In Genesis, God instructs Noah to build the Ark from gopher wood. The instruction appears in Genesis 6:14, where the vessel is also described as being divided into compartments and coated with pitch inside and outside.
“Gopher wood” is a distinctive biblical phrase. The Hebrew term occurs only in this passage, so its exact botanical identity is unknown. Translators generally preserve the word as “gopher,” rather than confidently identifying a particular tree. Some proposals have connected it with cypress or other durable woods, but none is universally accepted.
The Ark’s building material is often confused with its waterproofing material. Pitch sealed the vessel; it was not the wood itself. Genesis gives the construction instruction before listing the Ark’s dimensions and the animals Noah was to bring aboard.
The phrase has also influenced later art and literature. Modern reconstructions sometimes choose cypress, cedar, or laminated timber, but those are interpretive choices rather than certain identifications of the biblical material.