Now let us examine why, at the moment of entering the ark, the order of entry was that Noah entered first with his sons, then his wife and the wives of his sons, but when they got out, the order of exit was changed. In fact it is written, “Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.” According to the literal meaning the Scripture wants to emphasize the abstinence from the faculty of generation at the moment of the boarding on the ark and the use of this faculty at the moment of disembarking. At the beginning of the deluge the father entered first with his sons and the sons with the father, secondly his wife and the wives of his sons. There is no mixing of the sexes at the boarding, but there is at the disembarking. In a plain way, through the order of the people boarding, it is being made clear to the righteous that the time when death loomed over everybody was not suitable to concubinage and erotic pleasures…. With good reason, later, after the deluge ended, marriage was again in use and considered for the generation of other men.
