Bible Strands
Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Noah acts immediately after the flood recedes and every creature exits the ark. He constructs an altar to Yahweh and presents burnt offerings from clean livestock and clean birds.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּבֶן (va-yiven) means "he built," and מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach) translates to "altar." The text records Noah erecting a physical structure to offer sacrifices to Yahweh.
The thread — This altar-building sequence parallels Abraham’s preparation at the designated place (Genesis 22:9) and aligns with the New Testament pattern of offering sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15).
Why it lands — The text states that Noah’s offering prompts Yahweh to smell a pleasing aroma and resolve never to curse the ground or destroy all life again due to human evil inclination. A reader must observe that the narrative places human worship before divine covenantal restraint, without attributing transactional mechanics to the sequence.
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
And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.
- Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Genesis 22:9 When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood.
- Genesis 12:7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
- Leviticus 11:1 The LORD spoke again to Moses and Aaron, telling them,
- 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Genesis 13:4 to the site where he had built the altar. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
- Genesis 26:25 So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.
- Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
- Genesis 35:7 There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.