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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
- Gen 7:7And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
- Gen 7:13In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
- Gen 17:7And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
- Isa 26:20Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
- 2 Pet 2:5And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- Gen 9:9–16And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
- 1 Pet 3:20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
- Gen 7:1And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
- Gen 17:21But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
- Gen 17:4As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.