תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

salvation, Mark xvi. 16. To provide a Saviour, and the means of salvation, is GOD'S part: to accept this Saviour, laying hold on the hope set before us, is ours. Those who refuse the way and means of salvation must perish; those who accept of the great Covenant Sacrifice cannot perish, but shall have eternal life. See on chap. xv. 10, &c.

Almost all nations, in forming alliances, &c., made their covenants or contracts in the same way. A sacrifice was provided, its throat was cut, and its blood poured out before God; then the whole carcass was divided through the spinal marrow from the head to the rump, so as to make exactly two equal parts; these were placed opposite to each other, and the contracting parties passed between them, or entering at opposite Verse 19. To keep them alive] God might have ends met in the centre, and there took the covenant destroyed all the animal creation, and created others oath. This is particularly referred to by Jeremiah, to occupy the new world, but he chose rather to prechap. xxxiv. 18, 19, 20: "I will give the men (into serve those already created. The Creator and Pre the hands of their enemies, ver. 20) that have trans-server of the universe does nothing but what is essengressed my covenant, which have not performed the tially necessary to be done. Nothing should be words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof," &c. See also Deut.

xxix. 12.

A covenant, says Mr. Ainsworth, is a disposition of good things faithfully declared, which God here calls his, as arising from his grace towards Noah (ver. 8) and all men; but implying also conditions on man's part, and therefore is called our covenant, Zech. ix.

11.

The apostles call it diαonкn, a testament or disposition; and it is mixed of the properties both of covenant and testament, as the apostle shows, Heb. ix. 16, &c., and of both may be named a testamental covenant, whereby the disposing of God's favours and good things to us is declared. The covenant made with Noah signified, on God's part, that he should save Noah and his family from death by the ark. On Noah's part, that he should in faith and obedience make and enter into the ark-Thou shalt come into the ark, &c., so committing himself to God's preservation, Heb. xi. 7. And under this the covenant or testament of eternal salvation by Christ was also implied, the apostle testifying, 1 Pet. iii. 21, that the antitype, baptism, doth also now save us; for baptism is a seal of our

wantonly wasted; nor should power or skill be lavished where no necessity exists; and yet it required more means and economy to preserve the old than to have created new ones. Such respect has God to the work of his hands, that nothing but what is essential to the credit of his justice and holiness shall ever induce him to destroy any thing he has made.

That is, of

Verse 21. Of all food that is eaten]
the food proper for every species of animals.

Verse 22. Thus did Noah] He prepared the ark;
and during one hundred and twenty years preached
righteousness to that sinful generation, 2 Pet. ii. 5.
And this we are informed, 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, &c., he
did by the Spirit of Christ; for it was only through
him that the doctrine of repentance could ever be
successfully preached. The people in Noah's time
are represented as shut up in prison-arrested and
condemned by God's justice, but graciously allowed the
space of one hundred and twenty years to repent in.
This respite was an act of great mercy; and no doubt
thousands who died in the interim availed themselves
of it, and believed to the saving of their souls.
the great majority of the people did not, else the flood
had never come.

But

CHAPTER VII.

God informs Noah that within seven days he shall send a rain upon the earth, that shall continue for forty days and nights; and therefore commands him to take his family, with the different clean and unclean animals, and enter the ark, 1-4. This command punctually obeyed, 5-9. In the seventeenth day of the second month, in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, the waters, from the opened windows of heaven, and the broken up fountains of the great deep, were poured out upon the earth, 10–12. The different quadrupeds, fowls, and reptiles come unto Noah, and the Lord shuts him and them in, 13–16. The waters increase, and the ark floats, 17. The whole earth is covered with water fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, 18-20. All terrestrial animals die, 21-23. And the waters prevail one hundred and fifty days, 24.

The flood comes in the six

[blocks in formation]

CHAP. VII.

|

hundredth year of Noah's life.

A. M. 1656.

AND the LORD said unto Noah, when the flood of waters was upon B. C. 2348.
AND

b

a Come thou and all thy house into the ark for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

2 Of every c clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; d and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female

3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

the earth.

i

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 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.

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. 5 h And Noah did according unto all that the month, the same day were all the founthe LORD commanded him. tains of the great deep broken up, and the

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of

6 And Noah was six hundred years old windows of heaven were

[blocks in formation]

NOTES ON CHAP. VII.

1.

[blocks in formation]

f Ver. 12, 17.- Heb. blot out.- h Chap. vi. 22.—i Ver. Or, on the seventh day. Chap. viii. 2; Prov. viii. 28; Ezek. xxvi. 19. Or, flood-gates.- Chap. i. 7; viii. 2; Psa. lxxviii. 23.

[ocr errors]

After the deliverance from Egypt, the beginning of

Verse 1. Thee have I seen righteous] See on chap. the year was changed from Marcheshvan to Nisan,

vi. 9.

Verse 2. Of every clean beast] So we find the distinction between clean and unclean animals existed long before the Mosaic law. This distinction seems to have been originally designed to mark those animals | which were proper for sacrifice and food, from those that were not. See Lev. xi.

Verse 4. For yet seven days] God spoke these words probably on the seventh or Sabbath day, and the days of the ensuing week were employed in entering the ark, in embarking the mighty troop, for whose reception ample provision had been already made.

Forty days] This period became afterwards sacred, and was considered a proper space for humiliation. Moses fasted forty days, Deut. ix. 9, 11; so did Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 8; so did our Lord, Matt. iv. 2. Forty days' respite were given to the Ninevites that they might repent, Jonah iii. 4; and thrice forty (one hundred and twenty) years were given to the old world for the same gracious purpose, Gen. vi. 3. The forty days of Lent, in commemoration of our Lord's fasting, have a reference to the same thing; as each of these seems to be deduced from this primitive judgment.

Verse 11. In the six hundredth year, &c.] This must have been in the beginning of the six hundredth year of his life; for he was a year in the ark, chap. viii. 13; and lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and died nine hundred and fifty years old, chap. ix. 29; so it is evident that, when the flood commenced, he had just entered on his six hundredth year. Second month] The first month was Tisri, which answers to the latter half of September, and first half of October; and the second was Marcheshvan, which answers to part of October and part of November.

which answers to a part of our March and April. But it is not likely that this reckoning obtained before the flood. Dr. Lightfoot very probably conjectures that Methuselah was alive in the first month of this year. And it appears, says he, how clearly the Spirit of prophecy foretold of things to come, when it directed his father Enoch almost a thousand years before to name him Methuselah, which signifies they die by a dart; or, he dieth, and then is the dart; or, he dieth, and then it is sent. And thus Adam and Methuselah had measured the whole time between the creation and the flood, and lived above two hundred and forty years together. See chap. v. at the end.

Were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.] It appears that an immense quantity of waters occupied the centre of the antediluvian earth; and as these burst forth, by the order of God, the circumambient strata must sink, in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the elevated waters. This is probably what is meant by breaking up the fountains of the great deep. These waters, with the seas on the earth's surface, might be deemed sufficient to drown the whole globe, as the waters now on its surface are nearly three-fourths of the whole, as has been accurately ascertained by Dr. Long. See note on chap. i. ver, 10.

By the opening of the windows of heaven is probably meant the precipitating all the aqueous vapours which were suspended in the whole atmosphere, so that, as Moses expresses it, chap. i. 7, the waters that were above the firmament were again united to the waters which were below the firmament, from which on the second day of creation they had been separated. A multitude of facts have proved that water itself is com

[blocks in formation]

ark, two and two of all flesh, A. M. 1656 wherein is the breath of life.

16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, 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 lift up above the earth.

14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, 18 And the waters prevailed, and were inevery bird of every sort. creased greatly upon the earth; and the ark 15 And they went in unto Noah into the went upon the face of the waters. Ver. 4, 17.—P Ver. 1, 7; chap. vi. 18; Heb. xi. 7; 1 Pet. Heb. wing.- Chap. vi. 20. Ver. 2, 3.-" Ver. 4, 12 iii. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 5.4 Ver. 2, 3, 8, 9.

S

[ocr errors]

posed of two airs, oxygen and hydrogen; and that 85 parts of the first and 15 of the last, making 100 in the whole, will produce exactly 100 parts of water. And thus it is found that these two airs form the constituent parts of water in the above proportions. The electric spark, which is the same as lightning, passing through these airs, decomposes them and converts them to water. And to this cause we may probably attribute the rain which immediately follows the flash of lightning and peal of thunder. God therefore, by the means of lightning, might have converted the whole atmosphere into water, for the purpose of drowning the globe, had there not been a sufficiency of merely aqueous vapours suspended in the atmosphere on the second day of creation. And if the electric fluid were used on this occasion for the production of water, the incessant glare of lightning, and the continual peals of thunder, must have added indescribable horrors to the scene. See the note on chap. viii. 1. These two causes concurring were amply sufficient, not only to overflow the earth, but probably to dissolve the whole terrene fabric, as some judicious naturalists have supposed: indeed, this seems determined by the word 1 mabbul, translated flood, which is derived from a bal or balal, to mix, mingle, confound, confuse, because the aqueous and terrene parts of the globe were then mixed and confounded together; and when the supernatural cause that produced this mighty change suspended its operations, the different particles of matter would settle according to their specific gravities, and thus form the various strata or beds of which the earth appears to be internally constructed. Some naturalists have controverted this sentiment, because in some cases the internal structure of the earth does not appear to justify the opinion that the various portions of matter had settled according to their specific gravities; but these anomalies may easily be accounted for, from the great changes that have taken place in different parts of the earth since the flood, by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, &c. Some very eminent philosophers are of the opinion "that, by the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, we are to understand an eruption of waters from the Southern Ocean." Mr. Kirwan supposes "that this is pretty evident from such animals as the elephant and rhinoceros being found in great masses in Siberia, mixed with different marine substances;

г

▾ Psa. civ. 26.

V

whereas no animals or other substances belonging to the northern regions have been ever found in southern climates. Had these animals died natural deaths in their proper climate, their bodies would not have been found in such masses. But that they were carried no farther northward than Siberia, is evident from there being no remains of any animals besides those of whales found in the mountains of Greenland. That this great rush of waters was from the south or southeast is farther evident, he thinks, from the south and south-east sides of almost all great mountains being much steeper than their north or north-west sides, as they necessarily would be if the force of a great body of water fell upon them in that direction." On a subject like this men may innocently differ. Many think the first opinion accords best with the Hebrew text and with the phenomena of nature, for mountains do not always present the above appearance.

Verse 12. The rain was upon the earth] Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the rain began on the 18th day of the second month, or Marcheshvan, and that it ceased on the 28th of the third month, Cisleu.

Verse 15. And they went in, &c.] It was physically impossible for Noah to have collected such a vast number of tame and ferocious animals, nor could they have been retained in their wards by mere natural means. How then were they brought from various distances to the ark and preserved there? Only by the power of God. He who first miraculously brought them to Adam that he might give them their names, now brings them to Noah that he may preserve their lives. And now we may reasonably suppose that their natural enmity was so far removed or suspended that the lion might dwell with the lamb, and the wolf lie down with the kid, though each might still require his peculiar aliment. This can be no difficulty to the power of God, without the immediate interposition of which neither the deluge nor the concomitant circumstances could have taken place.

Verse 16. The Lord shut him in.] This seems to im ply that God took him under his especial protection, and as he shut HIM in, so he shut the OTHERS out. God had waited one hundred and twenty years upon that generation; they did not repent; they filled up. the measure of their iniquities, and then wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

The waters subside after

A. M. 1656.
B. C. 2348.

[blocks in formation]

19 And the waters prevailed of life, of all that was in the dry exceedingly upon the earth; w and land, died. all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

A. M. 1656.
B. C. 2348.

23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground,

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters pre- both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, vail; and the mountains were covered.

21 * And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man :

and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and a Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the

22 All in whose nostrils was the breath earth a hundred and fifty days.

Psa. civ. 6; Jer. iii. 23.- - Chap. vi. 13, 17; ver. 4; Job xxii. 16; 2 Esdr. iii. 9, 10; Wisd. x. 4; Matt. xxiv. 39; Luke xvij. 27; 2 Pet. iii. 6.- -y Chap. ii. 7.- Heb. the breath of Verse 20. Fifteen cubits upward] Should any person object to the universality of the deluge because he may imagine there is not water sufficient to drown the whole globe in the manner here related, he may find a most satisfactory answer to all the objections he can raise on this ground in Mr. Ray's Physico-theological Discourses, 2d edit., 8vo., 1693.

the spirit of life; chap. ii. 7; vii. 17.- Ezra xiv. 14, 20; Mal. iii. 18; Wisd. x. 4; 1 Pet. iii. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 5; iii. 6. b Chap. viii. 3, 4, compared with ver. 11 of this chapter.

[ocr errors]

a hundred and fifty days.] The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, and the raining forty days and nights, had raised the waters fifteen cubits above the highest mountains; after which forty days it ap pears to have continued at this height for one hundred and fifty days more. So," says Dr. Lightfoot, "these two sums are to be reckoned distinct, and not the forty | days included in the one hundred and fifty; so that when the one hundred and fifty days were ended, there were six months and ten days of the flood past." For an improvement of this awful judgment, see the conVerse 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth | clusion of the following chapter.

Verse 22. Of all that was in the dry land] From this we may conclude that such animals only as could not live in the water were preserved in the ark.

CHAPTER VIII.

At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters begin to subside, 1-3. The ark rests on Mount Ararat, 4. On the first of the tenth month the tops of the hills appear, 5. The window opened and the raven sent out, 6, 7. The dove sent forth, and returns, 8, 9. The dove sent forth a second time, and returns with an olive leaf, 10, 11. The dove sent out the third time, and returns no more, 12. On the twentieth day of the second month the earth is completely dried, 13, 14. God orders Noah, his family, and all the creatures to come out of the ark, 15–19. Noah builds an altar, and offers sacrifices to the Lord, 20. They are accepted; and God promises that the earth shall not be cursed thus any more, notwitstanding the iniquity of man, 21, 22.

A. M. 1656.

B. C. 2348

|

B. C. 2348.

AND God remembered Noah, windows of heaven were stopped, 4. M. 1656. and every living thing, and all and the rain from heaven was the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

restrained;

e

3 And the waters returned from off the earth

continually and after the end of the hun

2 The fountains also of the deep and the dred and fifty days, the waters were abated.

a Chap. xix. 29; Exod. ii. 24; 1 Sam. i. 19.- b Exod. xiv. Job xxxviii. 37. Heb. in going and returning.— Chap. 21. - Chap. xi. 7; Prov. viii. 28. vii. 24.

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII. Verse 1. And God made a wind to pass over the earth] Such a wind as produced a strong and sudden evaporation. The effects of these winds, which are frequent in the east, are truly astonishing. A friend of mine, who had been bathing in the Tigris, not far from the ancient city of Ctesiphon, and within five days' journey of Bagdad, having on a pair of Turkish drawers, one of these hot winds, called by the natives

samiel, passing rapidly across the river just as he had got out of the water, so effectually dried him in a moment, that not one particle of moisture was left either on his body or in his bathing dress! With such an electrified wind as this, how soon could God dry the whole of the earth's surface! An operation something similar to the conversion of water into its two constituent airs, oxygen and hydrogen, by means of the galvanic fluid, as these airs themselves may be

The ark rests upon Mount Ararat.

A. M. 1656. B. C. 2348.

[blocks in formation]

B. C. 2346

4 And the ark rested in the seventh | whole earth; then he put forth his A. M. 1656.
month, on the seventeenth day of hand, and took her, and pulled
her in unto him into the ark.

the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

h

6 And it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to ee if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the Chap. vi. 16. Heb.

Heb. were in going and decreasing.

in going forth and returning. reconverted into water by means of the electric spark. See the note on chap. vii. 11. And probably this was the agent that restored to the atmosphere the quantity of water which it had contributed to this vast inundation. The other portion of waters, which had proceeded from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, would of course subside more slowly, as openings were made for them to run off from the higher lands, and form seas. By the first cause, the hot wind, the waters were assuaged, and the atmosphere having its due proportion of vapours restored, the quantity below must be greatly lessened. By the second, the earth was gradually dried, the waters, as they found passage, lessening by degrees till the seas and gulfs were formed, and the earth completely drained. This appears to be what is intended in the third and fifth verses by the waters decreasing continually, or, according to the margin, they were in going and decreasing, ver. 5.

was

Verse 4. The mountains of Ararat.] That Ararat a mountain of Armenia is almost universally agreed. What is commonly thought to be the Ararat of the Scriptures, has been visited by many travellers, and on it there are several monasteries. For a long time the world has been amused with reports that the remains of the ark were still visible there; but Mr. Tournefort, a famous French naturalist, who was on the spot, assures us that nothing of the kind is there to be seen. As there is a great chain of mountains which are called by this name, it is impossible to determine on what part of them the ark rested; but the highest part, called by some the finger mountain, has been fixed on as the most likely place. These things we must leave, and they are certainly of very little

consequence.

From the circumstance of the resting of the ark on the 17th of the seventh month, Dr. Lightfoot draws

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

B. C. 2347.

13 And it came to pass in the A. M. 1657. six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

[blocks in formation]

this curious conclusion: That the ark drew exactly eleven cubits of water. On the first day of the month Ab the mountain tops were first seen, and then the waters had fallen fifteen cubits; for so high had they prevailed above the tops of the mountains. This decrease in the waters took up sixty days, namely, from the first of Sivan; so that they appear to have abated in the proportion of one cubit in four days. On the 16th of Sivan they had abated but four cubits; and yet on the next day the ark rested on one of the hills, when the waters must have been as yet eleven cubits above it. Thus it appears that the ark drew eleven cubits of water.

Verse 7. He sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro] It is generally supposed that the raven flew off, and was seen no more, but this meaning the Hebrew text will not bear; NIY' NY" vaiyetse yatso vashob, and it went forth, going forth and returning. From which it is evident that she did return, but was not taken into the ark. She made frequent excursions, and continued on the wing as long as she could, having picked up such aliment as she found floating on the waters; and then, to rest herself, regained the ark, where she might perch, though she was not admitted. Indeed this must be allowed, as it is impossible she could have continued twenty-one days upon the wing, which she must have done had she not returned. But the text itself is sufficiently determinate.

Verse 8. He sent forth a dove] The dove was sent forth thrice; the first time she speedily returned, having, in all probability, gone but a little way from the ark, as she must naturally be terrified at the appearance of the waters. After seven days, being sent out a second time, she returned with an olive leaf pluckt off, ver. 11, an emblem of the restoration of peace between God and the earth; and from this circumstance the olive has been the emblem of peace among all civilized

« הקודםהמשך »