Genesis 6:18 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

NIV: 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.

CSB: But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives.

NLT: But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat — you and your wife and your sons and their wives.

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.

The prior verse summarized God's plan to wipe out all land-dwelling life on earth with a flood. Before that, God had given Noah instructions on building the huge ark which would carry man and animals to be spared. Here, God specifically tells Noah that he and his family alone would be saved from the flood.

In doing so, God uses a word which will become important for God's people forever: covenant. This term implies more than just a simple contract, or agreement. It carries the idea of a pledge and a promise. God says that He will establish His covenant with Noah. In this case, God wants Noah to understand that the Lord is obligating Himself to save Noah and his family from the coming destruction.

The purpose of God using this language is trust. A covenant is a very solemn, serious obligation. Its worth is only as good as the person making it. At the same time, it implies that the one making the covenant is staking their entire reputation on upholding their end of the bargain. So, when God tells Noah He is making a covenant with him, it implies the most absolutely binding, serious kind of commitment. If Noah cannot place his trust in a covenant from God, he can't place his trust in anything.

God's covenant with Noah—and through Noah with humanity to follow—will be further developed in the coming chapters.

Genesis 6:9-22 begins another new section in Genesis called the ''generations of Noah.'' Because of humanity's power and wickedness, the earth had become filled with violence and sinfulness. By contrast, Noah was a righteous, blameless man who walked with God. God chooses to declare to Noah His plan to end all land-dwelling life on earth, but also to save Noah and his family and two of every animal. Noah obeys God's command to build the ark that would preserve the human race from total destruction in the flood.

God sees. In the first chapter of Genesis, God saw that all He had made was good. Now, many generations after sin entered the world, God sees that all man has made is wickedness and evil. Human beings have used their power for violence and destruction. God declares His plan to wipe out all land-dwelling life on the face of the earth. He will however, preserve humanity and animal life for a new beginning through the one righteous man, Noah, and a huge life-giving structure called an ark.

The previous chapter traced the generations from Adam through his son Seth and all of the way to Noah. This chapter reveals that Noah will be the man through whom God will preserve humanity for a new beginning after wiping out all life on the face of the earth. God tells Noah to build an enormous structure, an ark, and prepare to welcome representatives of all of the animals on earth. Noah does exactly that, setting the stage for the cataclysmic judgment of God to come in chapter 7.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.