1 And Jehovah saith to Noah, `Come in, thou and all thy house, unto the ark, for thee I have seen righteous before Me in this generation;
and as the days of Noah -- so shall be also the presence of the Son of Man; for as they were, in the days before the flood, eating, and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, till the day Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know till the flood came and took all away; so shall be also the presence of the Son of Man.
and the old world did not spare, but the eighth person, Noah, of righteousness a preacher, did keep, a flood on the world of the impious having brought, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah having turned to ashes, with an overthrow did condemn, an example to those about to be impious having set `them'; and righteous Lot, worn down by the conduct in lasciviousness of the impious, He did rescue, for in seeing and hearing, the righteous man, dwelling among them, day by day the righteous soul with unlawful works was harassing. The Lord hath known to rescue pious ones out of temptation, and unrighteous ones to a day of judgment, being punished, to keep,
that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse, among whom ye do appear as luminaries in the world, the word of life holding forth, for rejoicing to me in regard to a day of Christ, that not in vain did I run, nor in vain did I labour;
And He calleth unto the man who is clothed with linen, who hath the scribe's inkhorn at his loins, and Jehovah saith unto him, `Pass on into the midst of the city, into the midst of Jerusalem, and thou hast made a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and who are groaning for all the abominations that are done in its midst.' And to the others he said in mine ears, `Pass on into the city after him, and smite; your eye doth not pity, nor do ye spare; aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, ye do slay -- to destruction; and against any man on whom `is' the mark ye do not go nigh, and from My sanctuary ye begin.'
Come, My people, enter into thy inner chambers, And shut thy doors behind thee, Hide thyself shortly a moment till the indignation pass over. For, lo, Jehovah is coming out of His place, To charge the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth upon him, And revealed hath the earth her blood, Nor doth she cover any more her slain!'
Blessings `are' for the head of the righteous, And the mouth of the wicked cover doth violence. The remembrance of the righteous `is' for a blessing, And the name of the wicked doth rot.
He who is dwelling In the secret place of the Most High, In the shade of the Mighty lodgeth habitually, He is saying of Jehovah, `My refuge, and my bulwark, my God, I trust in Him,' For He delivereth thee from the snare of a fowler, From a calamitous pestilence. With His pinion He covereth thee over, And under His wings thou dost trust, A shield and buckler `is' His truth. Thou art not afraid of fear by night, Of arrow that flieth by day, Of pestilence in thick darkness that walketh, Of destruction that destroyeth at noon, There fall at thy side a thousand, And a myriad at thy right hand, Unto thee it cometh not nigh. But with thine eyes thou lookest, And the reward of the wicked thou seest, (For Thou, O Jehovah, `art' my refuge,) The Most High thou madest thy habitation. Evil happeneth not unto thee, And a plague cometh not near thy tent,
In six distresses He delivereth thee, And in seven evil striketh not on thee. In famine He hath redeemed thee from death, And in battle from the hands of the sword. When the tongue scourgeth thou art hid, And thou art not afraid of destruction, When it cometh. At destruction and at hunger thou mockest, And of the beast of the earth, Thou art not afraid. (For with sons of the field `is' thy covenant, And the beast of the field Hath been at peace with thee.) And thou hast known that thy tent `is' peace, And inspected thy habitation, and errest not,
Wealth profiteth not in a day of wrath, And righteousness delivereth from death. The righteousness of the perfect maketh right his way, And by his wickedness doth the wicked fall. The righteousness of the upright delivereth them, And in mischief the treacherous are captured. In the death of a wicked man, hope perisheth, And the expectation of the iniquitous hath been lost. The righteous from distress is drawn out, And the wicked goeth in instead of him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 7
Commentary on Genesis 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
Ge 7:1-24. Entrance into the Ark.
1. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark—The ark was finished; and Noah now, in the spirit of implicit faith, which had influenced his whole conduct, waited for directions from God.
2, 3. Of every clean beast … fowls—Pairs of every species of animals, except the tenants of the deep, were to be taken for the preservation of their respective kinds. This was the general rule of admission, only with regard to those animals which are styled "clean," three pairs were to be taken, whether of beasts or birds; and the reason was that their rapid multiplication was a matter of the highest importance, when the earth should be renovated, for their utility either as articles of food or as employed in the service of man. But what was the use of the seventh? It was manifestly reserved for sacrifice; and so that both during Noah's residence in the ark, and after his return to dry land, provision was made for celebrating the rites of worship according to the religion of fallen man. He did not, like many, leave religion behind. He provided for it during his protracted voyage.
4. For yet seven days—A week for a world to repent! What a solemn pause! Did they laugh and ridicule his folly still? He whose eyes saw and whose heart felt the full amount of human iniquity and perverseness has told us of their reckless disregard (Lu 17:27).
9. There went in two and two—Doubtless they were led by a divine impulse. The number would not be so large as at first sight one is apt to imagine. It has been calculated that there are not more than three hundred distinct species of beasts and birds, the immense varieties in regard to form, size, and color being traceable to the influence of climate and other circumstances.
16. and the Lord shut him in—literally, "covered him round about." The "shutting him in" intimated that Noah had become the special object of divine care and protection, and that to those without the season of grace was over (Mt 25:10).
17. the waters increased, and bare up the ark—It seems to have been raised so gradually as to be scarcely perceptible to its occupants.
20. Fifteen cubits upward … and the mountains were covered—twenty-two and a half feet above the summits of the highest hills. The language is not consistent with the theory of a partial deluge.
21. all flesh died … fowl … cattle, and … creeping thing—It has been a uniform principle in the divine procedure, when judgments were abroad on the earth, to include every thing connected with the sinful objects of His wrath (Ge 19:25; Ex 9:6). Besides, now that the human race was reduced to one single family, it was necessary that the beasts should be proportionally diminished, otherwise by their numbers they would have acquired the ascendancy and overmastered the few that were to repeople the world. Thus goodness was mingled with severity; the Lord exercises judgment in wisdom and in wrath remembers mercy.
24. an hundred and fifty days—a period of five months. Though long before that every living creature must have been drowned, such a lengthened continuance of the flood was designed to manifest God's stern displeasure at sin and sinners. Think of Noah during such a crisis. We learn (Eze 14:14) that he was a man who lived and breathed habitually in an atmosphere of devotion; and having in the exercise of this high-toned faith made God his refuge, he did not fear "though the waters roared and were troubled; though the mountains shook with the swelling thereof" [Ps 46:3].