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Genesis 8:20 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

20 And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar.

Cross Reference

Leviticus 11:1-47 DARBY

And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which ye shall eat of all the beasts which are on the earth. Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts -- that shall ye eat. Only these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those with cloven hoofs: the camel, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you; and the rock-badger, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you; and the hare, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs -- it shall be unclean unto you; and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, but it cheweth not the cud -- it shall be unclean unto you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch: they shall be unclean unto you. These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatever hath fins and scales in waters, in seas and in rivers, these shall ye eat; but all that have not fins and scales in seas and in rivers, of all that swarm in the waters, and of every living soul which is in the waters -- they shall be an abomination unto you. They shall be even an abomination unto you: of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase ye shall have in abomination. Whatever in the waters hath no fins and scales, that shall be an abomination unto you. And these shall ye have in abomination of the fowls; they shall not be eaten; an abomination shall they be: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the sea-eagle, and the falcon, and the kite, after its kind; every raven after its kind; and the female ostrich and the male ostrich, and the sea-gull, and the hawk, after its kind; and the owl, and the gannet, and the ibis, and the swan, and the pelican, and the carrion vulture, and the stork; the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. Every winged crawling thing that goeth upon all four shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these shall ye eat of every winged crawling thing that goeth upon all four: those which have legs above their feet with which to leap upon the earth. These shall ye eat of them: the arbeh after its kind, and the solam after its kind, and the hargol after its kind, and the hargab after its kind. But every winged crawling thing that hath four feet shall be an abomination unto you. And by these ye shall make yourselves unclean; whoever toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even. And whoever carrieth [ought] of their carcase shall wash his garments, and be unclean until the even. Every beast that hath cloven hoofs, but not feet quite split open, nor cheweth the cud, shall be unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. And whatever goeth on its paws, among all manner of beasts that go upon all four, those are unclean unto you: whoever toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even. And he that carrieth their carcase shall wash his garments, and be unclean until the even: they shall be unclean unto you. And these shall be unclean unto you among the crawling things which crawl on the earth: the mole, and the field-mouse, and the lizard, after its kind; and the groaning lizard, and the great red lizard, and the climbing lizard, and the chomet, and the chameleon. These shall be unclean unto you among all that crawl: whoever toucheth them when they are dead, shall be unclean until the even. And on whatever any of them when they are dead doth fall, it shall be unclean; all vessels of wood, or garment, or skin, or sack, every vessel wherewith work is done -- it shall be put into water, and be unclean until the even; then shall it be clean. And every earthen vessel into which [any] of them falleth -- whatever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it. All food that is eaten on which [such] water hath come shall be unclean; and all drink that is drunk shall be unclean, in every [such] vessel. And everything where upon [any part] of their carcase falleth shall be unclean; oven and hearth shall be broken down: they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you. Nevertheless, a spring or a well, a quantity of water, shall be clean. But he that toucheth their carcase shall be unclean. And if any part of their carcase fall upon any sowing-seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean; but if water have been put on the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you. And if any beast which is to you for food die, he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even. And he that eateth of its carcase shall wash his garments, and be unclean until the even: he also that carrieth its carcase shall wash his garments, and be unclean until the even. And every crawling thing which crawleth on the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. Whatever goeth on the belly, and whatever goeth on all four, and all that have a great many feet, of every manner of crawling thing which crawleth on the earth -- these ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination. Ye shall not make yourselves abominable through any crawling thing which crawleth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am Jehovah your God; and ye shall hallow yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy; and ye shall not make yourselves unclean through any manner of crawling thing which creepeth on the earth. For I am Jehovah who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of cattle, and of fowl, and of every living soul that moveth in the waters, and of every soul that crawleth on the earth; to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that is to be eaten and the beast that is not to be eaten.

Genesis 22:9 DARBY

And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there, and piled the wood; and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Genesis 12:7-8 DARBY

And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him. And he removed thence towards the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel toward the west, and Ai toward the east; and there he built an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah.

Genesis 7:2 DARBY

Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.

Exodus 24:4-8 DARBY

And Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the youths of the children of Israel, and they offered up burnt-offerings, and sacrificed sacrifices of peace-offering of bullocks to Jehovah. And Moses took half the blood, and put [it] in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read [it] in the ears of the people; and they said, All that Jehovah has said will we do, and obey! And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled [it] on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has made with you concerning all these words.

1 Peter 2:9 DARBY

But *ye* [are] a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light;

1 Peter 2:5 DARBY

yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 13:15-16 DARBY

By him therefore let us offer [the] sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, [the] fruit of [the] lips confessing his name. But of doing good and communicating [of your substance] be not forgetful, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Hebrews 13:10 DARBY

We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle;

Romans 12:1 DARBY

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your intelligent service.

Leviticus 1:1-17 DARBY

And Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When any man of you presenteth an offering to Jehovah, ye shall present your offering of the cattle, of the herd and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt-offering of the herd, he shall present it a male without blemish: at the entrance of the tent of meeting shall he present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall slaughter the bullock before Jehovah; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood round about on the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it up into its pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay wood in order on the fire; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat, in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar; but its inwards and its legs shall he wash in water; and the priest shall burn all on the altar, a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour. And if his offering be of the flock, of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt-offering, he shall present it a male without blemish. And he shall slaughter it on the side of the altar northward before Jehovah; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood on the altar round about. And he shall cut it into its pieces, and its head, and its fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar; but the inwards and the legs shall he wash with water; and the priest shall present [it] all, and burn [it] on the altar: it is a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour. And if his offering to Jehovah be a burnt-offering of fowls, then he shall present his offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it near to the altar and pinch off its head and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be pressed out at the side of the altar. And he shall remove its crop with its feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east, into the place of the ashes; and he shall split it open at its wings, [but] shall not divide [it] asunder; and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire: it is a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour.

Genesis 4:4 DARBY

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat. And Jehovah looked upon Abel, and on his offering;

Exodus 20:24-25 DARBY

An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen: in all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee. And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy sharp tool upon it, thou hast profaned it.

Exodus 10:25 DARBY

And Moses said, Thou must give also sacrifices and burnt-offerings into our hands, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.

Genesis 35:7 DARBY

And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

Genesis 35:1 DARBY

And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the ùGod that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Genesis 33:20 DARBY

And there he set up an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 26:25 DARBY

And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah. And he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

Genesis 22:2 DARBY

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son], whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Genesis 13:18 DARBY

Then Abram moved [his] tents, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron. And he built there an altar to Jehovah.

Genesis 13:4 DARBY

to the place of the altar that he had made there at the first. And there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 8

Commentary on Genesis 8 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-5

With the words, “ then God remembered Noah and all the animals...in the ark, ” the narrative turns to the description of the gradual decrease of the water until the ground was perfectly dry. The fall of the water is described in the same pictorial style as its rapid rise. God's “remembering” was a manifestation of Himself, an effective restraint of the force of the raging element. He caused a wind to blow over the earth, so that the waters sank, and shut up the fountains of the deep, and the sluices of heaven, so that the rain from heaven was restrained. “ Then the waters turned ( ישׁבוּ i.e., flowed off) from the earth, flowing continuously (the inf. absol. ושׁוב הלוך expresses continuation), and decreased at the end of 150 days .” The decrease first became perceptible when the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month; i.e.,, reckoning 30 days to a month, exactly 150 days after the flood commenced. From that time forth it continued without intermission, so that on the first day of the tenth month, probably 73 days after the resting of the ark, the tops of the mountains were seen, viz., the tops of the Armenian highlands, by which the ark was surrounded. Ararat was the name of a province (2 Kings 19:37), which is mentioned along with Minni (Armenia) as a kingdom in Jeremiah 51:27, probably the central province of the country of Armenia, which Moses v. Chorene calls Arairad , Araratia . The mountains of Ararat are, no doubt, the group of mountains which rise from the plain of the Araxes in two lofty peaks, the greater and lesser Ararat, the former 16,254 feet above the level of the sea, the latter about 12,000. This landing-place of the ark is extremely interesting in connection with the development of the human race as renewed after the flood. Armenia, the source of the rivers of paradise, has been called “a cool, airy, well-watered mountain-island in the midst of the old continent;” but Mount Ararat especially is situated almost in the middle, not only of the great desert route of Africa and Asia, but also of the range of inland waters from Gibraltar to the Baikal Sea-in the centre, too, of the longest line that can be drawn through the settlements of the Caucasian race and the Indo-Germanic tribes; and, as the central point of the longest land-line of the ancient world, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Behring Straits, it was the most suitable spot in the world, for the tribes and nations that sprang from the sons of Noah to descend from its heights and spread into every land (vid., K. v. Raumer , Paläst. pp. 456ff.).


Verses 6-12

Forty days after the appearance of the mountain tops, Noah opened the window of the ark and let a raven fly out (lit., the raven, i.e., the particular raven known from that circumstance), for the purpose of ascertaining the drying up of the waters. The raven went out and returned until the earth was dry, but without being taken back into the ark, as the mountain tops and the carcases floating upon the water afforded both resting-places and food. After that, Noah let a dove fly out three times, at intervals of seven days. It is not distinctly stated that he sent it out the first time seven days after the raven, but this is implied in the statement that he stayed yet other seven days before sending it out the second time, and the same again before sending it the third time (Genesis 8:10 and Genesis 8:12). The dove, when first sent out, “ found no rest for the sole of its foot; ” for a dove will only settle upon such places and objects as are dry and clean. It returned to the ark and let Noah take it in again (Genesis 8:8, Genesis 8:9). The second time it returned in the evening, having remained out longer than before, and brought a fresh ( טרף freshly plucked) olive-leaf in its mouth. Noah perceived from this that the water must be almost gone, had “abated from off the earth,” though the ground might not be perfectly dry, as the olive-tree will put out leaves even under water. The fresh olive-leaf was the first sign of the resurrection of the earth to new life after the flood, and the dove with the olive-leaf a herald of salvation. The third time it did not return; a sign that the waters had completely receded from the earth. The fact that Noah waited 40 days before sending the raven, and after that always left an interval of seven days, is not to be accounted for on the supposition that these numbers were already regarded as significant. The 40 days correspond to the 40 days during which the rain fell and the waters rose; and Noah might assume that they would require the same time to recede as to rise. The seven days constituted the week established at the creation, and God had already conformed to it in arranging their entrance into the ark (Genesis 7:4, Genesis 7:10). The selection which Noah made of the birds may also be explained quite simply from the difference in their nature, with which Noah must have been acquainted; that is to say, from the fact that the raven in seeking its food settles upon every carcase that it sees, whereas the dove will only settle upon what is dry and clean.


Verses 13-19

Noah waited some time, and then, on the first day of the first month, in the 601st year of his life, removed the covering from the ark, that he might obtain a freer prospect over the earth. He could see that the surface of the earth was dry; but it was not till the 27th day of the second month, 57 days, therefore, after the removal of the roof, that the earth was completely dried up. Then God commanded him to leave the ark with his family and all the animals; and so far as the latter were concerned, He renewed the blessing of the creation (Genesis 8:17 cf. Genesis 1:22). As the flood commenced on the 17th of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's life, and ended on the 27th of the second month of the 601st year, it lasted a year and ten days; but whether a solar year of 360 of 365 days, or a lunar year of 352, is doubtful. The former is the more probable, as the first five months are said to have consisted of 150 days, which suits the solar year better than the lunar. The question cannot be decided with certainty, because we neither know the number of days between the 17th of the seventh month and the 1st of the tenth month, nor the interval between the sending out of the dove and the 1st day of the first month of the 601st year.


Verses 20-22

The first thing which Noah did, was to build an altar for burnt sacrifice, to thank the Lord for gracious protection, and pray for His mercy in time to come. This altar - מזבּח , lit., a place for the offering of slain animals, from זבח , like θυσιαστήριον from θύειν - is the first altar mentioned in history. The sons of Adam had built no altar for their offerings, because God was still present on the earth in paradise, so that they could turn their offerings and hearts towards that abode. But with the flood God had swept paradise away, withdrawn the place of His presence, and set up His throne in heaven, from which He would henceforth reveal Himself to man (cf. Genesis 9:5, Genesis 9:7). In future, therefore, the hearts of the pious had to be turned towards heaven, and their offerings and prayers needed to ascend on high if they were to reach the throne of God. To give this direction to their offerings, heights or elevated places were erected, from which they ascended towards heaven in fire. From this the offerings received the name of עלת from עולה , the ascending, not so much because the sacrificial animals ascended or were raised upon the altar, as because they rose from the altar to haven (cf. Judges 20:40; Jeremiah 48:15; Amos 4:10). Noah took his offerings from every clean beast and every clean fowl - from those animals, therefore, which were destined for man's food; probably the seventh of every kind, which he had taken into the ark. “ And Jehovah smelled the smell of satisfaction, ” i.e., He graciously accepted the feelings of the offerer which rose to Him in the odour of the sacrificial flame. In the sacrificial flame the essence of the animal was resolved into vapour; so that when man presented a sacrifice in his own stead, his inmost being, his spirit, and his heart ascended to God in the vapour, and the sacrifice brought the feeling of his heart before God. This feeling of gratitude for gracious protection, and of desire for further communications of grace, was well-pleasing to God. He “ said to His heart ' (to, or in Himself; i.e., He resolved), “ I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the image (i.e., the thought and desire) of man's heart is evil from his youth up (i.e., from the very time when he begins to act with consciousness).” This hardly seems an appropriate reason. As Luther says: “ Hic inconstantiae videtur Deus accusari posse. Supra puniturus hominem causam consilii dicit, quia figmentum cordis humani malum est. Hic promissurus homini gratiam, quod posthac tali ira uti nolit, eandem causam allegat .” Both Luther and Calvin express the same thought, though without really solving the apparent discrepancy. It was not because the thoughts and desires of the human heart are evil that God would not smite any more every living thing, that is to say, would not exterminate it judicially; but because they are evil from his youth up , because evil is innate in man, and for that reason he needs the forbearance of God; and also (and here lies the principal motive for the divine resolution) because in the offering of the righteous Noah, not only were thanks presented for past protection, and entreaty for further care, but the desire of man was expressed, to remain in fellowship with God, and to procure the divine favour. “ All the days of the earth; ” i.e., so long as the earth shall continue, the regular alternation of day and night and of the seasons of the year, so indispensable to the continuance of the human race, would never be interrupted again.