But with you will I establish my covenant; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Every earthly thing dies with the deluge and only the righteous live forever. Thus the words “I will establish my covenant with you” are addressed to the righteous. He is the heir of divine grace, the recipient of the heavenly inheritance, a sharer of the very holy goods.
My covenant, that thou shalt be saved, amid the general ruin. This is the second covenant of God with man: the first was with Adam, the third with Abraham, when circumcision was instituted, and the last with Moses, Exodus xix. All others were only ratifications of these; and even these were only figures of that which our Saviour entered into with men, when he undertook to make satisfaction for them to his Father. (Calmet)
When Noah was ordered to enter the ark and was entrusted with the safeguarding of the seed of the earth, he was given this command, which reads: “Come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives.” He separated them from their wives, so that with the help of chastity they might escape the ocean’s depths and that worldwide destruction.
