Tevah: The ARK (or the floating BASKET)

ARK: tevah, feminine noun (Strong’s 8392)

Root: תֵּבָה

Sounds like: tey’vah

This week I was intending to write about ships/boats but, while researching, it became apparent that we have to first talk about the Ark.

Ask the general public what come to mind when they think of a classic Bible story about a boat and Noah’s Ark is probably at the top of the list. So considering how big this story is, why then does the word Ark have such a small footprint in the Bible?

Let’s take some time to read the story of Noah’s Ark:

Genesis 6:13-22

Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark [tevah תֵּבַ֣ת] of gopher wood; you shall make the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֑ה] with compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה] shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark [la-tevah לַתֵּבָ֗ה], and finish it to a cubit from the top; and put the door of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֖ה] on the side; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 

Now behold, I Myself am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which there is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה]—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֖ה], to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kind, and of the animals according to their kind, of every crawling thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of every food that is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and them.” 

So Noah did these things; according to everything that God had commanded him, so he did.

[Genesis 7] Then YHWH said to Noah, “Enter the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֑ה], you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation. You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”

 So Noah acted in accordance with everything that YHWH had commanded him.

Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֑ה] because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that crawls on the ground, they all went into the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֖ה] to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָֽה], they and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֑ה] to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and YHWH closed the door behind him.

Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה], so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֖ה] floated on the surface of the water. And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. So He wiped out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from mankind to animals, to crawling things, and the birds of the sky, and they were wiped out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark [ba-tevah בַּתֵּבָֽה]. The water prevailed upon the earth for 150  days.

[Genesis 8:1-21] But God remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark [ba-tevah בַּתֵּבָ֑ה]; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of 150 days the water decreased. Then in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָה֙] rested upon the mountains of Ararat. And the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֖ה] which he had made; and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove, to see if the water was low on the surface of the land; but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him in the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה], for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took it, and brought it into the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָֽה] to himself. So he waited another seven days longer; and again he sent out the dove from the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָֽה]. And the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, in its beak was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was low on the earth. Then he waited another seven days longer, and sent out the dove; but it did not return to him again.

Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה], and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֑ה], you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 

So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. Every animal, every crawling thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went by their families out the ark [min ha-tevah מִן־הַתֵּבָֽה].

Then Noah built an altar to YHWH, and took some of every kind of clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. YHWH smelled the soothing aroma, and YHWH said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.” 

Genesis 9:8-13

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Now behold, I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָ֔ה], every animal of the earth. I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

So, does this word, tevah, show up anywhere else in the Bible? Well yes, it does. It appears two times in just one other story. Pharaoh feared the sheer number of Hebrew slaves in his community and to diminish their numbers he ordered that any Hebrew-born baby boys were to be killed upon birth. 

To save her son, a Hebrew woman built an Ark:

Exodus 2:1-10

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and gave birth to a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket [tevah תֵּ֣בַת] and covered it with tar and pitch. Then she put the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her female attendants walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket [ha-tevah הַתֵּבָה֙] among the reeds and sent her slave woman, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a woman for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse the child for you?” 

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.”  So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 

Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.”

So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Yes, Moses was delivered in an ARK, a water-tight basket… a floating box. Essentially this was what Noah’s ark was, a floating box full of YHWH’s treasures. There is a very common word for ship in Hebrew (which we will look at next week) but it was never used to describe what Noah built. I find that quite interesting. Moses’ story, therefore, is linked to the flood story. He is a new-Noah figure who would lead God’s people out Egypt, the place where Pharaoh wanted to drown them. In the end, it was Pharaoh who would drown in the Reed Sea (Note: in the Hebrew language it is the Reed Sea, not the Red Sea). Like Noah, Moses spoke with YHWH and brought the Hebrew people to the new, dry, land where they would build an altar and worships YHWH. 

The Ark is no simple ship; it’s a floating basket of salvation.

Next week: ship/boat