Genesis 7:1-9

1 Then the LORD said to Noah, ¹"Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that ²you are righteous before me in this generation.

2 Take with you seven pairs of all ³clean animals,^[a] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate,

3 and seven pairs^[b] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

4 For in seven days ⁴I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, ⁵and every living thing^[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground."

5 ⁶And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.

7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.

Genesis 7:1-9 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

• 1. Matthew 24:38, 39; Luke 17:26, 27; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5
• 2. Genesis 6:9
• 3. Genesis 8:20; [Leviticus 11]
• 4. ver. 12, 17; [Job 37:11-13]
• 5. Genesis 6:17
• 6. Genesis 6:22

Footnotes

• [a]. Or seven of each kind of clean animal
• [b]. Or seven of each kind
• [c]. Hebrew all existence; also verse 23