Bible Strands
Genesis 7:3
and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Noah at the threshold of the flood, finalizing the Ark’s loading instructions after detailing the clean and unclean animals.
The words — The text emphasizes שִׁבְעָה (shiv'ah), meaning seven, and לְ/חַיּוֹת (le/chayyot), meaning to preserve alive.
The thread — This directive extends the Ark’s creature inventory from Genesis 7:2 and immediately sets up the forty-day rain forecast in Genesis 7:4.
Why it lands — It demands exact obedience to a specific numerical and biological standard to maintain species across the earth before the coming judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.