How many pairs of clean animals did God tell Noah to take into the Ark?

Genesis tells Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals into the Ark.

Genesis 7:2 distinguishes clean animals from animals that are not clean. It instructs Noah to take seven pairs—male and female—of every clean animal, while specifying one pair of animals that are not clean. The same verse also refers to seven pairs of birds of the sky.

This detail is sometimes simplified in popular retellings into the phrase “two of every kind.” That phrase reflects another part of the narrative, especially Genesis 6:19–20, but it does not capture the later distinction between clean and non-clean animals in Genesis 7.

The clean-animal category is connected to the ritual classification system found in the Hebrew Bible. Genesis gives the instruction before the Flood, while later biblical law, especially Leviticus, provides more extensive rules about animals considered clean or unclean. The passage is therefore important for understanding differences within the story itself.