Genesis 6:14
Make an ark of cyprus timbers for yourself. You shall make rooms in the ark; and you shall cover it with asphalt inside and out.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
Make therefore for thyself an ark of square timber; thou shalt make the ark in compartments, and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Footnotes
| 245 | Strong’s #1613, gopher. The word doesn’t appear anywhere else and confounds commentators. The feminine word with the same root, gophrith (#1614), means brimstone and is indicative of “pitch, and then other combustibles” Tree sap and pitch are flammable. The Septuagint has tetragon, four-cornered which would infer cut lumber. The word is very close to kopher which is translated as pitch, see note below. |
| 246 | Strong’s #7064, qen. A nest. |
| 247 | The Ark⇒Wooden Chest The Hebrew אֶת- as a mark of accusative (#853) instead of “near” (#854) agrees with the verb to make. Strong’s #8392, tebah, a box, chest. BDB notes “probably Egyptian loan-word from T-b-t, chest, coffin”. It needs to be known that Hebrew words for “ship” (#6716, #5600, #591) are not used here nor are any Greek words for “ship” used in Jesus’ reference to it, “They ate, they drank, they married, they gave in marriage, until which hot-one came in Rest into the wooden chest [kibótos #G2787] and came the deluge and destroyed the whole.” Luke 17:27 literal |
| 248 | her. Hebrew אֹתָ֑הּ otah. This is the mark of the accusative in the feminine meaning herself. The masculine form otoh was previously used in Genesis 1:27 “he cut out himself”. |
| 249 | The Hebrew word for “house” is thought to reference the “inside” similar to “indoor” |
| 250 | in the Kopher. This is the covering (ransom?). In the Blood. Hebrew כפר. Preposition in + definite article + masculine singular. Strong’s #3724, kopher, the price of a life, ransom. From kaphar; properly, a cover, pacify, make propitiation. This is the only instance where kopher is translated as “pitch” or “tar” in other translations. It is connected to the meaning of the word chemar (#2564) as used of Moses’ ark which was covered in pitch, And she has not been able again to hide him; and she is taking an ark of papyrus; and she is boiling [chamar] her in tar [chemar] and is putting in her the male-child and is putting in the Reed over the lip of the Nile.” Exodus 2:3 literal Heat, cham (#2526), the name of Ham, is associated with these picture words. Kopher undoubtably is intended to draw our attention to the atonement/covering. It relates to “Egypt”. In Isaiah 43:3 God says, “For I am Yahweh your elohim, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom [kopher], Cush and Seba in your place.” It is also translated as the henna/cypress plant, “A cluster of the Kopher is my beloved to me, In the vineyards of En-Gedi!” Song 1:14 YLT. Gesenius states, “3) cypress, Gr. κύπρος, a shrub, or small tree, with whitish odoriferous flowers, growing in clusters; Arab. حِنَّاءُ, حِنَّأَةُ Lawsonia inermis, Linn., so called in Hebrew, as has been well suggested by Joh. Simonis, from a powder being made of its leaves with which, when mixed with water, women in the East smear over their nails, so as to make them of a red colour for the sake of ornament” |