Genesis 6:16

A window — עֹהַר , from עָהַר , to shine, hence light ( עָהֲרַיִם , double light, or light of midday— Genesis 43:16 ; Jeremiah 6:4 ). Not the window which Noah afterwards opened to let out the dove, which is called הַלּוֹן ( Genesis 8:6 ), but obviously a lighting apparatus, which may have been a series of windows (Gesenius), scarcely one (Theodotion, θυ ì ραν ; Symmachus, διαφανε ì ς ; Vulgate, fenestram ; Kimchi, Luther, Calvin); or an opening running along the top of the sides of the ark, occupied by some translucent substance, and sheltered by the eaves of the roof (Knobel); or, what appears more probable, a light opening in the upper deck, stretching along the entire length, and continued down through the different stories (Baumgarten, Lange); or, if the roof sloped, as is most likely, an aperture along the ridge, which would admit the clear light of heaven ( tsohar ) , and serve as a meridional line enabling Noah and the inmates of the ark to ascertain the hour of noon (Taylor Lewis). Keil and Murphy think we can form no proper conception of the light arrangement of the ark. The conjecture of Schultens, which is followed by Dathius, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, and others, that the tsohar meant the covering ( tectum, dorsum ) , " quo sane hoc aedificium carere non potuit, propter pluviam tot diernm continuam ," is obviously incorrect— shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit —to a cubit, i.e. all but a cubit ( T . Lewis); into a cubit, i.e. to the extent of a cubit (Ainsworth); by the cubit, i.e. by a just measure (Kalisch)— shalt thou finish it —not the window (Gesenins, Ewald, Tueh), the feminine suffix agreeing with tebah, which is feminine, and not with tsohar, which is masculine; but the ark— above . Literally, from above to above ; i.e; according to the above interpretations of the preposition, either the roof, after the construction of the windows, should be regularly finished "by the just measure" (Kalisch); or the roof should be arched but a cubit, that it might be almost flat (Ainsworth); or from the eaves up toward the ridge it should be completed, leaving a cubit open or unfinished ( T . Lewis). And the door of the ark —the opening which should admit its inmates— shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories . The word stories is not in the original, but some such word must be supplied. Lunge thinks that each fiat or story had an entrance or door in the side.