As For You (Gen 6:21)

The Flood

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²¹ As for you, וְאַתָּ֣ה

In v. 20, God told Noah that “two of each [species] will come to you.” This, says Cassuto, is

in antithesis to the third person [“they will come”] in the preceding verse, as though to say: they shall do their part and come in to you, and you do your duty and prepare food for yourself and for them.

To my ear, the antithesis points somewhere else.

V. 17, “I am going to bring the Flood,” begins with the word וַאֲנִ֗י va-ani 'and I’. Now we read וְאַתָּ֣ה v’atta ‘and you’. (V. 20 does not have והם v’hem ‘and they’.) God and Noah have a ברית brit, a covenant, which means that in some sense what’s going to happen next must be a cooperative effort. Noah has been told what he must do both at the beginning of God’s speech and in vv. 19–20, so it’s not clear to me why the “you” is here rather than somewhere else. Perhaps the point is: I am giving you a way to save yourself; now you must do your part.

get yourself קַח־לְךָ֗

The “yourself” here does not mean “for you yourself alone.” It’s what’s called an “ethical dative.” I searched the biblical grammars for a good way to explain this or, alternatively, a description so obscure that it would amuse you; in the end, I decided I ought to try to explain it myself. I did not bother (for some reason) to do this when we saw the first of these in 6:14, “make yourself a box.” This will be a big deal when we see the next occurrence, in 12:1, so let’s get to work on it in preparation for that major, major occurrence.