Bible Explanations
4. Noah: "by sevens," "by two"
Genesis 7:2,3 - "Of
every
clean beast
thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and
of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and
his female.
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to
keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth."
"by sevens" is plural (The Hebrew is literally
"seven
seven"), i.e. seven pairs.
"by two" is singular, i.e. one pair.
Therefore there were no singles on the
ark!
This was in order to quickly replenish the earth afterwards with clean
and unclean
beasts. They would need more pairs of clean beasts, as many of them
were needed for the sacrifices.