“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
- KJV Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
- BSB “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.
- NASB “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
- NLT “Leave the boat, all of you—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 commands Noah and his family to come out of the ark. The time of sheltering ends and new life begins.
Overview
Just as God had called Noah into the ark, he now calls him out, framing the whole rescue by his word. The whole family is again named, emphasizing God's saving of the household. This summons to come out into a cleansed world pictures the new life God grants to those he delivers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 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 —
- Ps 121:8Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
- Zech 9:11As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.
- Acts 16:37–39But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most certainly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!”
- Ps 91:11For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.
- 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.
- Josh 4:16–18“Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.”
- Josh 4:10For the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and passed over.
- Dan 9:25–26Know therefore and discern, that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.
- Josh 3:17The priests who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.
- Gen 7:7Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.
- Acts 16:27–28The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
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 8:16 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.