Genesis 8:16

16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.

Genesis 8:16 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 8:16

Go forth of the ark
Though the earth was dry and fit to be inhabited, yet be would not go out without orders, as he had to go in; which he waited for before he would, and now he has them:

thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives, with thee:
the Jewish writers ^F26 observe, that the manner of Noah and his family coming out of the ark is different from that of their going into it: 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 together, signifying that they were now free to cohabit together.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. Jarchi in loc.

Genesis 8:16 In-Context

14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.

15 Then God said to Noah,

16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.

17 Bring 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.”

18 So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.