Genesis 7:1-16

1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,
3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

Genesis 7:1-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 7

This chapter begins with an order to Noah to come with his family and all the creatures into the ark, that they might be safe from the flood, which would quickly be upon the earth, Ge 7:1-4 and then gives an account of Noah's obedience to the divine command in every particular, Ge 7:5-9 and of the time of the beginning of the flood, and its prevalence, Ge 7:10-12 then follows a repetition of Noah, his family, and the creatures entering into the ark, Ge 7:13-16 and next a relation is given of the increase of the waters, and of the height they arrived unto, Ge 7:17-20 and of the consequences of the flood, the death and destruction of every living creature, except those in the ark, fowl, cattle, beast, creeping things, and men, Ge 7:21-23 and the chapter is closed with an account how long the waters continued before they began to ebb, even one hundred and fifty days, Ge 7:24.

Cross References 25

  • 1. S Genesis 6:18; Matthew 24:38; Luke 17:26-27; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5
  • 2. Genesis 6:9; Ezekiel 14:14
  • 3. ver 8; Genesis 8:20; Leviticus 10:10; Leviticus 11:1-47; Deuteronomy 14:3-20; Ezekiel 44:23; Haggai 2:12; Acts 10:14-15
  • 4. Genesis 6:20
  • 5. Genesis 8:2
  • 6. 1 Kings 13:34; Jeremiah 28:16
  • 7. Numbers 13:25; Deuteronomy 9:9; 1 Samuel 17:16; 1 Kings 19:8
  • 8. ver 12,17; Exodus 24:18; Exodus 32:1; Exodus 34:28; Dt 9:9,11,18,25; Deuteronomy 10:10; Job 37:6,13; Matthew 4:2
  • 9. S Genesis 6:7,13
  • 10. S Genesis 6:22
  • 11. S Genesis 5:32
  • 12. S Genesis 6:18
  • 13. S ver 2
  • 14. S Genesis 6:22
  • 15. S ver 4
  • 16. S Genesis 5:32
  • 17. Genesis 8:4,14
  • 18. S Genesis 1:7; Job 28:11; Psalms 36:6; Psalms 42:7; Proverbs 8:24; Isaiah 51:10; Ezekiel 26:19
  • 19. Genesis 8:2; 2 Kings 7:2; Psalms 78:23; Isaiah 24:18; Malachi 3:10
  • 20. S ver 4; S 1 Samuel 12:17; S Job 28:26
  • 21. Genesis 8:16; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5
  • 22. S Genesis 6:18
  • 23. S Genesis 1:11
  • 24. ver 8-9; Genesis 6:19
  • 25. S Genesis 6:22
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