Genesis 6:20

Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
fowls	מֵהָע֣וֹף me.ha.'of	H5775	a bird (as covered with feathers · preposition + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
kind	לְמִינֵ֗הוּ le.mi.Ne.hu	H4327	a sort · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
cattle	הַבְּהֵמָה֙ ha.be.he.Mah	H929	properly · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
kind	לְמִינָ֔הּ le.mi.Nah	H4327	a sort · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
thing	רֶ֥מֶשׂ Re.mes	H7431	a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal · noun, common masculine singular construct
earth	הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה ha.'a.da.Mah	H127	soil (from its general redness) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
kind	לְמִינֵ֑הוּ le.mi.Ne.hu	H4327	a sort · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
two	שְׁנַ֧יִם she.Na.yim	H8147	two · cardinal number, both genders dual absolute
come	יָבֹ֥אוּ ya.Vo.'u	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
alive	לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת le.Ha.cha.Yot	H2421	to live · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct

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 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he wou…
Acts 10:11-12 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the…
Genesis 1:20-24 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open fi…
Genesis 7:8-16 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the…

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…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:18

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 6:20

Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind,.... What before is generally expressed by "every living thing", is here particularly explained of every sort of them; and from the order of them some have thought that in the same manner they were disposed of in the ark, the fowls in the first story, the cattle in the next, and the creeping things in the lowermost: but others place them in a different manner; see Gill on Genesis 6:16 the roots and grain in the lower story, the living creatures of all sorts in the second, and their hay and litter in the third: the second story being three hundred cubits long, and fifty broad, contai…

The Church Fathers

On that same day elephants came from the east, apes and peacocks approached from the south, other animals gathered from the west, and still others hastened to come from the north. Lions came from the jungles, and wild beasts arrived from their lairs. Deer and wild asses came from their lands, and the mountain beasts gathered from their mountains.When those of that generation gathered [to see] this novel sight, it was not to repent but rather to amuse themselves. Then in their very presence the lions began to enter the ark, and the bulls, with no fear, hurried in right on their heels to seek shelter with the lions. The wolves and the lambs entered together, and the hawks and the sparrows together with the doves and the eagles.
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 6.9.2

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).

Genesis 6:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:13-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:18

Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:19

John Gill on Genesis 6:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 6:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:13-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:18

Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:19

John Gill on Genesis 6:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 6:19-21

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 6:9–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 6:19-20

Rashi on Genesis 6:20