Epic of Gilgamesh XI
Reed house, reed house! Wall, wall! O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu: Tear down the house and build a boat! Abandon wealth and seek living beings! Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings! Make all living beings go up into the boat. The boat which you are to build, its dimensions must measure equal to each other: its length must correspond to its width. Roof it over like the Apsu. I understood and spoke to my lord, Ea: My lord, thus is the command which you have uttered I will heed and will do it. But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the Elders!
Genesis 6:14
13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth. 14 Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you should make it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks. 17 I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. Everything that is on the earth will die, 18 but I will confirm my covenant with you. You will enter the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. 21 And you must take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten, and gather it together. It will be food for you and for them.” 22 And Noah did all that God commanded him—he did indeed.
Notes and References
"... These sixteen occurrences of םינק (“reeds”) are powerfully reminiscent of the dismantling of the reed-hut temple and the construction of the boat in the Mesopotamian myths in that they are all occasions where the “reed” is intimately related to the measurement and construction of a sacred place. This possibility of reading the םינק of Genesis 6:14 as an ark woven-of-reeds places the Genesis flood account well within the bull and shrine complex present in the Mesopotamian Epics of Gilgameš and Atraḫasīs. This םיִנָק (“woven of reeds”) vocalization allows for the reading ... in order to show that the reed-hut is indeed present (albeit in a holophrastic sense) in the proposed םיִנָק vocalization of Genesis 6:14 it will have to be demonstrated also that there is a mythic significance in the building materials themselves. As noted above it may be reasonable to see in the elements of Genesis 6:14 a list of building materials, before the assembly instructions of Genesis 6:15–16; therefore recording רֶׂפג־יֵּצֲע (“gopher wood”), םיִנָק (“reeds”), and כרֶׂפ (“bitumen” or “pitch”) as the required materials. Rather than refusing a parallel with the Epics of Gilgameš and Atraḫasīs, as Westermann insists, such a convincing reading of the Genesis 6:14 creates a tantalizingly tight parallel with the Mesopotamian flood myths. Gilgameš XI presents a list of the exact same materials, and in the same order as this reconstructed Genesis version, indicating a dependence on the latter by the former ..."
McCann, Jason Michael "'Woven Of Reeds': Genesis 6:14b As Evidence For The Preservation Of The Reed-Hut Urheiligtum In The Biblical Flood Narrative" in Silverman, Jason M. (ed.) Opening Heaven’s Floodgates: The Genesis Flood Narrative, Its Context, and Reception (pp. 113-139) Gorgias Press, 2013