Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

GENESIS 7:3KJV
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Genesis 7:3 (KJV)

What does Genesis 7:3 mean?

Genesis 7:3 gives God’s instruction to Noah to bring birds into the ark in groups of seven, including male and female birds. The purpose is to preserve living creatures that can produce offspring after the coming flood.

The phrase “upon the face of all the earth” looks beyond the birds’ time in the ark to their future on the land. The instruction moves from the animals mentioned in verse 2 to birds “of the air.”

The Hebrew behind Genesis 7:3

  • “sevens” — שֶׁבַע (shevaʿ): This word means “seven.” Its repetition in the Hebrew gives the sense of groups of seven, though the verse’s wording has led to questions about how the birds were counted.
  • “seed” — זֶרַע (zeraʿ): This word can mean seed or offspring. Here, “seed” refers to the continuation of living creatures through their young, rather than to plant seed.

Why Genesis 7:3 matters

  • The verse connects survival with future reproduction. “The male and the female” are included so that offspring can follow.
  • The birds’ place in the ark is part of a wider pattern of preservation. Genesis 7:4 says the flood will affect living things on the earth, so keeping creatures alive in the ark provides for life afterward.
  • Genesis 8:17 echoes the purpose stated here. When the creatures leave the ark, they are told to multiply on the earth.

Where else these words appear

“female” Hebrew H5347 · used in 22 verses

  • Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
  • Leviticus 4:28 Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.
  • Leviticus 27:5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

“fowls” Hebrew H5775 · used in 70 verses

  • Genesis 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
  • Leviticus 11:13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
  • Psalms 104:12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

“male” Hebrew H2145 · used in 80 verses

  • Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
  • Leviticus 12:7 Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.
  • Deuteronomy 4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,