5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. 7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts f ch. 6. 22. g ver. 1. ceitfulness of sin.' Henry.—¶ I will cause it to rain. Heb. 'I am causing, 1. e. will cause, as rightly rendered in our version. Thus, thou heaping coals,' Prov. 25. 22, is translated, 'thou shalt heap,' Rom. 12. 20.- Forty days and forty nights. The number forty seems to have become remarkable from this event, and especially to have been regarded as a suitable period for humiliation. Thus Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted forty days; forty days' respite was given to the Ninevites to repent; and the children of Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness. Every living substance. Heb. " standing thing; i. e. whatever by a principle of life is capable of maintaining an erect posture; whereas a dead body lies prostrate. Comp. ch. 6. 7, with 7. 23. The original term occurs Deut. 11. 6. Job 22. 20, in both which cases it is rendered substance.'-T will I destroy. Heb. 'wipe out.' See above on ch. 6. 7. 6 that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass, after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second seventh of the days;' but our version follows the Greek μετα τας επτα ημέρας after the seven days, though the meaning is, on the seventh day. As soon as he was safely lodged, the flood began to come. So God waits now only for his last saint to be gathered in and for the number of his chosen to be accomplished, and then a more terrible deluge of fire shall descend upon the ungodly. 11. The second month. Before the departure from Egypt the Israelites began their year about the 22d of September, and therefore the 17th day of the second month answers to about the 6th of November. This according to the Hebrew computation was 1656 years from the creation. The fountains of the great deep broken up. Heb. 7 fountains of the great abyss. That is, fountains which were supposed to be ontlets to streams connected with a great subterranean body of waters called the abyss, a sense which the term undoubtedly has Deut. 8. 7. Ezek. 31. 4, although it is not necessary to conceive such a central collection of waters as really existing. The lan 6. Six hundred years old. Heb. 'a son of 600 years;' i. e. going on in his six hundredth year; v. 11.- -T Was upon the earth. That is, began to be. Thus ch. 5. 3, 'Begat' i. e. began to beget. Rev. 11. 17, Hast reigned;'guage is merely adapted to popular imi. e. began to reign. 7. Because of the waters. Heb. 'from before, or from the face of, the waters.' 10. After seven days. Heb. 'at the pressions on the subject. In the ordinary state of things, these fountains or vents would not admit a very copious discharge of waters, but now being vio cataract fall of waters from above, the ocean meanwhile swelling and overleaping all its former bounds. ments above, below, around, become the ready instruments of his judgments. The judgment now was by water, but let us remember that there are within the earth, as in the heavens above, storehouses of fire, as well as water; and that this world is doomed one day to experience their fatal influence. Be it our care then to secure a covert from lently 'broken up,' or vastly enlarged, they would discharge such immense floods as would quickly deluge the plains and valleys in every direction. 12. The rain was upon the earth for- The windows of heaven. Gr. ty days and forty nights. That is, the Kaтappaκтaι cataracts. Aq. and Sym. rain now began to fall which continued Ovpides doors, apertures. Here again falling for forty days and nights. The the language is figurative. The origin- narrative teaches us that when God al term aruboth is applied to pleases to avenge his quarrel with resuch windows as are made of lattice-bellious man, all creatures and all elework, and in this connection their being opened (see Gen. 8. 6) implies that the water, instead of gently descending in drops, as if made to percolate through a net-work medium, fell in torrents like water-spouts, as though the windows had been opened for this purpose on hinges, and every obstruction were removed. The marginal rendering therefore of 'sluices, or floodgates,' though wholly paraphrastic is well suited to the idea. It is said Job, 26. 8, that God 'bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.' But now the bond was loosed, the cloud was rent, and such rains descended as were never known before nor since, in such abundance and such continuance. Mr. Roberts remarks that it is still customary for people to say in the East, when the rain falls in torrents, 'the heavens are broken.' It is probably not in the power of language to convey an adequate description of the terrors of the scene; of the disruption from beneath and the the impending storm in Him who is the only refuge; and then, 'when thou passest through the waters they shall not overflow thee; and when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt.' 13. In the self-same day. Heb. 'in the bone, strength, or existence of this day;' i. e. of the day stated v. 11. A phrase intended to convey the idea of the utmost precision of time. Arab. 'In the essence of that day.' Chal. 'In the point or article of that day.' Gen. 17. 23. Lev. 23. 14. Josh. 10. 27. 14. Every beast after his kind. Intimating that just as many kinds as were created at first were now saved, 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, n ch. 6. 20. as God had commanded him and the LORD shut him in. 17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth: and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. o ver. 2, 3. p ver. 4. 12. and no more.- -¶ Every bird of every sort. Heb. of every wing; a general phrase for any thing that flies, embracing not only feathered fowls, but such winged creatures as bats and the larger kinds of insects, whose wings are often membranous or cartilaginous. See note on Gen 1. 20. 15. They went in unto Noah into the ark. Unquestionably by a divine instinct, especially as it would seem that Noah and his family entered first, and the animals and birds of their own accord by pairs afterwards. Their mutual enmities were so restrained for the time that the most fierce and ravenous became mild and manageable; thus realizing for once the beautiful language of the prophet, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the cow and the bear shall feed, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.' Yet they afterwards, when freed from this temporary restraint, assumed their respective natures. 'Hypocrites in the church, that externally conform to the laws of that ark, may yet be unchanged; and then it will appear, one time or other, what kind they are after.' Henry. 16. And the Lord shut him in. Heb. 1790 shut or closed round about him. Gr.shut the ark on the outside of him.' Chal. 'protected over him.' The English version is too definite to answer fairly to the original. It is by no means clear that the words were intended to intimate a direct interposition of Jehovah in closing and fastening the door after Noah. We can see no more difficulty in Noah's making provision for this, than in any other part of the mechanism of the ark. We therefore take the sense to be, that the ark and its inmates now became the special objects of the divine care and protection, and that a superintending providence so completely encompassed the structure, that not only were its inmates perfectly secured within, but also all other persons, as well as the waters, were effectually precluded from without. And these two ideas of closing and excluding are both conveyed by the original as may be seen, Ps. 35. 3. 2 Kings, 4.4, 5. There is probably at the same time a latent implication that without such protection the ark would have been liable to a violent assault from the desper ate multitudes, who, from the character given of that generation, were undoubtedly capable of the most flagrant outrages. The Most High therefore, provided that Noah, in finally closing the entrance of the ark, should utterly debar admission to all who had hitherto refused to enter. No doubt when they began to see the lowering cloud and the rising waters, numbers crowded round importunate for that admission which they had before slighted. But the Lord protected round about him.' It was now too late. An immoveable barricado forbade all farther ingress, and they had only to await their fate. And let it be considered that something very nearly resembling this will ere long be acted over again. 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.' Not 18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth: and the ark went upon the face of the waters. q Ps. 104. 26. only shall the world, as then, be full of dissipation, but the concluding scene is described in nearly the same words, 'And they that were ready went in, and the door was shut!' 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. r Ps. 104. 6. Jer. 3. 23. all the desolating effects described above, it is not easy to determine. The probability we think is, that the latter was the case, and that the appearances on the surface of the earth indicating violent disruptions are to be referred rather to some anterior deluge tory of our globe, of which the sacred record makes no mention. That the rains, however, at first would produce all the common effects of a desolating freshet, is obvious. But these effects would naturally cease as the waters rose. 17. Forty days. That is, larger days, including the nights; wherefore the Gr. has 'forty days and forty nights.'or deluges, of unknown date in the hisThis of course implies not the whole term of the prevalence of the waters, which was 150 days, but merely that after the rain had fallen forty days and the sea had continued to rise, the ark was floating on the surface. It was probably 150 days before they reached their utmost height.- -¶ It was lifted up above the earth. Heb. 'it was on high from upon the earth.' The original denotes not the act, but the state of being lifted up or elevated. Heb. They would become calm in proportion as they became deep; unless the action of wind be supposed; of which there is no intimation till after the flood had continued an hundred and fifty days. 19. All the high hills-were covered. Rather the high mountains' (Heb. 18. The waters prevailed. 1733 yigberu. The words denote being strong, mighty, and prevalent in harim), as the original word is despite of opposition; and therefore here implies the conquering or carrying every thing before it, throwing down and sweeping away buildings, trees, and living creatures, and causing universal devastation. 'Where now were those profane scoffers, that asked what Noah meant to build such a vessel? And whether, when he had made his ship, he would also make a sea for it to swim in ?' Trapp.- T The ark went upon the face of the waters. Heb. the same with that so rendered in the next verse. It seems scarcely possible, from the language of this and the ensuing verse, to resist the conclusion that the deluge was universal. Doubts have indeed been entertained on this score by writers of eminence, many of whom contend that as the deluge had for its main object the destruction of man, it was therefore useless that a general catastrophe of this kind should submerge the parts of the earth not walked ; i. e. was borne by a gentle, then inhabited. It is also unquestionequable motion, and not violently tos-able that learned men have in later sed or driven, to which its form was not adapted. Whether this was owing to a miracle, or to the fact that the rising of the waters was comparatively calm and unattended with tempestuous agitation, though still marked with times so modified their opinions in regard to the present visible traces of the Noachian deluge, that many of them are becoming less and less satisfied that any physical evidence exists at all of such an event. But even if this be ad mitted, as a tenable hypothesis, still it does not avail to set aside the recorded evidence of the fact of the occurrence of such a deluge as Moses here describes a deluge that was strictly universal in its extent. For though it be granted that Moses was not acquainted with the true form or size of the earth, and though to himself the language which he employed may have conveyed only the idea of the then inhabited earth, yet writing under inspiration he may have been led to adopt expressions more accurately coinciding with the fact, and there is certainly an emphasis in the expression, 'under the whole heaven,' which in our view can import nothing less than the absolute universality of the deluge. Besides, it would not be difficult to show the very high probability that the earth then contained a vastly greater population than it ever has since, so that the whole race could only have been destroyed by making the flood universal. As to the source from whence the vast mass of diluvial waters were derived, if a miracle be admitted at all in the case, no farther inquiry is necessary; but apart from this consideration it is now agreed by the most competent judges, that there is water enough pertaining to the body of the globe to produce all the results described, though the highest mountains were covered even to the depth of fifteen cubits, or 22 feet. As to the precise manner in which they were made to pour themselves out of their ordinary receptacles and overwhelm the earth so completely, this will probably continue to give rise to of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. t ch. 2. 7. different theories among geologists for a long time to come, even should it ever be finally and satisfactorily settled. Whatever may be the truth respecting it, it does not properly fall within the range of these annotations. 22. The breath of life. Heb. 'the breath of the spirit of life.' But our version follows the Gr. πvony (wns breath of life. That was in the dry land; thus excepting the fish of the sea, but extending the destruction to every tenant of the surface of the earth save those included in the ark. If this scene of terrific and awful desolation be rightly conceived, it will be seen how inadequate and infinitely below the real facts are all those representations of the deluge to which we have been accustomed. It appears from the narrative that the waters were 150 days advancing to their greatest height, and 275 days in descending; the period of their returning off the earth being nearly twice as long as their rising. Taking the height of the loftiest elevations of the earth, the snowy mountains of Inaia, at a measurement of 28,000 feet above the surface of the ocean, the rate of increase would be upwards of 186 feet per day for the rising of the waters, and 100 feet for their daily decrease. We may see from this how little foundation exists for those comments which exhibit animals and men as escaping to the highest grounds and hills, as the flood advanced. The impossibility of any such escape may be immedi ately seen. Neither man nor beasta under such circumstances could either advance or flee to any distance. Any |