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The noun form is “a cover” and figuratively means “a redemption-price.”  This is the first use of this word in the Bible.  The next time it appears is in Genesis 32:20 when Jacob is returning to Canaan, and is faced with meeting with his brother Esau.  Jacob sends his servants ahead of his caravan with gifts for Esau in hopes that he “will appease him with the present that goeth before me.”  The word “appease” is the same Hebrew word kaphar.  The word appears many times in the Pentat

From Images of Christ in Genesis SOBA Masters Thesis, by Ernesto E. Carrasco, M.C.Ed.

“Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8).  Here we have the first occurrence of the word “grace” in the Bible.  It is the Hebrew word חֵן (chen), meaning graciousness, i.e. subjective (kindness, favor) or objective (beauty).¹

Noah’s instructions also included “the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof” (Genesis 6:16). The Ark had only a single door. God also specified three “stories” or decks for the Ark: “with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it” (Genesis 6:16).

Noah’s Ark visually represents the Gospel message in the Ark as a “type” of Christ. The Bible tells us that the world had become so corrupt “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart … The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:6, 11). Things have not changed in all the years since that time. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Noah was also instructed to make a “window” for the Ark. “A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above” (Genesis 6:16). The Hebrew word translated “window” is tsôhar and it literally means a “light” or “double light” as in midday or noon. Only in this passage is it translated “window,” so evidently it was some way to allow outside light into the Ark.

God gave Noah the dimensions of the Ark as follows: “And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits” (Genesis 6:15). Based on an 18-inch cubit, that would make the Ark 450 feet long (the length of one and one half football fields), 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.

God said to Noah, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark” (Genesis 6:14). The Hebrew word translated “rooms” is qên and it literally means “nests.” That indicates that these would not be large pens where the animals could move around a lot. Noah, his family, and all the menagerie endured 371 days onboard the Ark.

Make thee an ark of gopher wood. (Genesis 6:14)