Genesis 8:19

Summary

Genesis 8:19 describes the exit of all living creatures from the ark after the flood: land animals, creeping things, and birds, each grouped according to their families, leaving the ark onto the earth.

Key words

• chai.Yah ("animal", H2416C) — feminine singular noun with definite article, forming the first of the four category-terms listing creature types.
• Re.mes ("creeping thing", H7431) — masculine singular noun, a distinct category from the participle ro.Mes later in the verse, though from the same root.
• ro.Mes ("creeping [thing]", H7430) — a qal participle ("the one doing"), used here verbally to describe motion ("that moves/creeps"), modifying the preceding nouns rather than naming a fixed category.
• mish.pe.Cho.tei.Hem ("their families", H4940 + H9028) — plural construct noun with third-person masculine plural suffix, indicating that the creatures exited grouped by kinship or type groupings.
• ya.tze.'U ("they went out", H3318G) — qal perfect, third person plural, marking the completed action of exiting as the main verb of the clause.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence lists four categories joined by the repeated construct particle kol ("every", H3605): chai.Yah ("animal"), Re.mes ("creeping thing"), 'of ("bird"), and then a further qualifying phrase kol ro.Mes 'al ha-'A.retz ("every [thing] creeping on the earth"). The last kol (word 11) is not in construct form like the previous three, and it governs a participle (ro.Mes) rather than a noun — this participial phrase functions as an additional descriptive clause characterizing what has already been listed, emphasizing motion "upon the earth" ('al ha-'A.retz).

The prepositional phrase le-mish.pe.Cho.tei.Hem ("to their families") precedes the main verb ya.tze.'U ("they went out"), giving grammatical prominence to the manner of the exit — grouped by mishpachah ("family/kinship group") — before naming the action itself. The verb ya.tze.'U is qal perfect plural, indicating a single completed event performed by all the previously listed subjects together. The final phrase min ha-te.Vah ("from the ark") specifies the origin point of this movement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the list with five terms (θηρία "wild animals," κτήνη "cattle," πετεινόν "bird," ἑρπετόν "creeping thing," and a separate κατὰ γένος αὐτῶν "according to their kind") where the Hebrew presents three main nouns (chai.Yah, Re.mes, 'of) plus one participial clause (kol ro.Mes 'al ha-'A.retz) — the LXX's κτήνη ("cattle") has no separate corresponding lexical item in this Hebrew verse's word list. The Vulgate similarly adds jumenta ("cattle/beasts of burden") alongside animantia and reptilia, again introducing a category not present as a distinct term in the Hebrew of this verse.