18. But I will make my covenant with you, and you will enter into the ark, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

"But with thee I will make my covenant..." The union of God with man is here for the first time called by its special term "covenant" (berit). Confirming the existence of the covenant that God made in the first promise of the seed of the woman (Genesis III:15), the Lord thereby clearly testifies that although He destroys almost all mankind, He does not destroy His eternal covenants (Sir XVIII:10 [416]); only the evil seed of the serpent will perish, but the seed of the woman in the person of Noah will triumph in its victory (Wis X:4 [417]).

"And thou shalt come in, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee..." Here is a complete list of all the members of Noah's family who alone were saved from the flood, as the Apostle Peter confirms in his two epistles (1 Peter III:20 [392]; 2 Peter III:6 [418]).

19. Bring also into the ark (of all cattle, and of all creeping things, and) of all living creatures, and of all flesh, two by two, that they may live with you; male and female, let them be. 20. Of all the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, and of all the creeping things of the earth after their kind, of all they will come in to you in two, that they may live.

"Bring also into the ark... of all animals... of all of them will come to you in two, so that they may live..." For the preservation and subsequent rebirth of animal life as well, God commands Noah to take with him into the ark one pair of each of their main kinds. Based on the words of verse 20, we can think that these animals, driven by instinct because of the approaching storm of the flood, themselves approached the ark and sought salvation in it, which greatly facilitated Noah's task. As for the expression how such a number of animals could fit in one ark, it should be noted that, firstly, Noah, in order to save space and fodder, could choose only the youngest animals, and secondly, the number of the main clan groups formed by the time of the flood was not yet so great as to create any insurmountable obstacle for Noah to place them in the ark.

21. Take for yourselves all the food that they eat, and gather it to you; and it shall be food for thee and for them. 22. And Noah did all things: as God commanded him, so he did.

"And Noah did all things... and so he did..." In these words the best praise of Noah is given, as the Apostle Paul makes it clear, saying: "By faith Noah, having received a revelation of things that were not yet seen, reverently prepared an ark for the salvation of his house; by it he condemned the world, and became heir of righteousness according to faith" (Hebrews XI:7 [409]).

"The construction of the ark (of which the holy narrator expresses himself so simply, conveying this purely calm, obedient fulfillment of the will of God) was, however, for Noah a profound test of his faith in God. All around was a world depraved and completely calm about its future (Matthew XXIV:37-38 [406]), a world that reproached Noah and mocked him during the many years of building the ark. Therefore, Noah's whole thought and soul had to be transported into the future, and this faith, which saved him from destruction, was the highest merit of his spiritual life and prefigured that state of the human soul when it is saved from eternal perdition by faith, accepting holy baptism" (Vlastov).

Chapter 7.

1. Noah's entry into the ark.

1. And the Lord said to Noah, "Enter you and all your family into the ark, for I have seen you righteous before me in this generation;

"Enter thou and all thy family into the ark..." This is God's positive command about the preliminary placement of Noah in the ark, which was the last warning to everyone and the last call of the sinful world to repentance.

2. And you shall take every clean cattle by seven, male and female, and of unclean cattle two by two, male and female; 3. also of the birds of the air, seven by seven, male and female, (and of all the unclean birds by two, male and female), to preserve the seed for the whole earth,

"And you shall take every clean cattle by seven... and two of the unclean cattle..." In these words we have the first instance of the division of animals into clean and unclean; the former included all those animals and birds which were either only eaten (Lev XI), or were also sacrificed (Lev I:2, 10, 14 and Genesis VIII:20). Although the exact distinction of all these species belongs to a later epoch, given in the law of Moses, yet in practice it existed much earlier, going back, as we see from here, to the time of the flood, although Noah's separation of animals and birds clean for sacrifice (Genesis VIII:20) did not coincide with the decrees of the law of Moses about the sacrifice of only three kinds of cattle and two kinds of birds. Later, in this case, as in others similar to it, the law confirmed, precisely formulated and legitimized what had previously been only an established custom. It was commanded to take as much pure as possible, firstly, in order to ensure their better preservation and greater distribution after the flood, and secondly, perhaps, for the food of the people imprisoned in the ark.