Genesis6:14

1: "a container":

In the Bible this word is only used of the container that Noah built for his family and the animals to float in and of the basket Moses’ mom made for him to float in. It appears to refer to a container. It can be rendered “box, basket, vessel or container.” I prefer the general “container” because it allows the reader to use the context to figure out what kind of a container it was based on the purpose thereof.

2: "covering"

This is the Hebrew word that is spelled and pronounced “gopher” in Hebrew. Even though it was only used once in the Bible, it is known by many people because many Bible translators did not try to actually translate it but simply converted it into English letters (called transliteration). Its meaning is disputed but the various options seem to revolve around the idea of “covering” e.g. “wood for homes” which cover the occupants from the weather (the Septuagint renders it “squared lumber” for building), or “resinous wood from which one can get pitch” which we use to cover or seal something. This word is similar to the words used later in the verse meaning “to cover, to ransom” and “pitch.” Since the idea of “covering” is the umbrella meaning, and since “covering” fits well with how the ark provided protection during the flood, I have used “covering lumber” in my translation column. See my footnote for “that which covers” at the end of this verse.

3: "lumber":

This is the word for standing “trees” and also for “lumber” for building, as well as “pieces of wood,” such as “fire wood.”

4: "cover":

This is the verb from which we get such English words as “appease, cover, ransom, pacify, and atone,” it is often rendered “atone for.” Here it means “to cover” in a physical sense, but it implies the life-saving protection that the ark provided to its occupants and how that pictured the life-saving work of Jesus that involved another set of “ransom wood.”

5: "that which covers":

This is a noun that comes from the verb for “cover’ explained in the previous footnote. It is the object that does the covering and context will indicate what needs to be covered and what the covering of it should look like. This word was often used of “a bribe” because bribes cover up problems and make them disappear; it also means “pitch” with which they covered things to seal them. It also meant “ransom” which was often a sum of money that saved a life, and “atonement” which appeased God’s wrath and sustained life.

In this verse we have three Hebrew words that sound similar and have similar emphases; first we see the adjectival noun “gopher” – a type of wood used to cover something, a form of the verb “caphar” – to cover, and the noun “copher” – the thing that does the covering, which in this case, must have been pitch or resin.