Genesis 6:15

Genesis 6:15, in plain English

The ark's dimensions are to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high—essentially a massive rectangular vessel.

Why it's here

To help you visualize this: a cubit is roughly 18 inches, so the ark would be about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. That's enormous—roughly the size of a large ship. This wasn't a small project; it was a lifetime commitment. Noah would have to work on this for years while everyone around him laughed or ignored him.

Who's speaking

God, continuing the architectural specifications

Where it sits in the story

These details matter because they show that God's plan is substantial and specific. He's not asking Noah to do something hasty or half-hearted. This requires commitment, resources, and years of faith-filled work.

The scholarly reading

God specifies the ark's dimensions: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, proportions that suggest both practical seaworthiness and symbolic significance.

Language and setting

The dimensions convert to approximately 450 × 75 × 45 feet (or 137 × 23 × 14 meters). These ratios—length to width of 6:1, length to height of 10:1—demonstrate remarkable naval engineering proportions; modern shipbuilders recognize these ratios as producing stable, seaworthy vessels. The threefold repetition of measurements (length, width, height) mirrors the threefold naming of the cosmos (heaven, earth, waters) and Noah's three sons. The cubit (אַמָּה, amah, literally 'forearm') establishes human measurement as the scale—a theological choice emphasizing human agency within divine purpose. Some rabbinical sources calculate storage capacity at approximately 43,000 cubic meters, sufficient for specimen preservation; modern scholars debate whether the narrative intends literal-historical dimensions or theological symbolism.

Voice

God (Elohim), providing precise measurements

Significance

These specific, rational dimensions ground the Flood narrative in concrete physicality rather than mythic vagueness—emphasizing God's orderly providence even within judgment.

13Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.

15And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.

16You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.

17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

Read all of Genesis 6 — Violence fills the earth. God grieves over what humanity has become — and one man finds grace.