How do the ark’s instructions answer the destruction God announces to Noe?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

God announces a flood that will destroy breathing flesh, then promises a covenant with Noe. He gives instructions for an ark, entry by Noe’s household, male and female creatures, and stored food so that life may be preserved.

Chapter breakdown

As people multiply and daughters are born, the sons of God see that the daughters of men are fair and take wives of their choice. Challoner identifies the sons of God as the descendants of Seth and Enos, called such because of their religion and piety. He identifies the children of men with the ungodly race of Cain and its earthly attachments. The note calls the consequences of these marriages unhappy and warns Christians to choose carefully, rather than allowing bodily passion to harm virtue or religion.

God says that his spirit will not remain in man forever because man is flesh, and gives 120 years as his days. Challoner first explains this as a reduction from the usual earlier lifespans of about 900 years. He then prefers the reading that God allows 120 years for repentance and conversion before the flood. The account also describes giants and the children of the sons of God and daughters of men as mighty men of old, men of renown. Challoner considers it likely that earlier people were generally larger than people of his time. He explains these particular giants as not only tall but also violent, savage, cruel and lustful.

God sees great human wickedness and thoughts continually bent on evil. The account speaks of his repenting that he made man and being touched with sorrow of heart. Challoner explains that God is unchangeable and cannot undergo repentance, grief or other passions. The expressions show the enormity of human sins that lead the Creator to destroy creatures he had greatly favoured. God announces that he will destroy mankind, beasts, creeping creatures and birds from the face of the earth.

Noe finds grace before the Lord. The family account describes him as a just and perfect man in his generations who walks with God. His sons are Sem, Cham and Japheth. The earth, meanwhile, is corrupted before God and filled with wrongdoing.

God sees that all flesh has corrupted its way on earth. He tells Noe that its end has come because the earth is filled with wrongdoing through it, and that he will destroy it with the earth. He commands Noe to make an ark of timber planks with small rooms and to coat it inside and outside with pitch. The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high.

Challoner explains that the dimensions provide enough room for the kinds of creatures and their necessary food. His note describes a capacity of 450,000 square cubits. It says the space is sufficient even if the cubit is taken as a foot and a half, the smallest kind he identifies. God also commands a window, a top finished within a cubit, a door in the side, and lower, middle and third levels.

God announces that a great flood will destroy all flesh with the breath of life under heaven and consume all things on the earth. He promises to establish his covenant with Noe. Noe is to enter the ark with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives. He is to bring two of each sort of living creature, male and female, so that they may live with him. Birds, beasts and creeping creatures are to enter according to their kinds. He must also collect and store edible food for himself and for them.

Noe does everything God commands him.

The story inside

The instructions answer the danger in concrete parts. The flood concerns living flesh, so the ark is not only for Noe: his household and creatures of the different kinds are to enter. The creatures are male and female, and their survival also requires food. The instructions therefore join a place to enter, living occupants, and provision for them. The stated covenant belongs within this sequence of threatened destruction and planned preservation. The chapter ends with Noe carrying out God’s commands; it does not yet narrate the flood’s arrival or the occupants’ survival.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The account distinguishes Noe from the surrounding corruption. Human thoughts are described as bent on evil, but Noe finds grace, is called just and perfect in his generations, and walks with God. These are the chapter’s stated descriptions, without an invented account of his private prayer or hesitation (6:5–12).
2
The edition’s explanations must keep their qualifications. Challoner offers two readings of the 120 years and prefers a period for repentance before the flood. He also explains the language of God’s repentance and sorrow as expressing the gravity of human sin, rather than a change or passion in God (6:3, 6:6).
3
The ark’s purpose requires occupants and supplies as well as a structure. Dimensions, rooms and openings are followed by instructions to bring the household, animal kinds, and food. The final statement of obedience applies to the commands together (6:14–22).

Test your recall

How do the commands concerning the ark’s structure, household, animal pairs and food answer the announced danger to living flesh?

Show answer

The flood threatens all living flesh under heaven. The ark provides a protected space: rooms, pitch inside and outside, a door, a window, and three levels. Its stated dimensions are 300 by 50 by 30 cubits. Noe must bring his wife, sons and their wives, male and female animal pairs, and food. These commands provide shelter, preserve life, and supply those inside.

Quotes from Scripture

Exact Scripture quotations from the Douay–Rheims Bible, revised by Bishop Richard Challoner (1749–1752), the same edition used for these chapters. Source: Project Gutenberg no. 1581.

And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times,

Genesis 6:5 · Douay–Rheims / Challonerpg1581.txt · lines 766–768

Make thee an ark of timber planks: thou shalt make little rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without.

Genesis 6:14 · Douay–Rheims / Challonerpg1581.txt · lines 800–801

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 728–747
Genesis Chapter 6 Man’s sin is the cause of the deluge. Noe is commanded to build the ark. 6:1. And after that men began to be multiplied upon the earth, and daughters were born to them, 6:2. The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to themselves wives of all which they chose. The sons of God.... The descendants of Seth and Enos are here called sons of God from their religion and piety: whereas the ungodly race of Cain, who by their carnal affections lay grovelling upon the earth, are called the children of men. The unhappy consequence of the former marrying with the latter, ought to be a warning to Christians to be very circumspect in their marriages; and not to suffer themselves to be determined in their choice by their carnal passion, to the prejudice of virtue or religion.
Lines 748–765
6:3. And God said: My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. His days shall be, etc.... The meaning is, that man’s days, which before the flood were usually 900 years, should now be reduced to 120 years. Or rather, that God would allow men this term of 120 years, for their repentance and conversion, before he would send the deluge. 6:4. Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. Giants.... It is likely the generality of men before the flood were of a gigantic stature in comparison with what men now are. But these here spoken of are called giants, as being not only tall in stature, but violent and savage in their dispositions, and mere monsters of cruelty and lust.
Lines 766–782
6:5. And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, 6:6. It repented him that he had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, It repented him, etc.... God, who is unchangeable, is not capable of repentance, grief, or any other passion. But these expressions are used to declare the enormity of the sins of men, which was so provoking as to determine their Creator to destroy these his creatures, whom before he had so much favoured. 6:7. He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Lines 783–792
6:8. But Noe found grace before the Lord. 6:9. These are the generations of Noe: Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations, he walked with God. 6:10. And he begot three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth. 6:11. And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity.
Lines 793–806
6:12. And when God had seen that the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth), 6:13. He said to Noe: The end of all flesh is come before me, the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. 6:14. Make thee an ark of timber planks: thou shalt make little rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without. 6:15. And thus shalt thou make it. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits: the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
Lines 807–818
Three hundred cubits, etc.... The ark, according to the dimensions here set down, contained four hundred and fifty thousand square cubits; which was more than enough to contain all the kinds of living creatures, with all necessary provisions: even supposing the cubits here spoken of to have been only a foot and a half each, which was the least kind of cubits. 6:16. Thou shalt make a window in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish the top of it: and the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side: with lower, middle chambers, and third stories shalt thou make it.
Lines 819–837
6:17. Behold, I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life under heaven. All things that are in the earth shall be consumed. 6:18. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt enter into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and the wives of thy sons with thee. 6:19. And of every living creature of all flesh, thou shalt bring two of a sort into the ark, that they may live with thee: of the male sex, and the female. 6:20. Of fowls according to their kind, and of beasts in their kind, and of every thing that creepeth on the earth according to its kind: two of every sort shall go in with thee, that they may live. 6:21. Thou shalt take unto thee of all food that may be eaten, and thou shalt lay it up with thee: and it shall be food for thee and them.
Lines 838–840
6:22. And Noe did all things which God commanded him.