Genesis 6:20

מֵהָעוֹף לְמִינֵהוּ וּמִן־הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ מִכֹּל רֶמֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָה לְמִינֵהוּ שְׁנַיִם מִכֹּל יָבֹאוּ אֵלֶיךָ לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

מֵהָע֣וֹף לְמִינֵ֗הוּ וּמִן־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ מִכֹּ֛ל רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ שְׁנַ֧יִם מִכֹּ֛ל יָבֹ֥אוּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ὀρνέων τῶν πετεινῶν κατὰ γένος καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν κτηνῶν κατὰ γένος καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν ἑρπόντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος αὐτῶν, δύο δύο ἀπὸ πάντων εἰσελεύσονται πρὸς σὲ τρέφεσθαι μετὰ σοῦ, ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

De volucribus juxta genus suum, et de jumentis in genere suo, et ex omni reptili terræ secundum genus suum: bina de omnibus ingredientur tecum, ut possint vivere.

Spanish

De cada especie de aves, de animales y de reptiles, entrará contigo una pareja para que sobrevivan.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

De las aves según su especie, y de las bestias según su especie, de todo reptil de la tierra según su especie, dos de cada especie entrarán contigo para que hayan vida.

English

Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 6:20 specifies that pairs of birds, land animals, and creeping things — each according to its kind — will come to Noah so that they may be kept alive. The verse lists three categories of creatures, each qualified by the repeated phrase "according to its kind," followed by the number "two" and the purpose of preservation.

Key words

mi.Ne.hu ("its kind", H4327 + H9023) — construct noun with 3rd person masculine singular suffix, repeated three times (for birds, land animals, and creeping things), marking that each group is distinguished internally "according to its own kind."
she.Na.yim ("two", H8147) — cardinal number in dual form, indicating a paired unit (male and female) rather than a general plural.
ya.Vo.'u ("they will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural, expressing an action not yet completed, i.e., future or ongoing arrival.
le.Ha.cha.Yot ("to preserve alive", H2421) — hiphil infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le ("to"), expressing purpose: the causative form indicates that the subject (Noah, addressed as eleikha, "to you") is the one who will cause the animals to remain alive.
Re.mes ha.'a.da.mah ("creeping thing of the ground", H7431 + H0127G) — construct chain, "creeping thing" bound to "the ground," specifying the third category as ground-dwelling crawling creatures.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a long list of prepositional phrases marking source ("from/of," min, H4480A and H9006) attached to three creature categories — 'of ("bird", H5775), be.he.Mah ("animal", H0929), and Re.mes ha.'a.da.mah ("creeping thing of the ground") — each followed by le.mi.Nehu/mi.Nah ("to its kind"). This repeated formula grammatically ties each group to an internal principle of classification ("kind") before the main verb appears. Only after all three sources are listed does the sentence introduce the subject count, she.Na.yim ("two"), and the verb ya.Vo.'u ("they will come"), a qal imperfect denoting an action situated in future time relative to the speaker.

The prepositional phrase 'e.Lei.kha ("to you", H0413 + H9031) identifies Noah as the addressee toward whom the creatures move, and the final infinitive le.Ha.cha.Yot ("to preserve alive", hiphil of H2421) expresses purpose using a causative verb form: the action of coming results in a state of being kept alive, with the causative sense implying an external agent (Noah) enabling this survival rather than the animals surviving on their own.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the structure with κατὰ γένος ("according to kind") applied to birds, κτηνῶν ("cattle/animals"), and ἑρπετῶν ("creeping things"), and adds ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ("male and female") at the end, a phrase not present in the Hebrew word list for this verse. The LXX also uses τρέφεσθαι ("to be fed/nourished") μετὰ σοῦ ("with you") where the Hebrew has le.Ha.cha.Yot ("to preserve alive"), shifting the purpose clause from survival/preservation to sustenance. The Vulgate's ut possint vivere ("so that they may be able to live") parallels the Hebrew purpose of preservation more closely than the LXX's feeding sense.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.