Genesis 7:13
בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה בָּא נֹחַ וְשֵׁם־וְחָם וָיֶפֶת בְּנֵי־נֹחַ וְאֵשֶׁת נֹחַ וּשְׁלֹשֶׁת נְשֵֽׁי־בָנָיו אִתָּם אֶל־הַתֵּבָֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
בְּעֶ֨צֶם הַיּ֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ בָּ֣א נֹ֔חַ וְשֵׁם־וְחָ֥ם וָיֶ֖פֶת בְּנֵי־נֹ֑חַ וְאֵ֣שֶׁת נֹ֗חַ וּשְׁלֹ֧שֶׁת נְשֵֽׁי־בָנָ֛יו אִתָּ֖ם אֶל־הַתֵּבָֽה׃
Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ εἰσῆλθεν Νῶε, Σήμ, ἸάΦεθ, υἱοὶ Νῶε, καὶ ἡ γυνὴ Νῶε καὶ αἱ τρεῖς γυναῖκες τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ μετ’ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν κιβωτόν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
In articulo diei illius ingressus est Noë, et Sem, et Cham, et Japheth filii ejus; uxor illius, et tres uxores filiorum ejus cum eis in arcam:
Ese mismo día, Noé y sus hijos Sem, Cam y Jafet, junto con su mujer y sus tres nueras, entraron en el arca.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
En este mismo día entró Noé, y Sem y Châm y Japhet, hijos de Noé, la mujer de Noé, y las tres mujeres de sus hijos con él en el arca;
On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons —
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 7:13 marks the precise day on which Noah, his three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), his wife, and his sons' three wives entered the ark. The verse lists eight people by name or relation and closes with the destination, "into the ark."
Key words
- 'etzem ("substance of", H6106H) — feminine singular construct noun; combined with hayom hazzeh ("this day") it forms the idiom "on the very substance/essence of this day," an emphatic way of marking the exact day.
- ba' ("he went / he entered", H0935G) — Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular, indicating a single completed action of entering, with Noah as the grammatical subject of the main clause.
- bənei ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct noun linking "sons" to Noach ("Noah", H5146), identifying Shem, Ham, and Japheth as Noah's sons.
- shəloshet ("the three of", H7969) — cardinal number in construct form, governing nəshei ("wives of", H0802H) to specify "the three wives of."
- tevah ("ark", H8392) — feminine singular noun, the object of the preposition 'el ("into", H0413), marking the final destination of the movement.
What the text says
The verse opens with the construct phrase bə'etzem hayom hazzeh, literally "in the substance of this day," which functions as an emphatic temporal marker equivalent to "on this very day." The main verb ba' ("he went/entered") is singular and grammatically attached only to Noach, even though the sentence lists multiple additional people (Shem, Ham, Japheth, Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons) joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002). This grammatical structure places Noah as the primary subject of the verb, while the others are added through coordination rather than each having their own conjugated verb form.
The relationships are expressed through construct chains: bənei-Noach ("sons of Noah") ties the three sons to their father, and shəloshet nəshei-vanav ("the three wives of his sons") uses a construct number governing a plural construct noun to specify exactly three wives belonging to "his sons" (vanav, with the third-person masculine singular suffix "his"). The final phrase 'el-hattevah ("into the ark") uses the preposition 'el ("into", H0413) to mark the ark as the goal of the movement described by ba'.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew text names all three sons (Shem, Cham, Yefet) individually connected by ve- ("and"). The Septuagint text given here lists only Σήμ and Ἰάφεθ as named sons under υἱοὶ Νῶε ("sons of Noah"), omitting the name Cham (Ham) that appears in the Hebrew. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew pattern by naming all three sons (Sem, Cham, Japheth) explicitly as filii ejus ("his sons").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.