Genesis 6:19

Summary

Genesis 6:19 instructs that from every living creature, from all flesh, two of each kind must be brought into the ark, so that they may be kept alive together with the addressee (Noah). The verse specifies that these pairs must consist of male and female.

Key words

• kol ("every/all", H3605) — appears three times as a construct noun, each time governing a following term ("all the living," "all flesh," "of everything"), building a cumulative, universalizing scope.
• chai ("living [thing]", H2416A) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a substantive ("the living [thing]"), paired with the definite article ha (H9009) to mean "the living."
• ta.Vi' ("you will bring", H0935G) — Hiphil imperfect, second person masculine singular; the Hiphil stem gives a causative sense ("cause to come/bring in"), and the imperfect marks an action pending in the addressee's near future.
• ha.cha.Yot ("preserve alive", H2421) — Hiphil infinitive construct, expressing purpose ("in order to keep alive"); the causative stem indicates that survival is brought about by an external agent, not spontaneous.
• yih.Yu ("they will be", H1961) — Qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, closing the verse with a statement of resulting state ("they shall be [male and female]").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence stacks three prepositional phrases built on mi ("of/from", H9006) plus kol ("all/every", H3605): "from all the living," "from all flesh," "from everything." This layering — living thing, then flesh, then an unspecified "everything" — creates a broad, repetitive scope of inclusion before the main verb appears. The verb ta.Vi' ("you will bring", H0935G) is delayed to the middle of the sentence, a normal feature of Hebrew syntax where extended prepositional or object phrases can precede the finite verb, placing emphasis on the totality of creatures before naming the action.

The number she.Na.yim ("two", H8147) is dual, marking a pair as a unit rather than simply the count 2. The purpose clause introduced by le ("to", H9005) plus the infinitive ha.cha.Yot ("preserve alive", H2421) explains the reason for bringing the animals: survival "with you" ('i.Tach, H0854 + suffix). The final clause, zachar u-nekevah yih.Yu ("male and female they will be", H2145, H5347, H1961), uses a plural verb agreeing with the dual/paired subject implied by "two," stating the required composition of each pair.

Differences between versions

The LXX expands the Hebrew's threefold "all the living / all flesh / everything" into four explicit categories — κτηνῶν ("cattle"), ἑρπετῶν ("reptiles"), θηρίων ("wild beasts"), and πάσης σαρκός ("all flesh") — where the Hebrew text here does not name these specific groups. The Vulgate's cunctis animantibus universae carnis ("all animate beings of all flesh") condenses the Hebrew's triple phrasing into two terms, omitting the third kol ("of everything", H3605) found before the verb ta.Vi'.