Genesis 6:14
in Genesis 6Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
KJV
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
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This verse in Genesis 6
Commentary
12 notes on this verseMake thee an ark of Gopher wood,.... It is not called a ship, for it was not made for sailing to any distant parts, but an ark or chest, being like one, flat bottomed, and ridged and sloping upwards, and was made for floating on the waters for a little way.
This site's exposition
The end of all living creatures has come before Me
on Genesis 6:13-14
The word for ark, tebah, stands in one other place, the basket of reeds daubed with pitch that carried the infant Moses at Exodus 2:3. Gopher wood is named once, and the species is unknown. The word for the pitch is close kin to the word for atonement.
This site's exposition
make rooms in the ark
The word for rooms means nests. Gill described the ark as a flat-bottomed chest, made to float a little way on the waters. Matthew Henry noted that God set Noah to work on the means of his own rescue.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 14) Make for yourself an ark of square wooden planks. For the square planks, we read it is coated with pitch in Hebrew.
Undoubtedly the ark is a symbol of the city of God on its pilgrimage in history. It is a figure of the church that was saved by the wood on which there hung the "Mediator between God and men, himself man, Jesus Christ." Even the very measurements of length, height and breadth of the ark are meant to point to the reality of the human body into which he came as it was foretold that he would come. It will be recalled that the length of a normal body from head to foot is six times the breadth from one side to the other and ten times the thickness from back to front. Measure a man who is lying on the ground, either prone or supine. He is six times as long from head to foot as he is wide from left to right or right to left, and he is ten times as long as he is high from the ground up. That is why the ark was made three hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth and thirty in height. As for the door in the side, that surely, symbolizes the open wound made by the lance in the side of the Crucified—the door by which those who come to him enter in, in the sense that believers enter the church by means of the sacraments that issued from that wound. It was ordered that the ark be made out of squared timbers—a symbol of the foursquare stability of a holy life, which, like a cube, stands firm however it is turned. So it is with every other detail of the ark's construction. They are all symbols of something in the church.
The Medieval Church3 voices
However, for the smoothed wood, the ancient translation used the term squared wood, which equally refers to the same perfection of the elect. For wherever you turn a square, it will stand, nor can it be prone to falling in any way.
And you shall cover it inside and outside with bitumen, and you shall make it thus. Bitumen is the hottest and most violent adhesive, whose power is such that the woods which have been coated with it can neither be eaten by worms, nor can …
Make for yourself, he says, an ark of smoothed wood. Not only the humans who were saved in the ark, but also the animals that entered it together; even the wood of which it was made mystically announces the faithful of the holy Church.
4 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
You shall make little rooms in the ark. All the mansions in the ark were arranged as receptacles for various animals that were to enter it, and in the Church there are many orders of institutions according to the diversity of those who come to …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
God could have secured Noah by the ministration of angels, without putting him to any care, or pains, or trouble, himself; but he chose to employ him in making that which was to be the means of his preservation, both for the trial of his faith and obedience and to teach us that none shall be saved by Christ but those only that work out their salvation.
God could have secured Noah by the ministration of angels, without putting him to any care, or pains, or trouble, himself; but he chose to employ him in making that which was to be the means of his preservation, both for the trial of his faith and obedience and to teach us that none shall be saved by Christ but those only that work out their salvation.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Make thee an ark - תבת tebath, a word which is used only to express this vessel, and that in which Moses was preserved, Exo 2:3, Exo 2:5. It signifies no more than our word vessel in its common acceptation - a hollow place capable of containing persons, goods, etc., without any particular reference to shape or form. Gopher wood - Some think the cedar is meant; others, the cypress.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
GOPHER. Gopher is the name of a wood that rides lightly upon the water. It is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֲשֵׂ֤ה | ʾaseh | make | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לְךָ֙ | lekha | for <the> yourself | ||
| תֵּבַ֣ת | tevat | an ark of | H8392 → | 28 times |
| עֲצֵי־ | ʾatzei- | wood<s> of | H6086 → | 328 times |
| גֹ֔פֶר | gofer | gopher | H1613 → | |
| קִנִּ֖ים | kinim | nests | H7064 → | |
| תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֣ה | taaseh | you will make | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַתֵּבָ֑ה | hatevah | the ark | H8392 → | 28 times |
| וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥ | vekhafarta | and you will cover | H3722 → | |
| אֹתָ֛הּ | ʾotah | <obj.> it | H853 → | 10935 times |
| מִבַּ֥יִת | mibayit | from inside | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| וּמִח֖וּץ | umichutz | and from outside | H2351 → | 164 times |
| בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃ | bakofer | with <the> pitch | H3724 → |
עֲשֵׂ֤הmake
ʾasehH6213 →2628 times
לְךָ֙for <the> yourself
lekha
תֵּבַ֣תan ark of
tevatH8392 →28 times
עֲצֵי־wood<s> of
ʾatzei-H6086 →328 times
גֹ֔פֶרgopher
goferH1613 →
קִנִּ֖יםnests
kinimH7064 →
תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֣הyou will make
taasehH6213 →2628 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַתֵּבָ֑הthe ark
hatevahH8392 →28 times
וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥and you will cover
vekhafartaH3722 →
אֹתָ֛הּ<obj.> it
ʾotahH853 →10935 times
מִבַּ֥יִתfrom inside
mibayitH1004 →2046 times
וּמִח֖וּץand from outside
umichutzH2351 →164 times
בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃with <the> pitch
bakoferH3724 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 3:20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.
it leads to
- Hebrews 11:7
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes…
- 2 Peter 2:5
if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- Genesis 6:3
So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.”
- Genesis 6:5
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.
- Genesis 8:18
So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
- Hebrews 11:7
Through
Matthew 24:38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
it leads to
- Luke 17:26–28
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:
- Romans 13:13–14
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
- Luke 17:26–28
Through
Exodus 2:3But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the…
it leads to
- Exodus 1:22
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
- Exodus 1:22
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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On this verse
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About Genesis
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, City of God 15.26; Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron); Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.