Genesis 6:16

Summary

The verse instructs the builder to make a tzohar ("a roof", H6672B) for the ark, to finish its structure a cubit from the top, to place an entrance in its side, and to build it with three levels — lower, second, and third decks.

Key words

• Tzo.har ("a roof", H6672B) — feminine singular noun, object of the first command; its exact referent (opening, roof, or light-source) is debated across the versions below.
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will make", H6213H) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular, used twice in the verse (also as Ta.'a.Se. + suffix -ah at the end) to frame the instructions as ongoing/future obligations addressed directly to the builder.
• te.kha.Le.nah ("you will finish it", H3615G) — piel imperfect with 3rd feminine singular suffix ("her/it"), referring back to the ark; the piel stem intensifies the action of "completing" or "bringing to an end."
• mi.lma'.lah ("from above", H4605) — noun with prepositions mi ("from") and le ("to"), plus a directional he suffix (H9011) marking spatial orientation "toward the top."
• tach.ti.Yim, she.ni.Yim, she.li.Shim ("lower, second, third [decks]", H8482, H8145, H7992) — three masculine plural forms in sequence, listing the vertical divisions of the ark without an explicit noun for "deck" or "story," which is supplied by the reader from context.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence chain is built entirely on second-person imperfect verbs — ta.'a.Seh, te.kha.Le.nah, ta.Sim, and Ta.'a.Se.[ha] — each carrying an implied continuous or future instruction to "you" (the addressee, unnamed here but contextually Noah). The pronominal suffixes attached to te.kha.Le.nah ("finish it") and Ta.'a.Se.[ha] ("make it") both point back to the feminine noun te.Vah ("ark", H8392), tying each clause to the same object without repeating the noun.

The phrase 'el- 'a.Mah ("to a cubit") functions as a measurement marker for the finishing of the tzohar, though the Hebrew does not specify whether this cubit refers to a width, height, or gap — the syntax simply says the entity is to be "finished to a cubit from above" (mi.lma'.lah). The construct phrase Fe.tach ha.te.Vah ("entrance of the ark") establishes the location of the door "in its side" (be.tzi.Dah), using a construct noun (H6607) followed by a suffixed noun (H6654) for "its side." The final clause lists the three levels — tach.ti.Yim, she.ni.Yim, u.she.li.Shim — as plural adjectives/ordinals without a governing noun, leaving the reader to infer "decks" or "levels" from the numerical sequence itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew tzohar ("a roof", H6672B) is rendered in the LXX as epi­sunagon ("gathering together" or "converging"), a participial form suggesting a converging structure rather than a fixed roof or window. The Vulgate instead reads fenestram ("a window"), diverging from both the Hebrew noun and the LXX participle. The English versions split accordingly: BSB follows a "roof" sense, while RV1909 and SBLIBRE follow the "window/opening" tradition reflected in the Vulgate.