Gopher Wood is mentioned only once in Scripture, as the material of which Noah was directed to build the ark (Gen 6:14), ’Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch’ (probably ’bitumen’). In endeavoring to ascertain the particular kind of wood which is mentioned in the above passage, we can get assistance only from the name, the country where the wood was supposed to have been procured, or the traditional opinions respecting it. That nothing very satisfactory has been ascertained is evident from the various interpretations that have been given of this word, so that some have preferred, as in our Authorized Version, to retain the original Hebrew. The greatest number of writers have been of opinion that by the gopher wood we are to understand the cypress. Besides an argument attempted to be drawn from the similarity of the name, it is argued that the wood of the cypress, being almost incorruptible, was likely to be preferred; that it was frequently employed in later ages in the construction of temples, bridges, and even ships; and that it was very abundant in the countries where, according to these authors, the ark is supposed to have been built, that is, in Assyria, where other woods are scarce. But wherever the ark was built, there would be no deficiency of timber if there was a certain degree of moisture with warmth of climate; and we know not what change of climate may have taken place at the Deluge. The pine tribe, including the cypress, appears as likely as any other to have been employed, usually growing as they do in extensive forests, and yielding straight and easily worked timber, calculated, from its resinous nature, effectually to resist moisture, especially if covered with pitch and tar, which might easily have been prepared from the refuse branches and timber, and used as well as the natural bitumen. But the whole of these suggestions amount only to conjectures, and there seems no possibility of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion.
Gen 6:14. Perhaps cypress,
Gopher-wood. The ark was made of this material. Gen 6:14 It was some resinous wood, such as cedar, pine, fir, or cypress, which was considered by the ancients as the most durable wood. It abounded in Syria, was used very commonly for shipbuilding, and was almost the only wood which could furnish suitable timber for so large a vessel as the ark.
The wood with which Noah built the Ark. For so large a vessel it must have been a strong wood, but ’gopher’ is the Hebrew word and it is not known to what it refers. Gen 6:14.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Henry Hyvernat
The material of which the ark of Noah was made. The word "gofer" occurs but once in the Bible, viz., in the expression 
(Gen. vi. 14). A comparison of the ancient versions shows that the word was just as obscure when they were made as it is to-day.
The renderings proposed by modern interpreters are as a rule arbitrary and unsatisfactory. The identification of "gofer" with "cypress" (Celsius, "Hierobotanicon," i. 328; Bochart, "Geographia Sacra," ii. 4) rests on the mere assumption that the roots of these two words are akin. According to P. de Lagarde, "gofer" stands for "gofrit," meaning originally "pine," from old Bactrian "vohukereti," and latter also "sulfur," on account of the likeness in appearance which sulfur bears to pine-resin ("Semitica," i. 64; comp. "Symmicta," ii. 93, and "Uebersicht über die im Aramäischen, Arabischen und Hebräischen Uebliche Bildung der Nomina," p. 218).
Others think that "gofer" can best be explained from the Assyro-Babylonian literature. Cheyne, starting from the assumption that the Hebrew narrative of the Deluge is a mere translation from some similar Babylonian document, supposes that the passage under discussion read in the original "gushure iṣ erini" (cedar-beams). He thinks that first the word "erini" was overlooked by the Hebrew translator, who afterward mistook "gushure" for a tree-name, and accordingly wrote 
; next a scribe, whose eye was caught by 
at the end of the verse, miswrote 
(Stade's "Zeitschrift," 1898, p. 163; comp. Cheyne and Black, "Encyc. Bibl." s.v.). F. Hommel holds the Hebrew 
to be the Assyrian "giparu" (reed).
The "kufa" (Arabic, "kufr" = Hebr. "kofer" = "gofer") now in use on the rivers and canals of the land that gave birth to the Hebrew narrative of the Deluge are made of willow-branches, palm-leaves, etc., closely interwoven like basket-work, with a coat of bitumen on the inside. This is evidently a very old type of water-craft, suggested by the natural resources of a land devoid of large trees suitable for ship-building, but having an abundance of lighter material and bitumen. Such must have been the ark of Noah (Hastings, "Dict. Bible," s.v. "Babylonia"). J. Halévy implicitly adopts the same view ("Recherches Bibliques," i. 130).
The reading of the Masoretic text is correct, at least in the consonants. It is none the less certain that in course of time the Assyrian 
(whether first Hebraized "gefer" or "gofer") became obscure to the Hebrews. This might have necessitated the addition of an explicative clause with a Hebrew word as a substitute for 
, viz., 
. This, when the Hebrews had become familiar with the Phenician methods of ship-building, came by degrees to be considered as an absurdity, and was altered into 
, much against the usage of the Hebrew language and in violation of the most elementary rules of composition, yet seemingly quite in agreement with the early Jewish methods of emendation.
For passages of the Bible supporting, though only indirectly, the identification of "gofer" with "reed," see the Bible commentaries to Ex. ii. 3, Isa. xviii. 2, and Job xi. 26, and the Hebrew lexicons' s.v. 
and 
. See also Papyrus; Reed; Ship and Shipping.
GOPHER WOOD (Gen 6:14), of which the ark was constructed, was by tradition cypress wood, and this, or else the cedar, may be inferred as probable.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Mentioned in the Bible, as the material out of which Noe’s ark was made (Genesis 6). Translators either have not attempted to give an equivalent, or have with early Jewish interpreters read a slightly different word (Vulgate: "LlBvigatis" ; D.V.: "timber planks"). Commentators as early as Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine noticed, after Celsius, the close resemblance of the words gopher and kopher (pitch, hence any pitch-exuding tree, especially cypress), and were of the opinion that a tree of the pine or cypress family might be intended. The suitableness of its wood for shipbuilding, known from very early ages, is a further argument in favor of this view.