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.
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.
- 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.
- 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 about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
- Gen 7:7Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.
- Gen 7:13In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth — the sons of Noah — and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship —
- Gen 17:7I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.
- Isa 26:20Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
- 2 Pet 2:5and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
- Gen 9:9–16“As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,
- 1 Pet 3:20who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
- Gen 7:1Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
- Gen 17:21But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
- Gen 17:4“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of 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.