פירוש על בראשית 7:16

ויסגור ה' בעדו AND THE LORD SHUT HIM IN — He protected him so that they could not smash up the Ark (cf. 5:13): He surrounded the Ark (thus enclosing it סגר) with bears and lions which killed some of them (Genesis Rabbah 32:8). But the literal meaning of the text is: He shut the door in front of him against the waters. Similarly, wherever בעד occurs in the Scriptures it means כנגד in front of. E. g., (20:18) “The lord had made a closure in front of (בעד) every womb”; (2 Kings 4:4) “Close the door in front of thyself (בעדך) and in front of (ובעד) thy sons”; (Job 2:4) ‘‘skin in front of (as a protection for) (בעד) skin”; (Psalms 3:4) “a shield in front of me ובעדי”: (1 Samuel 12:19) “Pray (בעד) thy servants” which means כנגד in front of (i. e. on behalf of, as a protection for) thy servants.

AND THEY THAT CAME IN, CAME IN MALE AND FEMALE OF ALL FLESH. The intent of this is that those who came into the ark were male and female for so Noah brought them in. This is why Scripture says, as G-d hath commanded him, since it was He who commanded him to bring them into the ark.
But the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra is that the verse, And Noah came in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark,⁷⁷Verse 7. does not mean that they entered it but that they all came to Noah on the tenth day of the second month for his house was near the ark. [He thus interprets the verse as meaning “to the ark,” rather than “into the ark.”] Ibn Ezra explains the phrase, because of the waters of the flood,⁷⁷Verse 7. to mean “on account of the fear of the waters of the flood.” At the end of the seven days came the waters of the flood, and then they all gathered in the ark, and Noah closed the door and the window.⁸⁵See above, 6:16. But Ibn Ezra’s words are not correct.⁸⁶As explained above in Verses 1 and 8, when the time of the flood arrived G-d again commanded Noah that he and all his household come into the ark, and He further informed him of the day of the flood.
It is possible that the verses, And Noah did according to all that the Eternal hath commanded him, And Noah was six hundred years old,⁸⁷Verses 5-6. and the succeeding verses until, In the six hundredth year,⁸⁸Verse 11. do not recount a narrative. Rather, And Noah did according to all that the Eternal commanded him generalizes the entire matter. It states that he did everything as he was commanded, not omitting a thing: he constructed the ark and assembled the food and took of the clean beasts and fowl seven and seven on the day He commanded him. When he was six hundred years old and the flood came down upon the earth, he came with his household and with the clean beasts and all living things into the ark, as G-d had commanded him. After that, Scripture narrates the event, And it came to pass after the seven days … in the six hundredth year,⁸⁹Verses 10-11. and completes the subject.

כאשר צוה אותו אלוקים, to place every species in a separate cubicle.