Genesis 8:20

Summary

Noah builds an altar to Yehovah and takes from every clean animal and every clean bird, offering them up as burnt offerings on the altar. The verse describes a sequence of three actions — building, taking, and offering — all performed by Noah.

Key words

• va-yi.ven ("and he built", H1129) — qal narrative form with the narrative vav, marking the first sequential action of the verse.
• miz.Be.ach ("altar", H4196) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice (lines 4 and 26), naming both the object built and the location where the offerings occur.
• ha.Behemah ha.tehoRah ("the livestock", H0929 + "clean", H2889) — noun followed by an adjective in matching feminine singular form, both carrying the definite article, specifying the category of animals selected.
• va.Ya'al ("and he offered up", H5927I) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb: the causative stem indicates Noah causes the offerings to "go up," consistent with the noun 'oLot that follows.
• 'oLot ("burnt offerings", H5930A) — feminine plural noun, the direct object of va.Ya'al, denoting the offerings that ascend on the altar.

What the text says

The verse is built on three narrative-vav verbs in sequence — va-yi.ven ("and he built", H1129), va-yi.Kach ("and he took", H3947G), and va.Ya'al ("and he offered up", H5927I) — each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001) that chains the actions as consecutive events: build, then take, then offer. This chain structure is a standard feature of Hebrew narrative prose, presenting Noah's actions as a single continuous episode rather than isolated statements.

The selection of animals is expressed through two parallel constructions: mi-Kol ha-Behemah ha-tehoRah ("some of all the clean livestock") and u-mi-Kol ha-'of ha-taHor ("and some of all the clean bird"). In both, the preposition mi (H9006, "some of") attached to the construct noun Kol (H3605, "all/every") indicates partitive selection — Noah takes a portion, not the entirety, of the clean livestock and clean birds. The adjective tehoRah/taHor ("clean", H2889) agrees in gender with its noun (feminine for behemah, masculine for 'of), marking the category from which the offerings are drawn.

The final verb, va.Ya'al (H5927I), is in the hiphil stem, a causative form of the root meaning "to go up." This grammatical choice frames the act of offering as causing the sacrificial animals to ascend — a nuance tied to the noun 'oLot (H5930A, "burnt offerings"), itself derived from the same root, meaning "that which goes up." The repetition of mizbeach ("altar", H4196) in lines 4 and 26 bookends the verse, marking the altar as both the object constructed and the site of the offering.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text specifies la-YHWH ("to Yehovah", H3068G) as the recipient of the altar, while the LXX renders this as τῷ θεῷ ("to God"), using a generic divine title rather than transliterating or otherwise marking the personal name. The Vulgate uses Domino ("to the Lord"), similarly substituting a title for the name found in the Hebrew.