Bible Strands
Genesis 7:8
The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the animals entering the ark alongside Noah and his family as the floodwaters close in. This description occurs immediately after the human household enters the vessel and directly precedes the note that the creatures followed in pairs as commanded.
The words — The Hebrew הַבְּהֵמָה הַטְּהוֹרָה (ha-behemah ha-tehorah) literally renders "the clean animal." The text immediately contrasts this with אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנָּה טְהֹרָה (asher einennah tehorah), meaning "which is not clean."
The thread — The clean and unclean animal categories appear again in Leviticus 11:47, which commands Israel to distinguish between them. This same classification framework structures the sacrificial regulations in Leviticus 1-7.
Why it lands — The text states that both clean and unclean creatures, along with birds and ground-crawlers, are gathered into the ark. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine preservation and divine categorization operate simultaneously before the flood narrative advances.
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 clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,