And he called his name Noah, saying, This [same] shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
29. saying, This same shall comfort us, &c.] It is generally supposed that this verse, containing a poetical couplet which is intended to explain the name of Noah, has been inserted from the same source of tradition (J) as Gen 4:25-26. Certainly, ( a) the saying interrupts the bare list of names and years; ( b) it contains a reference to the curse pronounced upon the soil, Gen 3:17; ( c) it recurs to the use of the sacred name “Jehovah” (“Jahveh”), whereas “God” (“Elohim”) has been used in Gen 5:1 ; Gen 5:22 ; Gen 5:24.
comfort ] Heb. naem, “to comfort,” “relieve.” The name “Noah,” however, is not derived from naem, but there is a play on the general similarity of sound. The LXX renders “gives us rest.”
for our work ] The word “for” is in the Heb. “from,” and the meaning is that Noah will comfort his fellow-creatures and give them relief and refreshment “from” their toil.
because of the ground ] Better, as R.V. marg., “which cometh from the ground.” This clause is in prose, following two metrical clauses.
In what way did the tradition connect the name of Noah with “comfort” as regards work upon the ground? According to the Hebrew figures in this chapter, Lamech, Noah’s father, must have died either before or in the Flood. It is conceivable that the saying recorded in this verse is taken from a group of Israelite traditions which contained no account of the Flood, and only associated the name of Noah with the work of an husbandman and with the first planting of a vineyard (Gen 9:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 5:29
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands
Hope through the gloom
I.
THE HARDNESS AND DIFFICULTY OF LIFE. These words are the words of parents. Lamech, the powerful, is not ashamed to confess that he needs comfort; and when this child comes to him he accepts him as a Divine gift, as a commissioned, competent, and thrice-welcome messenger of comfort from God.
II. THE COMFORT THAT COMES INTO THE WORLD WITH CHILDREN. These words of Lamech are the permanent inscription in the horoscope which parents everywhere and always see over the cradle of the latest born. There is a bright prophecy of God concerning the future in this invincible hopefulness of the parental heart.
III. THE SECURITY WE HAVE FOR THIS IN THE GREAT PACT OF OUR REDEMPTION. Our Noah has been born; the Rest-giver, strong Burden bearer, all-pitying and all-suffering Saviour. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but Jesus Christ brings and gives righteousness, instilling it into every believing heart. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Comfort in toil
These words, used by Lamech, apply far more truly to the descendant of Noah after the flesh, even Jesus Christ.
I. When our Lord appeared among men the world was in almost as sad and hopeless a condition as when Lamech looked around him. Among the Gentiles there was ignorance, darkness, and false imaginations; among the chosen people there Was hardness and impenitence. Christ comforted His disciples after His resurrection by raising up the temple of their wrecked faith, as He raised again the temple of His own body. He comforted them with the assurance that their faith was not in vain, that He had the keys of death and hell, and was able to succour to the uttermost those who trusted in Him.
II. The risen Christ comforted also the fathers of the ancient covenant. Moses and Elias appeared unto Him on Tabor, speaking with Him of the things concerning His passion. The ancient patriarchs could not enter into heaven till the gates were opened by the cross of Christ, and the handwriting that was against all sinners was taken away.
III. The resurrection of Christ is a joy and comfort to us also–
1. Because in Him a way of safety was opened to the world.
2. Because He will repay a hundredfold all that is done for him. (S. BaringGould, M. A.)
The third Sunday in Advent
I. THE DEEPER MEANING OF THE GENEALOGICAL LISTS OF SCRIPTURE. They serve to tell us not only–
1. Of the physical interdependence of the race, awakening thus our attention to the great problem of heredity; but
2. Of the moral variety of the race, bringing us face to face with human free will; and
3. Of the great glory of the race. There are names, like mountain peaks, of spiritual grandeur; they find their apex in the Name which is above every name.
II. THE MERCIFUL DEALING OF GOD WITH A SINFUL WORLD. Samples of Gods education of man by–
1. Promise;
2. Disappointment;
3. Manifold discipline.
III. THE TRANSCENDENT SUPERIORITY OF OUR PRIVILEGES. In the advent of Jesus Christ–
1. We find no disappointment;
2. We have profound satisfaction. (Homilist.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. This same shall comfort us] This is an allusion, as some think, to the name a Noah, which they derive from nacham, to comfort; but it is much more likely that it comes from nach or nuach, to rest, to settle, c. And what is more comfortable than rest after toil and labour? These words seem to have been spoken prophetically concerning Noah, who built the ark for the preservation of the human race, and who seems to have been a typical person for when he offered his sacrifice after the drying up of the waters, it is said that God smelled a savour of REST, and said he would not curse the ground any more for man’s sake, Ge 8:21; and from that time the earth seems to have had upon an average the same degree of fertility; and the life of man, in a few generations after, was settled in the mean at threescore years and ten. See Ge 9:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And he called his name Noah, which signifies rest,
saying, by the Spirit of prophecy:
This same shall comfort us, concerning the hard labour and manifold troubles to which we are sentenced, Gen 3:19.
And this he did either,
1. By the invention of instruments of husbandry, whereby tillage was made more easy. Or,
2. By removing in some part the curse inflicted upon the earth, and reconciling God unto mankind. Possibly he might suppose that this was the Messias, or promised Seed, and the Saviour of the undone world; as it was frequent with the ancient fathers, through their earnest desire of the Messias, to expect him long before he came, and to mistake other persons for him. Or,
3. By preserving a remnant of mankind from that deluge which he by the Spirit foresaw would come, and repeopling the emptied earth with a new generation of men, and by restoring and improving the art of husbandry: see Gen 9:20.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he called his name Noah,…. Which signifies rest and comfort; for rest gives comfort, and comfort flows from rest, see
2Sa 14:17, where a word from the same root is rendered “comfortable”, and agrees with the reason of the name, as follows:
saying, this same shall comfort us, concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed; this he spake by a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing what his son would be, and of what advantage to him and his family, and to the world, both in things temporal and spiritual. In things temporal: the earth was cursed for the sin of man immediately after the fall, and continued under it to this time, bringing forth thorns and thistles in great abundance of itself, which occasioned much trouble to root and pluck them up, and nothing else, without digging, and planting, and sowing; and being barren through the curse, it was with great difficulty men got a livelihood: now Noah eased them in a good measure of their toil and trouble, by inventing instruments of ploughing, as Jarchi suggests, which they had not before, but threw up the ground with their hands, and by the use of spades, or such like things, which was very laborious; but now, by the use of the plough, and beasts to draw it, their lives were made much more easy and comfortable; hence he is said to begin to be an “husbandman”, or a “man of the earth”, that brought agriculture to a greater perfection, having found out an easier and quicker manner of tilling the earth: and as he was the first that is said to plant a vineyard, if he was the inventor of wine, this was another way in which he was an instrument of giving refreshment and comfort to men, that being what cheers the heart of God and men, see Ge 9:20 and if the antediluvians were restrained from eating of flesh, and their diet was confined to the fruits of the earth; Noah, as Dr. Lightfoot d observes, would be a comfort in reference to this, because to him, and in him to all the world, God would give liberty to eat flesh; so that they were not obliged to get their whole livelihood with their hands out of the ground: and moreover, as Lamech might be apprised of the flood by the name of his father, and the prediction of his grandfather, he might foresee that he and his family would be saved, and be the restorer of the world, and repeople it, after the destruction of it by the flood. And he may have respect to comfort in spiritual things, either at first taking him to be the promised seed, the Messiah, in whom all comfort is; or however a type of him, and from whom he should spring, who would deliver them from the curse of the law, and from the bondage of it, and from toiling and seeking for a righteousness by the works of it; or he might foresee that he would be a good man, and a preacher of righteousness, and be a public good in his day and generation.
d Works, vol. 1. p. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
29. And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work. In the Hebrew languages the etymology of the verb נחם ( nacham) does not correspond with the noun נוח ( noach,) unless we call the letter ם ( mem) superfluous; as sometimes, in composition, certain letters are redundant. נוח Noach signifies to give rest, but נחם nacham to comfort. The name Noah is derived from the former verb. Wherefore, there is either the transmutation of one letter into another, or only a bare allusion, when Lamech says, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work.” (257) But as to the point in hand, there is no doubt that he promises to himself an alleviation, or solace, of his labors. But it is asked, whence he had conceived such hope from a son whose disposition he could not yet have discerned. The Jews do not judge erroneously in declaring Lamech’s expression to be a prophecy; but they are too gross in restricting to agriculture what is applicable to all those miseries of human life which proceed from the curse of God, and are the fruits of sin. I come, indeed, to this conclusion; that the holy fathers anxiously sighed, when, being surrounded with so many evils they were continually reminded of the first origin of all evils, and regarded themselves as under the displeasure of God. Therefore in the expression, the toil of our hands, there is the figure synecdochee; because under one kind of toil he comprises the whole miserable state into which mankind had fallen. For they undoubtedly remembered what Moses has related above, concerning the labourious, sad, and anxious life to which Adam had been doomed: and since the wickedness of man was daily increasing, no mitigation of the penalty could be hoped for, unless the Lord should bring unexpected succor. It is probable that they were very earnestly looking for the mercy of God; for their faith was strong, and necessity urged them ardently to desire help. But that the name was not rashly given to Noah, we may infer hence, that Moses expressly notes it as a thing worthy to be remembered. Certainly some meaning was couched under the names of other patriarchs; yet he passes by the reason why they were so called, and only insists upon this name of Noah. Therefore the contentious reader is not to be allowed hence to pronounce a judgment, that there was something peculiar in Noah, which did not suit others before him. I have, then, no doubt that Lamech hoped for something rare and unwonted from his son; and that, too, by the inspiration of the Spirit. Some suppose him to have been deceived, inasmuch as he believed that Noah was the Christ; but they adduce no rational conjecture in support of the opinion. It is more probable, that, seeing something great was promised concerning his son, he did not refrain from mixing his own imagination with the oracle; as holy men are also sometimes wont to exceed the measure of revelation, and thus it comes to pass, that they neither touch heaven nor earth.
(257) See Schindler’s Lexicon, sub voce נחם, No. III and also, sub voce נוח, as a proper name, where he derives the latter word from the former, “ litera ם abjecta, aut, quod consolatio sit quies, recreatio.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) He called his name Noah.This is the first recorded instance, since the days of Eve, of a child being named at his birth, and in both cases the name ended in disappointment. Noah brought no rest, but in his days came the flood to punish human sin. We have already noticed that this longing of Lamech for comfort is in strong contrast with the arrogance of his namesake of the race of Cain. (Comp. Gen. 4:18.)
This same shall comfort us . . . of our hands.These words form a couplet in the Hebrew, and rhyme like the Arabic couplets in the Koran.
The ground (admh) which the Lord hath cursed.It is usual to style this section Elohistic, because it so evidently takes up the narrative at Gen. 2:3. Yet, first, the writer distinctly refers to Gen. 3:17, where it is Jehovah-Elohim who curses the ground; and next he uses the name Jehovah as equivalent to God, according to what we are told in Gen. 4:26. Here, then, as in several other places, the idea that Genesis can be arranged in two portions, distinguished as Elohistic or Jehovistic, according to the name of God employed in them, entirely breaks down. It is remarkable, also, that the word for toil in Lantechs distich is the same as that rendered sorrow in Gen. 3:16-17, and that it occurs only in these three places.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. Noah This name signifies rest or comfort . The godly hope and prophetic aspiration of the Sethite, Lamech, as expressed in this name, contrast strongly with the fierce and defiant song of the warrior and polygamist of the same name, who was descended from Cain . Lamech groans under the curse of severe bodily toil, the consequence of sin . In this son he expects deliverance, and, therefore, names him Rest . Rest and deliverance came to man through Noah, but in a way that Lamech had not thought . Exactly what Lamech expected is not clear; perhaps, like Eve, he looked upon his firstborn son as the great promised Deliverer .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 5:29. Called his name Noah, saying, this same shall comfort, &c. Noah () the proper name is derived from the verb we render comfort, and consequently implies consolation: and the following words, concerning our work and toil of our hands, &c. seem to affix this consolation to corporal labour, respecting the productions of the earth. But we know so little of the state of the antediluvian earth, and the degree of toil consequent upon the original curse, that it is impossible to determine in the present case.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This [same] shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
Ver. 29. This same shall comfort us. ] Herein a figure of Christ. And Peter Martyr thinks that Lamech was in hope that this son of his would have been the Christ. A pardonable error, proceeding from an earnest desire of seeing his day, whom their souls loved, and longed for: “Greeting a the promise afar off,” Heb 11:13 and “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Luk 2:25
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Noah = rest, comfort, or consolation. Gen 8:21.
comfort us concerning = give us rest from.
work: should be works (with Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Syriac, &c).
work and toil = grievous toil, or trouble, “works” reference probably to the evil deeds going on around. See Gen 6:3, and compare Exo 23:24. Lev 18:3. Mic 6:16. Ecc 4:3. Job 33:17. Probably Figure of speech Hendiadys (App-6), for emph. = toilsome labour.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
he called: Gen 6:8, Gen 6:9, Gen 7:23, Gen 9:24, Isa 54:9, Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20, Mat 24:37, Luk 3:36, Luk 17:26, Luk 17:27, Heb 11:7, 1Pe 3:20, 2Pe 2:5
Noah: Gr. Noe, i.e. rest or comfort
because: Gen 3:17-19, Gen 4:11, Gen 4:12
Reciprocal: Gen 3:20 – Adam Gen 8:21 – curse Gen 9:20 – an husbandman Gen 10:32 – are the Deu 28:16 – in the field 1Sa 1:20 – when the time was come about Rom 8:20 – the creature Heb 6:8 – beareth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE FIRST TRUE COMFORTER
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands.
Gen 5:29
These words, used by Lamech, apply far more truly to the descendant of Noah after the flesh, even Jesus Christ.
I. When our Lord appeared among men, the world was in almost as sad and hopeless a condition as when Lamech looked around him. Among the Gentiles there was ignorance, darkness, and false imaginations, among the chosen people there was hardness and impenitence. Christ comforted His disciples after His resurrection by raising up the temple of their wrecked faith, as He raised again the temple of His own body. He comforted them with the assurance that their faith was not in vain, that He had the keys of death and hell, and was able to succour to the uttermost those who trusted in Him.
II. The risen Christ comforted also the fathers of the ancient covenant.Moses and Elias appeared unto Him on Tabor, speaking with him of the things concerning His passion. The ancient patriarchs could not enter into heaven till the gates were opened by the cross of Christ, and the handwriting that was against all sinners was taken away.
III. The resurrection of Christ is a joy and comfort to us also:
(a) because in Him a way of safety was opened to the world;
(b) because He will repay a hundredfold all that is done for Him.
Rev. S. Baring-Gould.
Illustration
The comfort that comes into the world with children. These words of Lamech are the permanent inscription in the horoscope which parents everywhere and always see over the cradle of the latest born. There is a bright prophecy of God concerning the future in this invincible hopefulness of the parental heart. The security we have for this in the great fact of our redemption. Our Noah has been born; the Rest-giver, strong Burden-bearer, all-pitying and all-suffering Saviour. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but Jesus Christ brings and gives righteousness, instilling it into every believing heart. Noah was a preserver of the world in his own family from a temporary flood, Jesus Christ makes this world itself the Ark which He commands, steering it through this great and wide sea of space and time in safety.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Gen 5:29. He called his name Noah Which signifies rest; saying No doubt by a spirit of prophecy; This same shall comfort us concerning our toil, &c. That is, the hard labour and manifold troubles to which they were sentenced. This he did, 1st, By the invention of instruments of husbandry, whereby tillage was made more easy: 2d, By removing a part of the curse inflicted on the earth: and especially, 3d, By preserving a remnant of mankind from that deluge which Enoch had foretold, and which he foresaw would come, and by repeopling the empty earth with a new generation of men.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This [same] shall {h} comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
(h) Lamech had respect for the promise, Gen 3:15, and desired to see the deliverer who would be sent and yet saw but a figure of it. He spoke this by the spirit of prophecy because Noah delivered the Church and preserved it by his obedience.