Noah's Wife

In Genesis, Noah’s wife is mentioned 5 times but never by name.  Many scholars believe she is Naaman from Genesis 4:22.

The five verses are - 

Genesis 6:18

18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

Genesis 7:7

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

Genesis 7:13

13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

Genesis 8:16

16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.

Genesis 8:18

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

Although she is never mentioned by name, Noah and the ark is a very commonly known Bible story, with a large impact. Noah’s wife was a part of this story, just not front of stage in what is shared but behind the scenes. Think of how impactful a director is during a musical. They are not front and center in the musical but they do impact and help the ones on stage.

From the 5 verses, what do we know about her?  

• It appears she is Noah’s only wife which is somewhat unusual in this day and age.  It was very common for Biblical men to have many wives.

• She was a mother of three.

• More than likely she was very old like Noah.

In order to learn more about his wife, based on what is presented in the Bible, we must look at the story of Noah.

Genesis 6:13 says “So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark……” and it continues where God tells him very specifically what to do.

Let me tell you that this is a BIG ask.  There had to be so many questions running through Noah’s mind and also his wife. We know from the verses I shared earlier that she was consistently with him and entered the ark. They were both people of faith, therefore surely Noah told her about what God had said and she was part of the whole picture. One of Noah and her’s first questions might be:

What is a flood?

The Bible says it had never rained before Noah’s time. Genesis 2:6 says  “ but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”  Noah and his wife had no idea what a flood was.

Even though God gave VERY specific instructions including dimensions and what type of wood to use, Noah had to be asking “Where do I even start?”  It’s not like he can go to Lowes and pick up what he needs.  Remember, it is just him and his family in this together.  They would have had to cut every piece of wood and build this together.  

Also, how would Noah get 2 of every animal?

Despite all these questions and concerns Genesis 7:5 says, “And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him” .

With being mentioned only 5 times, my thoughts and ideas about her are all speculative but to be honest, probably true. She had a few qualities we can extract from these verses.

Loyalty - She was very loyal to Noah and I hope she was loyal to God too. God gave this HUGE task to Noah to build an ark and believe in him that there was going to be a flood that would take all mankind. For Noah’s wife to go from God’s call to Noah to being on that ark, she HAD to have been loyal. She believed in what God said and she believed in her husband. There was no way he could do this without her. You know people were telling him he was crazy but she stood by his side.

Another quality, Hard working - I just said that there was no way Noah could do this without her, so I imagined she was very involved at helping get the animals and “every king of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them” as we see in Genesis 6:20 -21.

She is Righteous - We see at the start of Chapter 7 that God says The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. God says He has found righteousness with Noah and his family.  To be righteous, means you are turning away from sin and following God.  God would not have allowed Noah’s wife to enter if she was not a righteous woman.

An additional key quality is her Patience - We don’t know exactly how long it took Noah to build the ark but it was somewhere between 50 - 100 years.  That is a long time to fulfill God’s request.  I know I personally struggle with a few days and weeks but to consider how long this took shows more patience than I can personally imagine.  On top of this, Noah and his family stayed ON the ark for over a year! I will have to sadly admit that there is no way I could have done what she did. She showed extreme patience throughout this. 

What can we learn from this unnamed woman in the Bible that is really part of one of the biggest Bible stories out there?  Obviously, be faithful to God and what He expects of us. Trust His timing but also to be faithful to the ones we love. Earlier I used an analogy of a Director.  A director has faith in the show, support for the cast and crew, helps oversee that everything comes together.  Noah is the star of the production but I believe Noah’s wife had the faith and support for Noah.  When I started this podcast, I felt a calling to God to do it.  I didn’t know anything about what I was doing.  I don’t have professional equipment or really knew the technology.  But like Noah’s wife, my family and friends supported me and was faithful with my journey.  There is no way Noah could have done this on his own.This was a LONG labor of obedience to God. The amount of patience that she had to have to see this through with Noah was more than I could do. Practicing patience is not my strong suit but when I get impatient with people or I even get impatient with God and his timing, I want to reflect back on this strong woman and learn from her.