formed of some transparent substance unknown.
in a cubit shalt thou finish it above--a direction to raise the roof in the middle, seemingly to form a gentle slope for letting the water run off.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:16
A window shalt thou make - What this was cannot be absolutely ascertained. The original word צהר tsohar signifies clear or bright; the Septuagint translate it by επωυναγων, "collecting, thou shalt make the ark," which plainly shows they did not understand the word as signifying any kind of window or light. Symmacbus translates it διαφανες, a transparency; and Aquila, μεσημβρινον, the noon. Jonathan ben Uzziel supposes that it was a precious luminous stone which Noah, by Divine command, brought from the river Pison. It is probably a word which should be taken in a collective sense, signifying apertures for air and light.
In a cubit shalt thou finish it above - Probably meaning that the roof s…
A window shalt thou make to the ark,.... Or a "light", such as is that at noon, for which the word in the dual number is used; and therefore Junius and Tremellius translate it a "clear light". The Jewish writers (s) will have it to be a precious stone, a pearl which Noah fetched from the river Pison, and hung up in the ark, and it gave light to all the creatures, like a large chandelier; but a window no doubt it was to let light into the several apartments, and to look out at on occasion, since Noah is afterwards said to open it; but what it was made of is difficult to say, since it does not appear that as yet glass was invented. Some think it was made of crystal, which would let in light, a…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 16.) Assembling, you shall make an ark, and you shall finish it with a cubit from above. As for the reason why it says, assembling, you shall make an ark, in Hebrew it has, 'you shall make the middle of the ark,' which Symmachus interpreted more clearly, saying 'transparent,' that is, making the ark clear, intending for a window to be understood.
WHAT DOES THE SCRIPTURE MEAN ABOUT THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK: AND THE DOOR OF THE ARK YOU SHALL MAKE ON THE SIDE; WITH LOWER, SECOND, AND THIRD STORIES SHALL YOU MAKE IT? — The lower floor was not to receive two and three rooms. Using this distinction, God wanted to make it clear that the entire Ark had to have a lower part. Then, above, a floor, which he calls a second rooms; Higher up finally, another floor, or a third vault. So in the first dwelling, I mean, in the lower part, the Ark had a first vault; In the second dwelling, which was above the first, it was also vaulted; So was she again and a third time in the third dwelling, which rose above the second. [
You shall make upper rooms and lower rooms in it. Lower rooms denote a triple roof. For "stege" in Greek means "roof"; hence ancient interpreters for this word used "tricamerata." Finally, in the Acts of the Apostles, where a young man, whom Paul the Apostle revived from death, is said to have fallen from the third roof or upper room, in Greek it is written that he fell from the "tristego." But upper rooms and lower rooms, as early translators said, were made two-chambered and three-chambered in the ark, such that in distinct seats they would house animals of various kinds. Beasts, indeed, as it is believable, in the lowest parts; clean animals in the higher parts; humans and birds in the highest. For it is certain that where man sat, there too were the raven and dove, and consequently other birds too, located near the window, which is believed to have been made in the highest parts of the ark. For through this window he sent out the aforementioned birds, to see how the land's face fared; in these roofs as well, various little chambers were made, as stated above, for the distinction of the same animals or birds, so that some might not harm others, the more violent not harming the gentler. It is not in vain that Scripture states upper rooms and lower rooms were made in the ark, or that it was made two-chambered and three-chambered, when it could have said in one word that it was arranged in five upper rooms or roofs; but it said it was two-chambered, to signify that in the Church the circumcised and the uncircumcised, Jews and Greeks, will be saved. And three-chambered to signify the triple yield of the evangelical seed, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold; so that in the lowest resides marital chastity, above it widowhood, and above that virginity. Moreover, Origen says that in the lower parts the ark was made two-chambered, so that the lowest region would receive dung, the second would be assigned to storing feed; but in the higher parts three-chambered, so that in the first of these parts would be quarters for beasts, in the second stalls for gentler animals, in the highest the seat for humans.
Dictionary and topics
Ark — Noah’s ark, a building of gopher-wood, and covered with pitch, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high (Gen. 6:14-16); an oblong floating house of three stories, with a door in the side…
Mahalaleel — Praise of God. (1.) The son of Cainan, of the line of Seth (Gen. 5:12-17); called Maleleel (Luke 3:37). (2.) Neh. 11:4, a descendant of Perez.
Noah — Rest, (Heb. Noah) the grandson of Methuselah (Gen. 5:25-29), who was for two hundred and fifty years contemporary with Adam, and the son of Lamech, who was about fifty years old at the time of Adam’s…
Weights And Measures — A. WEIGHTS.—The general principle of the present inquiry is to give the evidence of the monuments the preference on all doubtful points. All ancient Greek systems of weight were derived, either…
Antediluvians · Arts of — Arts of
Ark · .Directions for building of — .Directions for building of
Art · . — .
Carpentry · Building the ark of Noah — Building the ark of Noah
Communion · .Noah — .Noah
Cubit · A measure of distance — A measure of distance
Measures · Of length: Cubit — Of length: Cubit
Noah · .Builds an ark (ship) and saves his family from the great flood — .Builds an ark (ship) and saves his family from the great flood
Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Here follows the command to build the ark, in which God wonderfully proved the faith and obedience of his servant. Concerning its structure, there is no reason why we should anxiously inquire, except so far as our own edification is concerned. First, the Jews are not agreed among themselves respecting the kind of wood of which it was made. Some explain the word gopher to be the cedar; others, the fir-tree; others, the pine. They differ also respecting the stories; because many think that the sink was in the fourth place, which might receive the refuse and other impurities. Others make five chambers in a triple floor, of which they assign the highest to the bi…
Gen 6:9-12 contain a description of Noah and his contemporaries; Gen 6:13-22, the announcement of the purpose of God with reference to the flood.
Gen 6:9
"Noah, a righteous man, was blameless among his generations:" righteous in his moral relation to God; blameless (τέλειος, integer) in his character and conduct. דּרות, γενεαί, were the generations or families "which passed by Noah, the Nestor of his time." His righteousness and integrity were manifested in his walking with God, in which he resembled Enoch (Gen 5:22).
Gen 6:10-12
In Gen 6:10-12, the account of the birth of his three sons, and of the corruption of all flesh, is repeated. This corruption is represented as corrupting the whol…
An 18-inch opening below the roof encircled the boat, providing light and air. • Noah was to build a door and God would close it (7:16). God was the captain of this peculiar boat with no sail or rudder. God also brought the animals to Noah (6:20).
Rashi on Genesis 6:16
צהר A LIGHT — Some say this was a window; others say that it was a precious stone that gave light to them (Genesis Rabbah 31:11).
ואל אמה תכלנה מלמעלה AND TO A CUBIT SHALT THOU FINISH IT UPWARD — Its covering (roof) slanted upwards so that it narrowed at the top to a cubit, in order that the water should run off on both sides.
בצדה תשים THOU SHALT SET [THE DOOR] IN THE SIDE THEREOF — in order that the rain might not penetrate.
תחתים שנים ושלישים WITH LOWER, SECOND AND THIRD STORIES — Three stories one above the other: the top rooms for the human beings, the middle ones as cabins for the cattle, and the bottom was for the refuse (Sanhedrin 108b).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· Mechanics
— Mechanics
Ship · .By Noah — .By Noah
Window · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).