But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Parallel translations
- WEB But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
- KJV But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
- NKJV But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
- NASB But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
- NLT But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God establishes his covenant with Noah and commands him and his family to enter the ark. Salvation comes within a covenant relationship.
Overview
This is the first explicit mention of covenant in Scripture, introducing a key biblical theme of God binding himself to save a people. The covenant secures Noah's household, showing God's pattern of working through families and faith. It anticipates the greater covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, and finally the new covenant in Christ's blood.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Heb 11:7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
- Gen 7:7And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
- Gen 7:13On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons—
- Gen 17:7I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
- Isa 26:20Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.
- 2 Pet 2:5if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- Gen 9:9–16“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you,
- 1 Pet 3:20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.
- Gen 7:1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
- Gen 17:21But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”
- Gen 17:4“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 6:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.