Two of Each Species (Gen 6:20)
The Flood
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20 Of each species of bird, of each species of animal, of each species of ground-creeper
מֵהָע֣וֹף לְמִינֵ֗הוּ וּמִן־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ מִכֹּ֛ל רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ
Ibn Ezra tells us more about the “ground-creepers”:
A general term including all land animals, large or small, that are born from the coupling of male and female; those that reproduce nonsexually are therefore excluded, as are sea creatures. For otherwise we would have assumed that “flesh” of v. 19 included fish, as we see from what Moses says to God: “You say, ‘I will give them enough flesh to eat for a whole month.’ Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?” (Num. 11:21–22).
Of course, we’ve seen all three of these kinds of creatures before:
Gen 1:26 God thought, Let’s make an earthling — in our image, according to our likeness. Let him control the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the animals … and all the things that creep over the ground.
I have been saying over and over again that here in Genesis 6 we are reading the priestly version of the Flood story. It is not, of course, merely that our story is calling God by his title and not by his name YHWH. We can see that the same writer is using similar language.
We’ve also seen in v. 7 of our chapter, courtesy of Bernie Levinson, that this is not just a matter of an author using language that comes naturally to him. It is a deliberate literary chiasm, destroying the Genesis 1 creatures in reverse order. Here in v. 20, as Hizkuni already noted in the 13th century, they are “listed in the order in which they were created.” Once again, we are seeing a reminder that this Flood is not just a matter of destruction. It is about reversing the original creation so a new version of creation can be installed.
two of each will come to you, for you to keep them alive
שְׁנַ֧יִם מִכֹּ֛ל יָבֹ֥אוּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת׃
Claus Westermann presents the problem concisely:
If one asks how Noah carried out the command one becomes involved in inextricable difficulties.
Ibn Ezra expands on the same topic:
They would come to him on their own. He would not need to seek them in the islands or trap all the various species of birds.
Nahmanides notes
7:9 tells us that they actually did come to him.
As we’ll see when we get there, 7:8–9 are the “fulfillment” of this verse, describing how what God said would happen did happen. If that is the kind of thing you like, you will love the second half of the book of Exodus, where Exodus 25–31 give the commandments for how to set up the Tabernacle and Exodus 35–40 tell us that this was accomplished.
I’ve spoken before about double translation and specifically “double syntactic translation” — that is, translating a phrase and then regrouping the words differently to translate them a second time. That’s exactly what I’ve done in this verse. If you look closely at the Hebrew words יָבֹ֥אוּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ ya’vó’u eilékha ‘they will come to you’, you’ll see punctuation marks under the ב (curving left) and the ל (curving right), telling us to group these two words together as a phrase.
The next and last word of the verse is לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת l’haḥayot ‘to keep [them] alive’, which we saw in v. 19. In that verse, though, Noah is the actor. He is bringing the animals into the box to keep them alive. Here, the animals are coming to Noah to stay alive. We might have expected the verb to be לחיות liḥyot ‘to be alive’, in the Qal, not in the Hiphil that we actually see. ⇥ Am I really going to keep nudging you to see Lesson 15 of my Hebrew course to learn about these different verb forms? Yes, I am. ⇤
That’s just how some Bibles translate l’haḥayot — as if it were Qal (or even Niphal) and not Hiphil:
NJPS: to stay alive
Fox: to remain alive
Alter: to be kept alive
NETS: to be sustained
[Gr. τρέφεσθαι, parsed by Accordance as a present passive infinitive]
Richard Elliott Friedman has found a clever English solution that does the trick:
two of each will come to you to keep alive.
To “keep” alive translates the Hiphil form literally; because, as is natural in Hebrew, the object of the verb is simply ignored, “to keep alive” also works as a “middle” form, sounding active but with a passive meaning — as when your eyes “open.” Ronald Hendel, in his new Anchor Bible commentary, does something similar and has also added two words, apparently smuggling them in from the LXX:
two of each will come to you to save their lives with you.
I’m doing something slightly different — repunctuating יָבֹ֥אוּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת from ya’vó’u eilékha to eilékha l’haḥayot so I can translate eilékha as “for you” to keep (them) alive. As the punctuators themselves sometimes do, I count on you to be able to read it the other way on your own and I give you the opportunity to read it this way as well.
There’s nothing theological at stake here (I don’t think). You may consider this a periodic reminder from me — like the ones certain companies are required to send to you every 90 days — that when you read “the Bible” in English, what you are really reading is not the Bible at all but a translation of it. And translators must make choices;
which English word or words to use
whether to translate literally or freely
how much to obscure from the reader and how much to burden the reader with
You have already figured out that the purpose of this column is not to translate; translation is just a tool to help us focus on the Hebrew text. If you (like most of us English speakers) are in the habit of using a particular English translation, these details will also help you get a good read on the path your particular translators like to take.
We’ll go on with v. 21 next time. First, this additional “periodic reminder.” If you read the Bible in English, it’s a good idea to use two English translations, one that tends to the literal and one that tends to the colloquial. Use them to triangulate and get closer to what the actual Hebrew may be doing — and to spot where there are difficulties in the text.