How Many of Each Kind Was Taken on the Ark?

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Q. How Many of Each Kind Was Taken In The Ark?

The critic attempts to use Gen. 6:19, and Gen. 7:2 as evidence of two contradicting accounts.

(Gen 6:19 NKJV) "And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.

(Gen 7:2 NKJV) "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female;

This type of instruction is common: a generic command is followed by exceptions. This is not contradiction, but clarification. If a father gives his son a shopping list, and says to buy two of every thing on the list, and then says that if the bananas are less than a certain price to buy seven, has he then contradicted himself, or simply listed exceptions to the generic command?

-- David A. Duncan