flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
two
שְׁנַ֧יִםshe.Na.yim
H8147
two · cardinal number, both genders dual absolute
bring
תָּבִ֥יאta.Vi'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
ark
הַתֵּבָ֖הha.te.Vah
H8392
a box · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
alive
לְהַחֲיֹ֣תle.ha.cha.Yot
H2421
to live · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
male
זָכָ֥רza.Khar
H2145
properly · adjective, masculine singular absolute
female
וּנְקֵבָ֖הu.ne.ke.Vah
H5347
female (from the sexual form) · conjunction + adjective, feminine singular absolute
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 7:8-9 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
Genesis 7:15-16 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Genesis 7:2-3 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his f…
Genesis 8:17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that cree…
Psalms 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
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…
But with thee will I establish my covenant--a special promise of deliverance, called a covenant, to convince him of the confidence to be reposed in it. The substance and terms of this covenant are related at Gen 6:19-21.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:19
To keep them alive - God might have destroyed all the animal creation, and created others to occupy the new world, but he chose rather to preserve those already created. The Creator and Preserver of the universe does nothing but what is essentially necessary to be done. Nothing should be wantonly wasted; nor should power or skill be lavished where no necessity exists; and yet it required more means and economy to preserve the old than to have created new ones. Such respect has God to the work of his hands, that nothing but what is essential to the credit of his justice and holiness shall ever induce him to destroy any thing he has made.
John Gill on Genesis 6:19
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark,.... That is, of fowls, cattle, and creeping things, as after explained; and two of each sort at least were to be brought, as Jarchi observes, and not fewer; though of the clean sort there were to be more, even seven, as after directed; and these were to be brought, that they might preserve their species, as it follows:
to keep them alive with thee; to be fed and nourished by him in the ark, while others perished by the flood, that so they might propagate their own species, and be continued, for which reason it is further ordered:
they shall be male and female; not any two, but one male and one female,…
The Church Fathers
ABOUT THE EATING OF ANIMALS THAT ENTERED INTO THE ARK. — God said that animals shall not only live on the Ark, but still feed in the Ark, so God ordered Noah to take all kinds of food for him and all the animals that had to accompany him. There arises the question of how he could feed the lions or eagles, which often eat meat, and whether Noah brought in the Ark other animals besides those listed there to serve as food to the others; or if he introduced some other things besides meat that seems more acceptable, that would also serve as suitable for such animal food, or whether this measure was taken by him as a man of foresight or by divine inspiration. [
A further question asked by the curious concerns those tiny creatures, smaller even than mice and lizards, such as locusts, beetles, flies and even fleas. Were there not more of these in the ark than the number prescribed by God? Those who raise this difficulty must first be reminded that the words "that creep on the earth" imply that there was no need to preserve in the ark animals that live either in the water like fishes or on the water, as certain birds do. Second, the words "male and female" imply that there was no need to have in the ark such animals as are not born in the normal way but populate from putrid or inanimate matter. Or if they were in the ark, they could have been there as they are in our houses and not in any definite number. On the other hand, if the sacred mystery that was there being enacted demanded down to the last number of nonmarine animals the perfect accord of symbolic figure and historical fact, then God took care of this in his own way and did not leave it to Noah or his family.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
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…
Animals · Two of every — Two of every
Antediluvians · Arts of — Arts of
Ark · .Animals saved in — .Animals saved in
Communion · .Noah — .Noah
Deluge, The · Noah, &c, saved from — Noah, &c, saved from
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
Ship · .By Noah — .By Noah
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).
And of every living thing of all flesh. "All flesh" is the name he gives to animals of whatsoever kind they may be. He says they went in two and two; not that a single pair of each kind was received into the ark, (for we shall soon see that there were three pairs of the clean kinds, and one animal over, which Noah afterwards offered in sacrifice;) but whereas here mention is made only of offspring, he does not expressly state the number, but simply couples males with females, that Noah might hence perceive how the world was to be replenished.
Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 6:9–end
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…
God’s instructions to Noah repeat the language of creation (every kind, cp. 1:24). • a male and a female: These animals would procreate and repopulate the earth after the flood.
Rashi on Genesis 6:19
ומכל החי AND OF EVERY LIVING THING — Even of demons (Genesis Rabbah 31:13).
שנים מכל TWO OF EVERY SORT — Even of the least numerous amongst them there were not less than two—one male, the other female.
