A Vault Light (Gen 6:16)

The Flood

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¹⁶ Make a vault light for the box צֹ֣הַר ׀ תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֣ה לַתֵּבָ֗ה

Let’s start our discussion of this sentence by reviewing Claus Westermann’s inimitable outline of vv. 14–16:

1.    An ark of teak–wood,

2.    with rooms,

3.    with pitch inside and out,

4.    300 cubits long, 50 wide, 30 high,

5.    Roof,

6.    …

7.    Door in the side,

8.    three decks.

His “roof” is the “vault light” in my translation, and his “…” is where he decided the second half of the Hebrew phrase above is untranslatable. Can’t say I blame him. Let’s spend a minute talking about vault lights, which are great fun, before we start to tackle the more difficult phrase.