Genesis 7:13-14 - Exposition

In the selfsame day —literally, in the bone, or strength, or essence ( Genesis 2:23 ) of that day—in that very day (cf. Genesis 17:23 , Genesis 17:26 ); "about noonday, i.e. in the public view of the world" (Poole) a phrase intended to convey the idea of the utmost precision of time" (Bush)— entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the wives of his three sons with them, into the ark . Not inconsistent with Genesis 7:4 , Genesis 7:5 , which do not necessarily imply that the actual entry was made seven days before the Flood; but merely that Noah then began to carry out the Divine instructions. The threefold recital of the entry—first in connection with the invitation or command ( Genesis 7:5 ), and again in the actual process during the seven days ( Genesis 7:7 ), and finally on the day when the Flood began ( Genesis 7:15 ),—besides lending emphasis to the narrative, heightens its dramatic effect. They, and every beast after his Mad, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort (literally, wing ). The creatures here specified correspond with the enumeration—viz; chay-yah, behemah, remes—in Genesis 1:25 , q.v. The last clause, kol-canaph, Kalisch, following Clericus, translates, though, according to Rosenmüller, without satisfactory reasons, "every winged creature," and so makes "three classes of winged beings—the eatable species ( עוף ), the birds which people the air and enliven it by the sounds of their melodies ( עִפוֹר ), and the endless swarms of insects ( כָּנָף ), the greatest part of which possess neither the utility of the former nor the beauty of the latter. Gesenius, however, translates it "birds of all kinds," and Knobel regards it as synonymous with " every bird." The LXX . give the sense of the two clauses: και Ì πα ͂ ν ο ̓ ì ρνεον πετεινο Ì ν κατα Ì γε ì νος αυ ̓ του ͂ .