Genesis 8:16

16 "Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons and your son's wives with you.

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 It was on the twenty-seventh day of the second month that the earth was dry.

15 God said to Noach,

16 "Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons and your son's wives with you.

17 Bring out with you every living thing you have with you - birds, livestock and every animal that creeps on the earth - so that they can swarm on the earth, be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

18 So Noach went out with his sons, his wife and his sons' wives;