And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7 opens with God speaking to one man while the rest of the world stands under sentence. Two phrases carry the weight of the verse: "you and all your household," and "I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation."
The previous chapter speaks of God as Creator. Here the name is Jehovah — the LORD. One writer says the whole tone changes with it.
It is no longer the faithful Creator merely, but special relationship, and ends of a higher and more intimate nature. So we have a quite new call to the patriarch as one who had found grace in the eyes of Jehovah and was righteous before Him.
The instructions that follow point the same way. The clean animals come by sevens, the unclean by twos — a difference no mere rescue operation would need.
"Come into the ark," He says, "for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." "Righteous" — is this about creation as such? It is not; it is about moral relationship... God is not just providing for the survival of the creature. He is providing, with marked completeness, for sacrifice.
Genesis says Noah found grace before it says God saw him righteous. The order matters.
But "Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah," that is, divine favour rested on him; righteous in himself, no doubt, but all through grace of course... In the next chapter God says of Noah, "You I have seen righteous before me in this generation." But the earth was completely filled with violence.
One writer marks the difference between Noah and a believer today.
Only of Noah could God say, "You I have seen righteous before Me in this generation" (Gen. 7:1). Righteousness for men was not fully accomplished until the death and resurrection of Christ. Noah became an heir of that righteousness. The believer of today is not an heir of righteousness, for he has it.
The ESV reads "Go into the ark," while older translations read "Come." Commentators differ over how much the verb carries. One finds real beauty in "Come":
God does not say, Go into the ark, but Come into the ark: He was "in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:19), and when He invites them to Christ, He invites them to Himself. The traveller under threat of the storm comes to make the divine Ark his refuge and home. He discovers that Another is there to welcome him.
Another writer holds that the verb is not decisive:
A good deal is sometimes made of the word "Come"... The verb may be either, as best suits the context. Where no emphasis of this kind is called for, either word may be used correctly, as here.
This verse is where a pattern in God's dealings first surfaces.
The first verse of Genesis 7 gives us the first instance of how God links a man's house with himself in His dealings with men on earth. Here "you and all your household" occurs for the first time. Salvation from judgment poured out on earth is before us here, but in Acts 16:31 the same principle holds good in regard to eternal salvation.
Did the rest of the family qualify on their own? One writer answers from what happened later.
Someone may object that all the members of the household were probably "righteous" before God too. But the later history of one of them — Ham (Gen. 9:22-25) — forbids the thought. So the statement loses none of its force: God delivered Noah's family from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. True, it was not salvation itself; but it was a picture of it (1 Peter 3:20-21).
Verse 1 calls Noah in. Verse 16 completes it: God shuts the door with His own hand.
Jehovah Himself had invited him in. We read in Genesis 7:1, "Come, you and all your household, into the ark." And when he had taken his place there, we read, "the LORD shut him in." Here was full and perfect security for all within. Jehovah kept the door... The Lord secured the door with His own almighty hand. He left Noah the window. From it Noah could look upward to the place where all the judgment had come from, and see that no judgment remained for him.
- Grace first. Noah found grace before God called him righteous. His righteous walk flowed from that favour, not the other way round.
- Grace names. God is named Jehovah here, not simply Creator. That marks a relationship, not just the saving of a species — and the animals taken for sacrifice confirm it.
- Grace invites. One writer hears a call to come, with God Himself already inside the refuge to welcome Noah. Another holds that the verb settles nothing.
- Grace widens. "You and all your household" appears for the first time here. Ham's later history shows God spared the house through the faith of its head.
- Grace secures. God invited Noah in, then shut him in. He left only a window facing up — the hand that sent the flood held the door.
Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.
Noah's last instructions before the flood single out one difference: the clean animals come aboard in sevens, the unclean only in pairs. That raises two questions — why God wants more of one kind, and how Noah knew which was which before any law listed them.
Two names for God run through the flood story. One writer ties the difference in numbers to the difference in names.
As to the "two of every sort" in chapter 7, and the "seven clean" in verses 2 and 3: the first were male and female, to keep them alive. When they were clean beasts, he took fourteen. I have no doubt the "clean" animals were the ones people usually offered in sacrifice. Who would offer a ravenous wild beast in sacrifice to God, but sheep or oxen? This difference between provision for the race and provision for sacrifice is tied to the different use of the two names: God (Elohim) and the LORD (Jehovah).
The way God speaks here shows more than concern for survival.
Is this only about keeping the creatures alive? No. It is the language of One who has special relationships with Noah and with his family… God is providing not merely for the creature to continue, but with marked completeness for sacrifice. So we see His perfect care to maintain His rights and His place as the One who governed morally.
The ESV reads "seven pairs" here, while older translations read "by sevens," and commentators differ on the count. Read as seven animals, six make three breeding pairs. The one left over has another purpose, seen when Noah steps out onto dry ground.
And now we discover why the clean animals were taken into the ark in sevens and the unclean only in twos… But why the odd one in the seven? Because they were to be offered as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew the flood had made no change in human nature. Even in Noah and his family it was the same after the flood as before… so from the very start the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.
The command in the ark and the altar after it belong together, and the whole standing of the world after the flood rests on what happened there.
So we find Jehovah directing Noah to take to him of all clean animals by sevens, but of those not clean two, a male and its female, to enter the ark. And on this Noah acted when after the deluge he built an altar as his first recorded act, and offered up burnt offerings of every clean beast and of all clean birds. For the tenure of the post-flood earth hung on sacrifice.
The word "clean" later covers what may be eaten. Here it cannot mean that yet.
The first time we read of clean and unclean animals is when Noah went into the ark… We are not told how Noah told them apart. But it shows that in early days there was a distinction between clean and unclean. Those called 'clean' were doubtless clean for sacrifice, and not for food. Nothing is said of man eating animal food till after the flood, and then God gave "every moving thing" for food.
Scripture never says where Noah got his list, and commentators differ. One writer argues from the moral teaching in the later law:
Noah knew well before the flood which creatures made an acceptable sacrifice (Gen. 7:2), though how he learned it was never recorded. But in the law we read God's own definition of clean beasts and clean birds, and we find moral teaching tied to the subject (Lev. 11). We must conclude that no man could have discovered by natural intuition which creatures God would count clean and which He would not.
Darby does not settle the question.
It may have been instinct in man in a way at first, and that God put His positive sanction on it when He gave the law.
Some readers set this verse against the earlier order to bring in two of every sort, as if two accounts had been stitched together. On the other reading, the sevens are counted in pairs.
The LORD (Jehovah) is stating His thoughts about Noah and giving His directions about His relationship with man and the earth. So He tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens, still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as God (Elohim) had commanded. The text itself ties the two names together in a way that would make separating them difficult… You would have to be very hard pressed for a difficulty, or for a discovery, to find a contradiction here.
- Name. The order for sevens comes from the LORD, not just from God the Creator. It speaks of relationship, not only of keeping species alive.
- Purpose. The extra clean beasts are for sacrifice, beyond the pairs needed to keep every kind alive.
- Seventh. On one reading, the odd animal in each seven has no mate. It goes on the altar when the ark opens.
- Foundation. Human nature came out of the flood unchanged, so the renewed earth could only stand on sacrifice.
- Knowledge. The clean and unclean line was known before any written law. Writers differ on whether God taught him or whether it began as instinct that God later confirmed.
Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7 opens with the LORD calling Noah into the ark and sorting the animals into two groups: pairs of most kinds, sevens of the clean. Verse 3 puts the birds in the larger group, and gives the reason: to keep their offspring alive across the whole earth.
Commentators read the extra animals as provision for sacrifice, not just a surplus for breeding. The writers quoted here use an older translation, which says "by sevens" where the ESV says "seven pairs."
As to the "two of every sort" in chapter 7, and "seven clean" in verses 2, 3, the first were male and female, to keep them alive; when they were clean beasts, he took fourteen. I have no doubt the "clean" were the ones people usually gave for sacrifices. Who would offer a ravenous wild beast in sacrifice to God, but sheep or oxen?
Commentators differ on the count. Others read seven animals, with one left over after three pairs, and find that odd one's purpose on the far side of the flood.
And now we discover why Noah took the clean animals into the ark in sevens and the unclean only in twos… But why the odd one in the seven? Because Noah was to offer them up as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew that the flood had made no change in human nature… and so from the very start the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.
The instructions in chapter 6 and those here use different names for God. Writers treat that change as the key to the different numbers. The older translation says "Jehovah" where the ESV says "the LORD."
The first mention is this: "Two of every sort shall come to you, Noah, to keep them alive." That is God's (Elohim's) care of His creatures, to preserve every kind alive on the earth. But when we read of His taking "of every clean beast by sevens, his male and his female," it is God as Jehovah who speaks. And why? Because He is now arranging, as in relationship with man, for sacrifices — types of Christ.
The birds of the air, named in this verse, are read along the same line — not merely creatures preserved, but a supply held ready for God.
It is God providing not for the perpetuation of the creature merely, but with marked completeness for sacrifice. As a result we have this perfect care over the maintenance of His rights and place as One who governed morally. "And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded."
Some readers set the "two of every sort" of chapter 6 against the sevens here and see a clash. One writer answers that the text itself ties the two accounts together.
Jehovah states His thoughts about Noah, and gives His directions about His relationship with man and the earth. So He tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens — still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as Elohim had commanded. That ties the two names together in the text itself, in a way that would make separating them difficult… The birds of the air, which went in by sevens, plainly mean clean ones too, as Genesis 8:20 shows.
Nothing here explains what makes a creature clean. The verse takes it for granted that Noah already knows.
As a general principle, the difference between clean and unclean was known in early days. So we find Jehovah directing Noah to take all clean animals by sevens. But of those not clean he was to take two, a male and its female, into the ark. Noah acted on this. After the flood, his first recorded act was to build an altar and offer up burnt offerings of every clean beast and of all clean birds. For the tenure of the post-flood earth hung on sacrifice.
The reason given in verse 3 looks past the ark to the whole earth. One writer explains why the larger number mattered.
Had there been only "two of every sort," offering some in sacrifice would have put an end to those particular kinds of creatures. So the "sevens" left plenty of room both for sacrifices and "to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth."
Another writer looks further ahead, to what the rescued animals point toward.
The beasts, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, as well as the birds of the air, give us the hint that creation will share the blessed effects of salvation. The later prophetic word, and Romans 8:19-23, tell us of a coming deliverance of groaning creation.
- Preserved. Every kind enters in pairs. After the judgment the earth still has its living creatures. The waters carry creation through; they do not sweep it away.
- Doubled. The clean beasts and birds go in by sevens. That is more than survival needs, because sacrifice is in view as well as breeding.
- Offered. The extra clean animals meet the altar Noah builds when he steps out. The renewed world begins on the ground of sacrifice.
- Named. God the Creator commands the pairs. The LORD commands the sevens, speaking as One in relationship with man. The two names explain the two numbers; they do not contradict each other.
- Widened. The purpose reaches "the face of all the earth." The sevens leave room for sacrifice and for survival. Commentators see in the rescued animals a hint that creation itself will share in salvation.
For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.
God has already told Noah to go into the ark. Now He starts a clock. One week of waiting, then rain for forty days and nights, then everything He made wiped off the ground. Why the extra week? What does forty mean? And why is rain named here for the first time in the Bible?
Earlier God had told Noah in general terms that judgment was coming. This verse fixes the timing down to the day.
God warned Noah about things not yet seen, both on the ground of a special relationship and on the ground of His nature. Genesis 7:4 then follows that general warning with precise details. Just as it was predicted, so it happened, right on time, as Scripture plainly states. No history could be more exact, or more full of detail in so few words.
The world had already had one hundred and twenty years of warning. This last week was extra.
At last the one hundred and twenty promised years ran out, and then God gave a guilty world seven extra days of grace... He did not promise these seven days, but He gave them. How like God. There is no promise of seven days of grace to you. Come to Jesus today.
Those seven days also gave one last piece of evidence: the animals streaming into the ark. One writer suggests the delay worked the other way on people's minds.
Men saw the huge number of animals coming to the ark. Then they saw Noah's whole family go into this finished, giant vessel. By then, at least, they ought to have realized that this project did not come out of Noah's imagination... But God gave men another week to change their minds. Perhaps, as those few days passed, people grew more confident each day that nothing was going to happen, instead of getting seriously worried.
Until this verse, Scripture never mentions water falling from the sky. Genesis 2 describes another way the ground got its water.
Genesis 2:6 shows that a mist rose from the earth itself and kept the plant life alive, with no water coming down from above. There were waters "above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7), but they had not yet come down as showers on the earth. Not until Genesis 7:4 do we read of rain. Some think that the watering of the earth by mist and not rain persisted until the time of the flood. It may have been so.
Forty days and nights is not a random number. One writer traces the same span through Scripture, and shows where the 120 years came from.
The flood came down for forty days, and that number shows a period of testing. God tested Israel forty days while He gave the law, and forty years in all in the wilderness. The Lord was tempted forty days. Spies searched Canaan for forty days. Jonah's warning call to Nineveh was forty days... But God's patience sometimes lengthens the time of testing. In that case forty is multiplied again by three, the divine number, bringing us to 120. That is the time through which the long-suffering of God waited while Noah preached. Notice that this testing, while it destroys all else, lifts the ark up on its surface (Gen. 7:18).
The threat covers every living thing, and it fell exactly as God said. But it never fell without notice.
God never destroys without warning. So He gave a hundred and twenty years' notice of the coming ruin. Through those years men had the ministry of "Noah, a preacher of righteousness." In that scornful age the result was nothing: no one was saved but Noah and his household... Seven days after the hand of God shut the door of the ark, the blow fell, and the rain kept falling for forty days and forty nights without a break.
One writer asks how that generation could be caught out after so much warning.
"They did not know." Had they not had plenty of testimony? Plenty. For a hundred and twenty years Noah, the "preacher of righteousness," pointed to the coming storm, which Enoch had predicted too. They had plenty of testimony, but they paid no attention to it. How dull their ears were! People were taken by surprise in Noah's day, and so will they be when He Himself returns to judge the earth as Son of Man.
- Warned — God gave notice first. One hundred and twenty years of Noah's preaching, then a date for what was coming.
- Given — the seven days were an extra mercy, not part of the original promise; God added time no one had asked for.
- Wasted — the extra week may have hardened rather than softened. As nothing happened day by day, people grew more confident, not more concerned.
- Tested — forty is the span of testing all through Scripture. The same waters that destroyed everything else lifted the ark.
- Repeated — Jesus tied this scene to His own return. The verdict on that generation: they did not know until the flood came.
And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.
Genesis 7:5 closes God's final instructions before the flood: Noah did every single thing he was told. But what had God commanded, why is He called "the LORD" here, and what makes a man act on a warning about something no one has ever seen?
The commands in view came just before: which animals to take, and a countdown of seven days. One writer finds kindness in that short delay.
Next, we see the LORD's thoughtful care. He gave notice of only seven days before the flood, so that Noah and his family could enjoy their deliverance, and the goodness of their Deliverer, with calmer hearts. The world of unbelievers had refused the warning that sounded through one hundred and twenty years. The seven days' notice was a fresh proof of gracious concern for those who believed.
The word "all" carries the weight of the verse. Noah chose nothing for himself, and he left nothing out.
God warned Noah of the coming catastrophe. The great thing to notice in him is his simple obedience to the voice of God. God gave the dimensions of the ark — the window, the door, and the different decks. Noah made everything according to what was commanded.
The names for God shift back and forth across these chapters. One writer traces the pattern and shows that each name is chosen with care.
"Jehovah" is a relationship name, one specially revealed; it is not the Creator's name, the name of the divine Being... The earth (Genesis 6) was corrupt before God as such. Yet the writer always speaks of Jehovah and His dealings. And "God" deals with the earth as so corrupted; again, verse 22, as "God" commanded him, not Jehovah. Then in Genesis 7 Jehovah said to Noah, and as Jehovah (v. 5) commanded him; then as God commanded him (v. 9), and again as God commanded him, and Jehovah shut him in (v. 16).
"Jehovah" is the name printed as "the LORD" in most Bibles. So verse 5 uses the relationship name: the God who spoke to Noah is the God he obeyed.
There was no cloud on the horizon when Noah acted. Everything he did rested on a word about things not yet visible.
When God spoke to Noah of judgment impending, there was no sign of it. It was "not seen as yet"; but the word of God made it a present reality to the heart that was enabled to mix that word with faith. Faith does not wait to see a thing before it believes.
Nor did Noah wait until the plan made sense to him. Understanding came the other way round.
Noah believed what he did not understand at first, and acted on his faith. Soon he got understanding. Faith understands because faith believes God. Where unbelief sees a difficulty, faith does not. Noah believed, acted, and then understood.
Being righteous was not what carried Noah through. Another writer traces where his safety actually came from, and what his obedience said to the world.
Noah's personal character was no exemption from the threatened flood. His life and safety depended solely on his obedience to the warning voice of God. Because he believed in God he listened to this special revelation... Noah was shut into the ark before God brought His word to pass. God shut him in. He made secure His own work of salvation before He laid His judgment on the works of men... He condemned the world by his obedience to the word of God. His testimony was a witness of their madness as they carried on in their old way, paying no attention.
One writer lists this verse among Noah's honours. Then he sets beside it what happened later.
He was an obedient servant; he did according to all that the LORD commanded him (Genesis 7:5)... Despite all this high favour and special experience, as soon as Noah was left to his own will, under Satan's influence he became a slave to lust... We do well to be watchful: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." ... A Christian may have spent forty years with the highest privileges, in the best conditions for growth toward God. He is still not immune from failure.
- Word. God spoke first — one hundred and twenty years of warning, then seven days' notice, a fresh proof of His concern for those who believed.
- Faith. No sign of a flood was in view. Noah acted on a word about things not seen, and understanding came after the believing.
- Obedience. "All" is the key word: the dimensions, the decks, the door — Noah did every part of it as commanded.
- Shelter. His character did not exempt him from judgment. Obedience put him inside the ark, and God Himself shut the door before the waters came.
- Watchfulness. The same obedient man later fell. The verse honours him, but it does not make him safe: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth.
Genesis 7:6 fixes the flood to a single point in one man's life: the year he turned six hundred. That small line of chronology marks the end of God's patience with a whole world. It raises two questions: what filled those six hundred years, and why the record changes its tone right here.
Most of Noah's six hundred years pass without a headline. One writer weighs how little the record says about the first four-fifths of that span:
When Noah was born, over a thousand years had passed since sin entered the world, at the lowest estimate. Six hundred years later the flood would sweep away the world of the ungodly. Divide those six hundred years into five equal parts. Four of the five passed with nothing put on record except the all-important fact that he was "a righteous man, blameless in his generation," and that he "walked with God."
That quiet stretch was not wasted time. It was the groundwork for the final fifth:
Four-fifths of the period passed with little happening. Yet during those years this steady walk with God laid the foundation for the activity and the witness of the final fifth — the one hundred and twenty years just before the flood. That was the period when "God's patience waited … while the ark was being prepared" (1 Peter 3:20), and also of the witness Noah gave as "a herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5).
Those closing years were not just construction time. The ark itself preached, plank by plank:
Is not this same care for His people seen in the long respite granted to the people before the flood? Here we see the longsuffering of God, who bore long with the sinners before the flood and gave them room for repentance. Every day that Noah worked at the ark, every plank, every nail, every stroke of his hammer, was a warning and a threat of the coming judgment. More than that, God could do nothing until Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in. Even then there was a respite of seven days (perfect forbearance).
Noah himself worked without knowing the deadline. One writer draws attention to what God withheld:
The Lord God had fixed 120 years as the term of His longsuffering. Noah's preaching, as well as ark-building, was to be for that period. Such was the purpose of God. But Noah was told nothing of this appointed interval. The Lord kept back all mention of the 120 years.
The opening of Genesis 7 says "the LORD," while this verse and the ones after it say "God." One writer reads that change as a move from private favour to public judgment:
The general statement that follows in verses 6-10 confirms the special force of these five verses all the more. There "God" appears rather than Jehovah, and so nothing of moral relationship in particular. Here we have Noah's age when the flood came — six hundred years — and the entrance of himself and all his house into the ark… He who enjoyed the favour of Jehovah had the earlier communication in grace. Nobody could fail to be aware of God's judgment when it came.
The same writer treats the change of names as evidence of design rather than of stitched-together documents:
The theory of Elohistic and Jehovistic documents so fails to account for the use of the divine names, as well as the other features of the text… From verse 6 we have Noah's action in view of Elohim's word as such, where accordingly the entrance of the creatures, clean or unclean, two and two, is named as in Genesis 6; and all the more strikingly here, because in the earlier verses the clean by sevens had been commanded by Jehovah, as suited His dealings with His own.
The record does not stop at Noah's age. A few verses later it gives the day itself:
In verse 11 God gives the date of the beginning of the flood in relation to the age of Noah. He gives not only the general time, but the exact day: the 17th day of the second month, in Noah's 600th year. The many dates, names and places recorded in Scripture are an invitation to anyone to check the accuracy of the word of God as he pleases.
One writer reads Noah as a picture of every believer, and Noah's day as a picture of ours. What made Noah look foolish was how long normal life had lasted:
Noah pictures the believer in general, as one who flees to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come… There is a sense in which the whole time of gospel witness matches Noah's days… It was the long stretch of undisturbed prosperity that made the builder of the ark look like a fool to those whose day was nearly over. In the same way we are warned that the Destroyer will appear when men begin to think that peace and safety are about to crown a world whose earlier generations have seen such strange changes.
- Walk first. Four-fifths of Noah's six hundred years hold no recorded event. The record says only that he was righteous and walked with God. That hidden walk carried the visible work.
- Then witness. The last hundred and twenty years turned that walk into building and preaching. Every hammer stroke was a warning to those who watched.
- Patience has a term. God fixed the length of His longsuffering but never told Noah the number. The builder worked by obedience, not by countdown.
- Then the name changes. From this verse on the record says "God" rather than "Jehovah." Grace had spoken in private. Judgment now lands where no one could miss it.
- And it dates itself. Noah's six hundredth year, second month, seventeenth day. The date is precise enough to check, and the pattern will return.