Genesis 8:19

19 And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.

Genesis 8:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 8:19

Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, [and]
whatsoever creepeth upon the earth
All went out, not one was left, and they went out

after their kind;
not in a confused disorderly manner, mixing with one another; but as they went in by pairs, male and female of every sort, so they came forth in like manner, or, "according to their families" ^F3; by which it seems as if the creatures did breed in the ark, and had their families of young ones; and which is the sense of some in Aben Ezra, and he himself thinks it not foreign, though he interprets it as we do, and as the Greek version does, "after their kind": thus they

went forth out of the ark;
everyone with his mate, in order to procreate and multiply upon the earth.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Mhytxpvml) "juxta familias suas", Tigurine version, Pagninus, Montanus

Genesis 8:19 In-Context

17 Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.”

18 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.

19 And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.

21 And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.