Get Some Food (Gen 6:21)

The Flood

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²¹ some food, of every kind that is edible מִכָּל־מַֽאֲכָל֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵֽאָכֵ֔ל

E. A. Speiser, in his (old) Anchor Bible commentary, offers a responsible opposing viewpoint:

food that is to be eaten. Necessarily, not “food that is eaten, edible,” since the inedible kind would not be called food. The Heb. form is capable of either nuance; cf. Lev 11:34.

Here’s the NJPS translation of that verse:

As to any food that may be eaten [מִכָּל־הָאֹ֜כֶל אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵאָכֵ֗ל], it shall become unclean if it came in contact with water; as to any liquid that may be drunk, it shall become unclean if it was inside any vessel.

That’s exactly the same phrase as in our verse, except that the slightly less common word מַאֲכָל (30 occurrences) is replaced by אֹ֫כֶל (43 occurrences). Baruch Schwartz, in the Jewish Study Bible, explains the context:

The realities of life are such that the carcasses of small land animals are not only likely to come into direct contact with humans, thus communicating impurity directly; they are especially likely to come into contact with foodstuffs, vessels and utensils, seeds, and water supplies.

To me this implies that our phrase is (1) a natural part of priestly language, and (2) a reference to edible food, not to food that is being packed for a particular trip.

Why are we even mentioning this food? Claus Westermann offers a Teutonically obscure comment:

We do not have to come to terms with the commission to Noah to take food for all into the ark; P has already indicated that it is a question of vegetarian food only. Animal life that is completely vegetarian is beyond our ken.

A remark by Gersonides (the 14^th-c. Provençal philosopher and commentator) may somehow explain why we do have to “come to terms” with Noah’s being told to load food on board: