These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.
9. These are the generations, &c.] The heading, or superscription of a new section in the narrative of P; cf. Gen 2:4, Gen 5:1.
a righteous man ] The word “righteous” ( addiq), which occupies such an important place in Biblical Theology, occurs here for the first time. The sense of “rectitude,” or “uprightness,” may be derived from a root-idea of “straightness.” It is used of Noah again in Gen 7:1: in Eze 14:14; Eze 14:20 Noah is mentioned, with Daniel and Job, as pre-eminent for “righteousness.” Cf. also Sir 44:17 , “Noah was found perfect and righteous; in the season of wrath he was taken in exchange for the world,” and 2Pe 2:5, “Noah a preacher of righteousness.”
perfect ] R.V. marg. blameless. Heb. tmm. The word “perfect” (LXX , Lat. perfectus) means “without flaw.” As a ritual term used of an animal for sacrifice, “perfect” would mean “free from blemish.” Transferred to morals, it denotes “integrity,” as in the account of Job (Job 1:1).
in his generations ] viz. amongst the people of his own generation, a different word in the Heb. from the one used in “these are the generations.” It denotes the members of one family, dwelling together, e.g. grandfather, father, son.
walked with God ] See note on Gen 5:22-24. The account of Noah as “righteous,” “perfect,” and “walking with God,” embraces three aspects of the good and devout character, justice, purity, holiness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 12. The introduction to the Story of the Flood in P. Observe that, whereas J begins with the corruption of the human race, and closes with the mention of Noah, P begins with the mention of Noah and continues with the corruption of the human race.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– Section VI – The Deluge
– XXIII. The Ark
9. dor age, time from birth to death, applied either to an individual or the whole contemporary race, running parallel with some leading individual. Hence, the race or generation living during that time.
14. tebah chest, ark. It is used only of this vessel of Noahs construction, and of the little vessel in which Moses was put Exo 2:3, Exo 2:5. The root, according to Furst, means to be hollow. ‘ebeh a cognate word, signifies a reed; kibotos Septuagint. goper . ., perhaps fir, cypress, resinous wood. qen nest, room; related: prepare, rear up.
16. tsohar shining, light; not the same as the chalon Gen 8:6, or the aperture through which Noah let out the raven.
18. beryt covenant; related: cut, eat, choose, decide.
The close of the preceding document introduces the opening topic of this one. The same rule applies to all that have gone before. The generations of the skies and the land Gen 2:4 are introduced by the finishing of the skies and the land Gen 2:1; the generations of man in the line of Sheth Gen 5:1, by the birth of Sheth Gen 4:25; and now the generations of Noah, by the notice that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The narrative here also, as usual, reverts to a point of time before the stage of affairs described in the close of the preceding passage. Yet there is nothing here that seems to indicate a new author. The previous paragraph is historical, and closely connected with the end of the fourth chapter; and it suitably prepares for the proceedings of Noah, under the divine direction, on the eye of the deluge. We have now a recapitulation of the agent and the occasion, and then the divine commission and its execution.
Gen 6:9-12
Here are the man and the occasion.
Gen 6:9-10
The generations of Noah. – In the third document we had the generations of man; now we are limited to Noah, because he is himself at peace with God, and is now the head and representative of those who are in the same blessed relation. The narrative, therefore, for the first time, formally confines itself to the portion of the human family in communion with God, Noah is here characterized by two new and important epithets – just and perfect. It is to be remembered that he had already found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Adam was created good; but by disobedience he became guilty, and all his race, Noah among the rest, became involved in that guilt. To be just is to be right in point of law, and thereby entitled to all the blessings of the acquitted and justified. When applied to the guilty, this epithet implies pardon of sin among other benefits of grace. It also presupposes that spiritual change by which the soul returns from estrangement to reconciliation with God. Hence, Noah is not only just, but perfect. This attribute of character imports not only the turning from darkness to light, from error to truth, from wrong to right, but the stability of moral determination which arises from the struggle, the trial, the victory of good over evil, therein involved. The just is the right in law; the perfect is the tested in holiness. In his ages; among the men of his age. This phrase indicates the contrast between Noah and the men of his day. It is probable, moreover, that he was of pure descent, and in that respect also distinguished from his contemporaries who were the offspring of promiscuous intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly. Noah walked with God, like Henok. This is the native consequence of his victory over sin, and his acceptance with God. His sons are mentioned, as they are essentially connected with the following events.
Gen 6:11-12
And the land was corrupt. – In contrast with Noah, the rest of the race were corrupt – entirely depraved by sin. It was filled with violence – with the outward exhibition of inward carnality. And God saw this. It was patent to the eye of Heaven. This is the ground of the following commission.
Gen 6:13-21
The directions concerning the ark embrace the purpose to destroy the race of man Gen 6:13, the plan and specification of the ark Gen 6:14-16, the announcement of the deluge Gen 6:17, the arrangements for the preservation of Noah and his family, and certain kinds of animals Gen 6:18-21.
Gen 6:13
The end of all flesh. – The end may mean either the point to which it tends, or the extermination of the race. The latter is the simpler. All flesh is to be understood of the whole race, while yet it does not preclude the exception of Noah and his family. This teaches us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all, when used in the sense of ordinary conversation. Is come before me, is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized. For the land is filled with violence. The reason. I will destroy them. The resolve. There is retribution here, for the words corrupt and destroy are the same in the original.
Gen 6:14-16
The ark. – Reckoning the cubit at 1.8 feet, we find the length to be about 540, the breadth 90, and the height 54 feet. The construction of such a vessel implies great skill in carpentry. The lighting apparatus is not described so particularly that we can form any conception of it. It was probably in the roof. The roof may have been flat. And to a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The cubit is possibly the height of the parapet round the lighting and ventilating aperture. The opening occupied, it may be, a considerable portion of the roof, and was covered during the rain with an awning mkseh, Gen 8:13. If, however, it was in the sides of the ark, the cubit was merely its height. It was then finished with a strong railing, which went round the whole ark, and over which the covering, above mentioned, hung down on every side. The door was in the side, and the stories were three. In each were of course many nests or chambers, for animals and stores. It may be curious to a mechanical mind to frame the details of this structure from the general hints here given; but it could not serve any practical end. Only the animals necessary to man, or unusual to the region covered by the deluge, required to be included in the ark. It seems likely that wild animals in general were not included. It is obvious, therefore, that we cannot calculate the number of animals preserved in the ark, or compare the space they would require with its recorded dimensions. We may rest assured that there was accommodation for all that needed to be there.
Gen 6:17
The method of destruction is now specified. A water flood shall cover the land, in which all flesh shall perish. I, behold, I. This catastrophe is due to the interposition of the Creator. It does not come according to the ordinary laws of physics, but according to the higher law of ethics.
Gen 6:18-21
The covenant with Noah. Here is the first appearance of a covenant between God and man on the face of Scripture. A covenant is a solemn compact, tacit or express, between two parties, in which each is bound to perform his part. Hence, a covenant implies the moral faculty; and wherever the moral faculty exists, there must needs be a covenant. Consequently, between God and man there was of necessity a covenant from the very beginning, though the name do not appear. At first it was a covenant of works, in regard to man; but now that works have failed, it can only be a covenant of grace to the penitent sinner. My covenant. The word my points to its original establishment with Adam. My primeval covenant, which I am resolved not to abandon. Will I establish. Though Adam has failed, yet will I find means of maintaining my covenant of life with the seed of the woman. With thee. Though all flesh be to perish through breach of my covenant, yet will I uphold it with thee. Go into the ark. This is the means of safety. Some may say in their hearts, this is a clumsy way to save Noah. But if he is to be saved, there must be some way. And it is not a sign of wisdom to prescribe the way to the All-wise. Rather let us reflect that the erection of this ark was a daily warning to a wicked race, a deepening lesson of reliance on God to Noah and his household, and a most salutary occupation for the progenitors of the future race of mankind. And thy sons, etc. Noahs household share in the covenant.
Gen 6:19-20
And of all the living. – For the sake of Noah, the animal species also shall be preserved, two of each, male and female. They are to come in pairs for propagation. The fowl, the cattle, the creeping thing or smaller animals, are to come. From this it appears that the wild animals are not included among the inmates of the ark. (See Gen 7:2-3, Gen 7:8.) The word all is not to be pressed beyond the specification of the writer. As the deluge was universal only in respect to the human race, it was not necessary to include any animals but those that were near man, and within the range of the overwhelming waters. Fodder and other provisions for a year have to be laid in.
Gen 6:22
The obedience of Noah and the accomplishment of his task are here recorded. The building of so enormous a fabric must have occupied many years.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The generations of Noah; either,
1. Properly the posterity of Noah, as the word is commonly used, and as it is explained Gen 6:10. So the rest of this verse comes in by way of parenthesis, which is frequent. Or,
2. The events or occurrences which befell Noah and his family, as the word is taken, Gen 37:2; Pro 27:1.
A just man, and perfect. These words are to be taken either,
1. Jointly, q.d. he was righteous, not only in appearance, or in part, but perfectly, in all respects, towards God and men; or sincerely and truly. Or,
2. Distinctly, q.d. he was for his state and condition just before God, which was by faith, Heb 11:7, by which every just man lives, Rom 1:17, and perfect, i.e. upright and unblamable in the course of his life among the men of his age, as it follows;
in his generations. This is spoken either,
1. Diminutively; he was so comparatively to the men that then lived, who were very bad; though otherwise even Noah had many infirmities, so that he also had not been saved but for God’s grace and mercy, Gen 6:8. Or,
2. By way of amplification and commendation; he was good in bad times, in spite of all evil counsels or examples. He saith
generations, in the plural number, to show that as he lived in two generations, one before the flood, and another after it, so he continued uncorrupted in both of them.
Noah walked with God.
See Poole on “Gen 5:22“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Noah . . . just . . . andperfectnot absolutely; for since the fall of Adam no man hasbeen free from sin except Jesus Christ. But as living by faith he wasjust (Gal 3:2; Heb 11:7)and perfectthat is, sincere in his desire to do God’s will.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
These are the generations of Noah,…. Or this is the account of his posterity, of the persons that were generated by him, that sprung from him, and peopled the earth after the flood, who are mentioned in the next verse, what follows being to be put in a parenthesis; as the genealogy of Adam is carried on from Adam to Noah, Ge 5:1 so the old world ending at the flood, the genealogy of the new world begins with Noah: though Aben Ezra and Ben Gersome interpret the word “events”, things which days bring forth,
Pr 27:1 these are the events or the things which befell Noah, of which an account is given in this and some following chapters, whose character is next observed:
Noah was a just man; not only before men, but in the sight of God; and not by his own works of righteousness, for no man is just by them before God, but by the righteousness of the promised seed, the Messiah; for he “became heir of the righteousness which is by faith”,
Heb 11:7 the righteousness which was to be brought in by the Son of God, and which was revealed to him from faith to faith; and which by faith he received and lived upon, as every just man does, and believed in as his justifying righteousness before God; though he also lived a holy and righteous conversation before men, which may rather be intended in the next part of his character:
and perfect in his generations; not that he was perfectly holy, or free from sin, but was a partaker of the true grace of God; was sincere and upright in heart and life; lived an unblemished life and conversation, untainted with the gross corruptions of that age he lived in, which he escaped through the knowledge, grace, and fear of God; and therefore it is added, that he was holy, upright, and blameless “in his generations”: among the men of the several generations he lived in, as in the generation before the flood, which was very corrupt indeed, and which corruption was the cause of that; and in the generation after the flood: or “in his ages” w, in the several stages of his life, in youth and in old age; he was throughout the whole course of his life a holy good man.
[And] Noah walked with God: walked according to his will, in the ways of truth and righteousness; walked in a manner well pleasing to him, and enjoyed much communion with him, as Enoch had done before him, Ge 5:22.
w “in aetatibus suis”, Drusius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gen 6:9-12 contain a description of Noah and his contemporaries; Gen 6:13-22, the announcement of the purpose of God with reference to the flood.
Gen 6:9 “ Noah, a righteous man, was blameless among his generations: ” righteous in his moral relation to God; blameless ( , integer) in his character and conduct. , , were the generations or families “which passed by Noah, the Nestor of his time.” His righteousness and integrity were manifested in his walking with God, in which he resembled Enoch (Gen 5:22).
Gen 6:10-12 In Gen 6:10-12, the account of the birth of his three sons, and of the corruption of all flesh, is repeated. This corruption is represented as corrupting the whole earth and filling it with wickedness; and thus the judgment of the flood is for the first time fully accounted for. “ The earth was corrupt before God ( Elohim points back to the previous Elohim in Gen 6:9),” it became so conspicuous to God, that He could not refrain from punishment. The corruption proceeded from the fact, that “ all flesh ” – i.e., the whole human race which had resisted the influence of the Spirit of God and become flesh (see Gen 6:3) – “ had corrupted its way.” The term “flesh” in Gen 6:12 cannot include the animal world, since the expression, “corrupted its way,” is applicable to man alone. The fact that in Gen 6:13 and Gen 6:17 this term embraces both men and animals is no proof to the contrary, for the simple reason, that in Gen 6:19 “all flesh” denotes the animal world only, an evident proof that the precise meaning of the word must always be determined from the context.
Gen 6:13 “ The end of all flesh is come before Me.” , when applied to rumours, invariably signifies “to reach the ear” (vid., Gen 18:21; Exo 3:9; Est 9:11); hence in this case cannot mean a me constitutus est ( Ges.). , therefore, is not the end in the sense of destruction, but the end (extremity) of depravity or corruption, which leads to destruction. “ For the earth has become full of wickedness ,” i.e., proceeding from them, “ and I destroy them along with the earth.” Because all flesh had destroyed its way, it should be destroyed with the earth by God. The lex talionis is obvious here.
Gen 6:14-15 Noah was exempted from the extermination. He was to build an ark, in order that he himself, his family, and the animals might be preserved. , which is only used here and in Exo 2:3, Exo 2:5, where it is applied to the ark in which Moses was placed, is probably an Egyptian word: the lxx render it here, and in Exodus; the Vulgate arca , from which our word ark is derived. Gopher-wood ( ligna bituminata ; Jerome) is most likely cypress. The . . gopher is related to , resin, and ; it is no proof to the contrary that in later Hebrew the cypress is called berosh , for gopher belongs to the pre-Hebraic times. The ark was to be made cells, i.e., divided into cells, (lit., nests, niduli , mansiunculae ), and pitched ( denom. from ) within and without with copher, or asphalte (lxx , Vulg. bitumen ). On the supposition, which is a very probable one, that the ark was built in the form not of a ship, but of a chest, with flat bottom, like a floating house, as it was not meant for sailing, but merely to float upon the water, the dimensions, 300 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high, give a superficial area of 15,000 square cubits, and a cubic measurement of 450,000 cubits, probably to the ordinary standard, “after the elbow of a man” (Deu 3:11), i.e., measured from the elbow to the end of the middle finger.
Gen 6:16 “ Light shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit from above shalt thou finish it.” As the meaning light for is established by the word , “double-light” or mid-day, the passage can only signify that a hole or opening for light and air was to be so constructed as to reach within a cubit of the edge of the roof. A window only a cubit square could not possibly be intended; for is not synonymous with (Gen 8:6), but signifies, generally, a space for light, or by which light could be admitted into the ark, and in which the window, or lattice for opening and shutting, could be fixed; though we can form no distinct idea of what the arrangement was. The door he was to place in the side; and to make “ lower, second, and third (sc., cells),” i.e., three distinct stories.
(Note: As the height of the ark was thirty cubits, the three stories of cells can hardly have filled the entire space, since a room ten cubits high, or nine cubits if we deduct the thickness of the floors, would have been a prodigality of space beyond what the necessities required. It has been conjectured that above or below these stories there was space provided for the necessary supplies of food and fodder. At the same time, this is pure conjecture, like every other calculation, not only as to the number and size of the cells, but also as to the number of animals to be collected and the fodder they would require. Hence every objection that has been raised to the suitability of the structure, and the possibility of collecting all the animals in the ark and providing them with food, is based upon arbitrary assumptions, and should be treated as a perfectly groundless fancy. As natural science is still in the dark as to the formation of species, and therefore not in a condition to determine the number of pairs from which all existing species are descended, it is ridiculous to talk, as Pfaff and others do, of 2000 species of mammalia, and 6500 species of birds, which Noah would have had to feed every day.)
Gen 6:17-21 Noah was to build this ark, because God was about to bring a flood upon the earth, and would save him, with his family, and one pair of every kind of animal. , (the flood), is an archaic word, coined expressly for the waters of Noah (Isa 54:9), and is used nowhere else except Psa 29:10. is in apposition to mabbul: “ I bring the flood, waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is a living breath ” (i.e., man and beast). With Noah, God made a covenant. On see Gen 15:18. As not only the human race, but the animal world also was to be preserved through Noah, he was to take with him into the ark his wife, his sons and their wives, and of every living thing, of all flesh, two of every sort, a male and a female, to keep them alive; also all kinds of food for himself and family, and for the sustenance of the beasts.
Gen 6:22 “ Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him ” (with regard to the building of the ark). Cf. Heb 11:7.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 9-13:
“Just” is upright, declared to be righteous. It is a legal term, denoting one who has been tried and acquitted, declared not guilty.
“Perfect,” tamim is “whole”, complete. (Sept. teleios, complete or fulfilled). It does not mean without flaw or sinless. It denotes moral uprightness and integrity, maturity. This indicates that Noah was of unbroken or pure descent from the lineage of Seth. He was not as many of his contemporaries, offspring of promiscuous relations between the godless and the godly lines, of Seth and Cains’ lineage.
Note: the expression “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” does not occur until after the birth of Noah’s sons. To some, this implies that the variation of the physical characteristics of Noah’s sons may have been due to a mixing of the lines of Seth and Cain in the genealogy of Noah’s wife. It is said of Noah that he was “perfect in his generations.” This is not said of his wife. Apparently this marriage was not in the perfect, revealed Will of God.
Like Enoch, Noah walked with God. Unlike Enoch he was left in the world of wickedness, where he became a preacher of righteousness (2Pe 2:5), and warned of God’s impending judgment.
Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They are usually listed in this order. This may seem to imply that Shem was the oldest, Ham, the second-born, and Japheth the youngest. But the order in which they are listed is not necessarily the order of their birth. Ge 9:14 lists Ham as Noah’s “younger son.” Shem was born 97 years before the Flood, Ge 11:10, and Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood. Ge 5:32 records that Noah was 500 years old when he began to beget children. This implies that Japheth was born about three years before Shem. Thus, Japheth was the eldest, Shem the second-born, Ham the youngest son of Noah.
The names of Noah’s sons are significant in their prophetic and historic meaning:
Shem: “name” or “fame.” It was through his descendants that the “Name” of Jehovah was to be perpetuated, culminating in the coming of Messiah.
Ham: “hot” or “dark, swarthy.” This could refer to his skin color, for his descendants are primarily the dark-skinned peoples.
Japheth: “God will enlarge.” His descendants settled primarily in the northern regions of the earth.
See chapters 10 and 11 for more on the descendants of Noah’s sons.
The inhabitants of the earth had become openly, totally corrupt. They flaunted their lawlessness and licentiousness before God. The outward demonstration of their inward corruption was violence, including all kinds of cruelty and injuries toward others. Humanity as a whole had turned away from God’s design to their own ways of depravity. By the time of Noah, men had ceased to attempt to cover their sin as did Adam, or to hide from Jehovah. They were brazen in their depraved conduct.
God informed Noah of His determination to terminate the moral corruption which enveloped the inhabited earth. “All” does not mean every single individual, as Noah and his family were not included in the sentence of Divine judgment. It is a general term frequently employed in other Scripture references, indicating the vast majority.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. These are the generations of Noah. The Hebrew word תולדות ( toledoth) properly means generation. It has, however, sometimes a more extended sense, and applies to the whole history of life; this indeed seems to be its meaning in the present place. (271) For when Moses had stated that one man was found whom God, — when he had determined to destroy the whole world, — would yet preserve, he briefly describes what kind of person he was. And, in the first place, asserts, that he was just and upright among the men of his age: for here is a different Hebrew noun, דור ( dor,) which signifies an age, or the time of a life. (272) The word תמים ( tamim) which the ancient interpreter is accustomed to translate perfect, (273) is of the same force as upright or sincere; and is opposed to what is deceitful, pretended, and vain. And Moses does not rashly connect these two things together; for the world, being always influenced by external splendor, estimates justice, not by the affection of the heart, but by bare works. If, however, we desire to be approved by God, and accounted righteous before him, we must not only regulate our hands, and eyes, and feet, in obedience to his Law; but integrity of heart is above all things required, and holds the chief place in the true definition of righteousness. Let us, however, know that they are called just and upright, not who are in every respect perfect, and in whom there is no defect; but who cultivate righteousness purely, and from their heart. Because we are assured that God does not act towards his own people with the rigour of justice, as requiring of them a life according to the perfect rule of the Law; for, if only no hypocrisy reigns within them, but the pure love of rectitude flourishes, and fills their hearts, he pronounces them, according to his clemency, to be righteous.
The clause, “in his generations,” is emphatical. For he has already often said, and will soon repeat it, that nothing was more corrupt than that age. Therefore, it was a remarkable instance of constancy, that Noah being surrounded on every side with the filth of iniquity, should hence have contracted no contagion. We know how great is the force of custom, so that nothing is more difficult than to live homily among the wicked, and to avoid being led away by their evil examples. Scarcely is there one in a hundred who has not in his mouth that diabolical proverb, ‘We must howl when we are among the wolves;’ and the greater part, — framing a rule for themselves from the common practice, — judge everything to be lawful which is generally received. As, however, the singular virtue of Noah is here commended; so let us remember that we are instructed what we ought to do, though the whole world were rushing to its own destruction. If, at the present time, the morals of men are so vitiated, and the whole mode of life so confused, that probity has become most rare; still more vile and dreadful was the confusion in the time of Noah, when he had not even one associate in the worship of God, and in the pursuit of holiness. If he could bear up against the corruptions of the whole world, and against such constant and vehement assaults of iniquity; no excuse is left for us, unless, with equal fortitude of mind, we prosecute a right course through innumerable obstacles of vice. It is not improbable that Moses uses the word generations in the plural number, the more fully to declare what a strenuous and invincible combatant Noah was, who, through so many ages, had remained unaltered. Besides, the manner of cultivating righteousness, which he had adopted is explained in the context; namely that he had “walked with God,” which excellency he had also commended in the holy father Enoch, in the preceding chapter, where we have stated what the expression means. When the corruption of morals was so great in the earth, if Noah had had respect to man, he would have been cast into a profound labyrinth. He sees, therefore, this to be his only remedy; namely, to disregard men, that he may fix all his thoughts on God, and make Him the sole Arbiter of his life. Whence it appears, how foolishly the Papists clamor that we ought to follow the fathers; when the Spirit expressly recalls us from the imitation of men, except so far as they lead us to God. Moses again mentions his three sons, for the purpose of showing that, in the greatest sorrow by which he was almost consumed, he was yet able to have offspring, in order that God might have a small remnant of seed for himself.
(271) See Dathe, in loco.
(272) Though it also means generation. — See Gesenius, Schindler, etc, sub voce דור
(273) “ Noe vir justus atque perfectus ferit.” — Vulgate. — “ תמים refers chiefly to moral integrity, irreproachable, innocent, honest.” — Gesenius
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 6:9-13
NOAH, OR A GOOD MAN LIVING IN DEGENERATE TIMES
I. That good men living in degenerate times are not overlooked by God. The degenerate and wicked condition of primitive society was under the eye of God. He saw the moral apostacy of the age, that it was almost universal. Noah was the only glad exception. He was the only just and morally perfect man to be found. God did not overlook him in the multitude. God saw Noah and his efforts to be good. Good men are not lost in the mass to the eye of heaven. The surrounding darkness renders the solitary light the more apparent. So the prevalency of evil makes the purity of moral goodness more remarkable. The gardener may overlook the one gay flower in the midst of the weeds, and may pluck all up together; but not so with our heavenly husbandman, he infallibly separates the good from the bad, so that the former is never destroyed through the uprooting of the latter. A good man in the world is conspicuous to the vision of God. In the most wicked ages of the worlds history there has generally been one good man left as a representative of the church, and as a rebuke to the follies of the times, and he has generally been divinely shielded from the perils of his situation, and has been rewarded for his heroic testimony to the right. God remembers Lot in the wicked Sodom. A merciful providence is ever over the good.
II. That good men living in degenerate times are often characterized by signal piety. Noah was not merely a good man, just maintaining a reputation for external morality in these barbarous times, but he was a perfect man. The light of his piety was not dim, but bright and constant. It did not flicker before the rude winds of sin around it. The grace of God kept it bright and constant in its flame. This grace was sought by Noah. Without it he could not have retained his moral rectitude in such perilous circumstances. And if we search the annals of history we shall find that the darkest ages have been illumined by the lives of the brightest and best saints, as if the wickedness around them was a new stimulus to devotion, and also to a decided testimony for moral purity. How often has a noted place of business, where the worst characters have wrought their daily toil, been favoured with one lonely pattern of piety. Piety at such times is:
(1.) A contrast.
(2.) A rebuke.
(3.) A testimony.
(4.) A duty.
III. That good men living in degenerate times are anxious that their family connections may be preserved from moral defilement. Noah begat a family in those degenerate times. The sons here mentioned were not the offspring of a mixed and wicked alliance. It is not unlikely that the purity of the domestic life of Noah may have been to a large extent his safeguard now. A pure home life is a refuge from the sin of the world at large. It is the tower into which a man may run and be safe. And thus by thoughtful and intelligent considerations, by devout prayer, and by parental solicitations, Noah would endeavour to shield his family from the dark sins of the age. This is a parental duty, but it is often utterly neglected, and not unfrequently frustrated by sorry indiscretions. The father who would keep a son from the worlds allurements to vice must be wise in his measures, and kind in the application of them. In this task coercion means failure.
IV. That good men living in degenerate times receive the communications of heaven in reference to the destiny of men. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. There are times when God has need to speak to men. By whom does He speak? Not by the great of the earth, not by the mighty; but by the morally pure. Only a pure heart can vocalise the messages of God to humanity. To such only will the commission be entrusted. God did not give the tidings of threatened destruction to the violent men, to the men of renown, but to Noah, who was just and perfect. To the good are entrusted the purposes of heaven in reference to the future of men. The servants of God know the things which must shortly come to pass.
1. This is a dignity. It is a great honour for any man to be selected as Gods spokesman to the race, especially was it so in the case of Noah. He was probably despised by men, but God made him the teacher of those who ridiculed him. A Divine honour was thus put upon him and upon his name and family for ever.
2. This is a discipline. Honour which comes from God is generally associated with discipline often painful and severe. The visions are generally followed by the thorn in the flesh. Man is in danger of pride, hence exaltation has to be blended with pain. Noah not only was singled out to communicate the message of God to men, but he also had to build an ark for his own safety during the threatened flood. The building of this ark would be a terrible discipline to him. Its successful accomplishment would make him a moral hero. He would have to endure the worlds scorn. He would be nearly alone in his task.
LESSONS:
1. The good man is worth the mention and commendation of God.
2. That true piety can survive the darkest ages and live through the most arduous toils.
3. That good men know most of the mind of God in reference to the worlds future.
4. That good men will not be included in the destructions which overtake the wicked.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 6:9. The piety of Noah:
1. It was characterized by justice.
2. It was characterized by moral perfection.
3. It was characterized by holy communion with God.
Grace will not suffer the church to cease, but continues its being in the accepted ones of God.
Grace makes a record of the state and propagation of the church for the use of future ages.
In one person or family the church may be visibly preserved, from whence it shall grow anew in after times.
Righteousness by faith must qualify the church of God, from the first to the last in the line of it.
Evangelical perfection turns hearts into the commandments of God, and is proper to the church.
In the worst of times true saints strive to be the most perfect toward God.
The Christians walk:
1. Christ the rule of it.
2. Christ the company of it.
3. Christ the end of it.
Gen. 6:10. Fruitfulness in body is an effect of grace, to continue Gods church.
The holiest parent cannot bring forth a holy seed; that is born of grace.
Little and small may be the visible church; father, sons, and wives, but right.
Grace puts the last before the first, and the younger before the elder. Shem is before Japhet.
Gen. 6:11. Apostacy from God and pollution of worship, is the corruption of men.
Such corruption in Gods face is high provocation.
Violent injury to man generally accompanies apostacy from God.
Fulness of such iniquity makes the world ripe for judgment.
The earth is corrupt to-day:
1. In its commerce.
2. In its pleasures.
3. In its literature.
4. In its ambitions.
Gen. 6:12. God must see and mark iniquity done before Him.
God layeth open all the corruption of men which He sees.
Man is a self-corrupter; he pollutes his own way.
The habitation of man is an aggravation of his sin:
1. The earth is beautiful.
2. It is fruitful.
3. It is prophetic.
Gods look toward the world:
1. Scrutinizing.
2. Penetrating.
3. Terrifying.
4. Astonishing.
5. The prelude of doom.
Mans way on the earth:
1. Perverse.
2. Contrary to Gods law.
3. Contrary to human enjoyment.
4. Characterized by impurity.
5. Attracts the wrath of God.
Gen. 6:13. God talks with good men.
God reveals His wrath before He executes it.
Thus was Noah put in possession of Gods thoughts about the scene around him. The effect of the word of God was to lay bare the roots of all that which mans eye might rest upon with complacency and pride. The human heart might swell with pride, and the bosom heave with emotion, as the eye ran down along the brilliant ranks of men of art, men of skill, men of might, and men of renown. The sound of the harp and the organ might send a thrill through the whole soul, while, at the same time, the ground was cultivated, and mans necessities were provided for in such a way as to contradict any thought in reference to approaching judgment. But, oh, these solemn words, I will destroy. What a heavy gloom they would necessarily cast over the glittering scene! Could not mans genius invent some way of escape? Could not the mighty man deliver himself by his much strength? Alas! no: there was one way of escape, but it was revealed to faith, not to sightnot to reasonnot to imagination [C.H.M.]
Divine destruction:
1. Richly deserved.
2. Awfully certain.
3. Penitently averted.
4. Generally neglected.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
2. Noah: Man of Faith (Gen. 6:9-12).
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
(1) Noah was a righteous man, that is, it was his disposition to do the will of God in all things (cf. Mat. 3:15, Joh. 4:34). Noah was perfectnot sinless, of course, but committed to moral integrity in his dealings with God. (The just is the right in law, the perfect is the tested in holiness, Murphy). In his generations: probably not the offspring of a promiscuous union of the godly with the ungodly, as were many of his contemporaries. Noah walked with God, as did Enoch (see supra). Hence, Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah. (Note the A.V.grace; grace is commonly defined as unmerited favor: the favor in Noahs case, however, was a recognition of his righteousness.) Noah was a man of faith: given the Divine plans and specifications for the ark, he obeyed in every detail and built it just as God had told him to build it. Had he not done so, as we shall see later, he would have destroyed its typical (hence, testimonial) significance. (Cf. Moses and the Tabernacle: Exo. 25:8-9, also chs. 39, 40). Faith manifests itself in implicit obedience: hence it is said that thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he (Gen. 6:22); and so by faith he prepared an ark to the saving of his house, etc. (Heb. 11:7). Moreover, having been warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, that is, the certainty of impending Divine judgment, Noah became Christs preacher of righteousness to the ungodly antediluvian world (2Pe. 2:5).
REVIEW QUESTIONS
See Gen. 6:13.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH (Gen. 6:9; Gen. 9:28).
(9) Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations.Just is, literally, righteous, one whose actions were sufficiently upright to exempt him from the punishment inflicted upon the rest of mankind. Perfect means sound, healthy, and conveys no idea of sinlessness. It answers to the Latin integer, whence our word integrity, and not to perfectus.
Generations (drth) is not the same word as at the beginning of the verse (tldth), but simply means his contemporaries. And this he was because
Noah walked with God.See Note on Gen. 5:22.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. These are the generations of Noah First came the history (generation) of the heavens and earth; then that of man, and now that of the just and perfect man, who was a second father of the race . In a few strong words Noah’s high religious character is sharply contrasted with the surrounding moral corruption which his godly walk and wonderful faith condemned. The ark, during one hundred and twenty years slowly rising under the hands of its builders and steadily prophesying God’s judgment, was a manifestation of faith unique and perhaps unparalleled in sublimity.
Just man Justified by faith. Heb 11:7.
Perfect , literally, whole; for holiness is wholeness . So integrity, from integer . He who walks with God in the faith of Noah is whole-minded toward God . Christian perfection is essentially the same as that righteousness, which some of the patriarchs are said to have attained through faith . It is Christian holiness, integrity, entirety.
Walked with God This touch completes the picture. It is a trait assigned only to Noah and Enoch. Comp. note on Gen 5:22.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
HISTORY OF THE DELUGE, Gen 6:9 to Gen 8:22.
The traditions of a deluge which at one time covered the whole inhabited earth and swept away the whole human race except a single family, or very few persons, who were saved in an ark, (ship, boat, or raft,) is almost, if not quite, as widely spread as the human race itself. Some terrible event of this character; some dreadful catastrophe that overwhelmed the race in destruction by water, is deeply impressed on the memory of mankind. Among the nations of Western Asia, the Chaldeans, Phrygians, and Phenicians remarkably reproduce the biblical account. Noah is the Xisuthrus of the Chaldee Berosus, while the Sibylline books mention that the earth was peopled by his three sons, one of whom was named Japetus. The traditions of Eastern Asia, as the Persian, Indian, and Chinese, though more or less mixed up with their peculiar mythologies and cosmogonies, are yet unmistakable. The Noah of the Chinese is Fahhe, who escaped from the deluge with his wife, three sons, and three daughters, and was the second father of the human race. In a Chinese Buddhist temple is a beautiful stucco picture of Noah floating in his ark amid the watery deluge, while a dove flies toward the vessel with an olive branch in her beak. ( Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 16: 79.) The Noah of the East Indians is Manu, to whom Bramah announced the approach of the deluge, and bade him build a ship, store it with all kinds of seeds, and then enter into it with seven holy beings. When the flood covered the earth Bramah, in the form of a horned fish, drew the ship through the waters and landed it finally on the loftiest summit of the
Himalaya. Manu was the father of a new race. The Koran relates the story with peculiar amplifications and embellishments, describing, at great length, Noah’s faithful preaching, and picturing its rejection by the scoffing world, stating that one of his sons was among the scoffers, who attempted to escape to a mountain and was drowned before his father’s eyes. In the well-known Greek traditions Noah appears as Ogyges or Deucalion. The story is found in various forms in Pindar and Apollodorus, and is related with graphic power and poetic embellishment by Ovid and Lucian. Lucian describes Deucalion, the single righteous man, putting his family and many kinds of animals into a chest, when a heavy rain fell, and the earth opened, sending forth floods of water by which the greater part of Hellas was submerged, while Deucalion’s chest floated to the top of Parnassus. The traditions of the deluge among the various aboriginal American nations are interesting and remarkable. The Noah of the Aztecs is Coxcox, who saved himself, with his wife, on a raft. Humboldt describes Mexican pictures of this deluge and of the confusion of tongues; the race being represented as dumb after the catastrophe, and a dove being pictured distributing among them tongues from the top of a tree. He also relates that the Noah of another Mexican nation was called Tezpi, who was saved in a spacious bark with his wife, children, some animals and food. “When the Great Spirit ordered the waters to withdraw Tezpi sent out from his bark a vulture. The bird did not return on account of the carcases with which the earth was strewn. Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which, the hummingbird, alone returned, holding in its beak a branch clad with leaves.” In the Chaldee tradition, Xisuthrus sends out the birds three times, the second time they returned with mud on their feet, and the third time they return no more. Many of the American traditions blend the history of Noah with that of Adam, while the Chaldee and Phrygian stories confuse Enoch and Noah. Thus Xisuthrus is taken to heaven after the ark is stranded, while the Phrygian Annakos, or Nannakos, (Enoch,) foretells the flood and weeps and prays for the people. In the reign of Septimus Severus, (A.D. 193-211,) a coin was struck in Apamea of Phrygia, which commemorates this local tradition, though by that time it may have been modified by the Bible history. This city was anciently called Kibotos, or the “Ark,” and the medal represents a square vessel, floating in the water, containing two persons, while on its top is perched a bird, another flying toward it bearing a branch. Before the ark are represented the two inmates stepping on the dry land. Some specimens have the name or , on the vessel .
Was the deluge universal? The universality of this tradition certainly points to a deluge that was universal as far as mankind is concerned. The Scripture language demands, Delitzsch remarks, that the flood be considered as universal for the earth as inhabited, but not for the earth as such; Scripture has no interest in the universality of the flood in itself, but only in the universality of the judgment of which it was the execution. Our exposition of the whole narrative is determined in the settlement of the primary question, Was this a miraculous or simply a providential judgment? Did God in this catastrophe destroy the human race through natural or supernatural causes? For if it were a miracle, it is perfectly idle, because utterly unphilosophical, to speculate as to its causes and effects. Miraculous events are entirely beyond the province of reasoning; and if the deluge belongs to this class we can no more tell how the waters were made to cover the earth, and how Noah could gather and preserve the animals in the ark, than we can tell how Christ turned water into wine, or rose from the dead. No Christian doubts that God’s power is adequate to the production of even such a series of stupendous miracles as are involved in the hypothesis of a universal deluge; but the simple question is, Does the text, on fair interpretation, teach that such a vast array of miracles were concentrated in this event, or does it describe the destruction of a wicked race by natural causes? We think that all the circumstances of the event, abounding as they do in allusions to natural causes and effects, show that the sacred historian did not intend to describe a miracle, but a natural catastrophe, by which God destroyed the “world of the ungodly,” and which is, therefore, as to all its phenomena, a legitimate subject for speculation. Commentators are now agreed, that if it were universal it must have been a miracle, yet few realize the stupendousness of the miracle supposed. Unless there were a new creation after the flood, which some gratuitously imagine without the least authority from the sacred narrative, and which, if assumed, renders any preservation of animals in the ark unnecessary, all existing species of land-animals, including mammals, birds, and insects, must have been saved in the ark. In former times, when the extent of the animal kingdom was imperfectly known, commentators (as Clarke) were able to show, with great plausibility, that the ark furnished ample accommodations. But several important items have always been omitted; the insects, of which there are probably half a million of species, and which would have been as surely destroyed by a universal deluge as cattle or fowls; marine animals, which have their habitat on the shores between the tide-marks, and cannot live under fifty fathoms of water; the coral animals, which would all have been destroyed by water standing at the depth supposed; and the fresh water fishes, if the waters of the deluge be supposed to have been salt, or the salt water fishes, if they be supposed to have been fresh. Also, it is not generally considered that, miracle apart, it was necessary to preserve the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom in the ark, since many terrestrial plants and seeds would have been destroyed by such a deluge. But Noah was not commanded to gather marine animals nor seeds. Each continent and zone has now its zoological provinces, determined by climate, elevation, soil, etc. The polar bear cannot live in the torrid zone; the carnivora of the tropics cannot live within the Arctic circle. The animals of America are wholly different from those of the old continent in the corresponding zones. The South American jaguar must have travelled through several zones and the greater part of two continents, to have reached the ark. If, after a cursory study of the zoological provinces of the earth, we endeavour to imagine a procession of animals from the uttermost parts of both continents and from the isles of the sea, towards Western Asia, one thousand six hundred pairs of mammals, six thousand pairs of birds, insects more numerous than all other animals together, gathering about the ark, it is only by supposing a series of miracles that the picture can be made possible to thought. These miracles multiply in number and magnitude as we try to think of this vast menagerie dwelling together in harmony, fed and kept clean for a year by Noah and his sons, and finally departing in safety from Ararat, and thence diffusing themselves through the world. All this, we most freely admit, is possible to God. If it were a miracle, all these questions and objections are idle; but in that case it is also idle to attempt to reason on the matter at all. All miracles are alike easy to God. He could have gathered these animals to Noah and afterwards have dispersed them, as easily as he created them in their various provinces at first, but the text says, that Noah was commanded to bring them into the ark. Gen 6:19. God could have fed them as he fed Israel with manna, as he fed Elijah by ravens, and if the text stated that they were thus miraculously fed we should believe it, but it states (Gen 6:21) that Noah was commanded to gather of all food that is eaten for the sustenance of all the population of the ark . There is no indication of miraculous help in this work; all is described as a natural transaction .
Some (Prichard, Kurtz, Jacobus) suppose that new species were created after the flood, but if this be so there was obviously no need of making any provision for animals in the ark; besides, there is not a word in the text on which to base such a supposition, while the whole narrative clearly implies that the work of creation ceased at the end of the creative week. Others (Wordsworth, Lange) strongly favour the Darwinian theory of the origin of species, and suppose, or hint, that new species were brought into being, naturally or supernaturally, after the deluge. This is not the place to discuss Darwinism, but it is certainly premature for the Scripture commentator to call in its aid before it has been made to appear as even a plausible hypothesis. It would be more consistent for those who regard the transaction as miraculous not to attempt to explain it in any way.
Many eminent biblical scholars (for example, Stillingfleet, Poole, Le Clerc, Dothe, Pye Smith, Murphy, Lewis) interpret the text as teaching that the deluge was, as Delitzsch expressed it, universal for mankind, but not for the earth. This is simply a question of exegesis, and as such should be settled. The first impression naturally received by the English reader from the narrative is certainly that the waters covered the whole geographical earth, rose above the highest mountains, and destroyed every living terrestrial thing except the dwellers in the ark. “Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven.” Gen 6:17. “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth . All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.” Gen 7:21-22, etc . “And all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered . ” Gen 7:19. But the change of a single word in these passages would greatly modify this impression, and yet this is a change which parallel passages fully warrant us in making . The word , here translated earth, is quite as often rendered land throughout the Old Testament . In the Pentateuch it is applied in a multitude of instances to the land of Egypt and of Canaan . Comp . Exo 1:7; Exo 1:10; Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17, etc . Thus in Gen 43:1: “And the famine was sore in the land,” that is, of Canaan . Gen 41:56. “And the famine was over all the face of the earth,” (certainly not the geographical earth, but Egypt and the adjacent countries . ) Exo 10:15, “Locusts covered the face of the whole earth,” that is, land of Egypt. The Concordance will show a multitude of such passages. Hence Murphy renders the word land, throughout the description of the deluge. In the mind of the inspired writer this word meant simply that portion of the earth where man dwelt and which was the inhabited land. Of the vast geographical earth he had no idea, and so to him the word could not have had the meaning that it now conveys. See Introd., pp. 64, 65, and notes on Gen 1:1.
Again, the word , rendered all or every in this description, in common with other Hebrew words and phrases of a similar character, often has a partial signification . Until accustomed to this idiom the text sometimes appears even to contradict itself . For example, in Exo 9:25, we read, “And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.” Yet that the word “all,” or “every,” is not to be understood literally, in a universal sense, appears from Exo 10:15, wherein it is said that the locusts “did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left.” So also in Exo 9:6, in describing the plague of the murrain, it is said “ all the cattle of Egypt died;” yet the next two plagues that of the boils and that of the hail are said to have fallen upon the cattle that were in the field. King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:1) and Darius (Dan 6:25) make their proclamations “unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth;” language that would seem to be emphatically and laboriously universal; yet in Dan 6:26, we find it explained by “every dominion of my kingdom . ” The New Testament Greek shows the same idiom . Thus in Act 2:5, we read, “There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven . ” Yet in Gen 6:9-11 we have a list of these nations given, which by no means embraces the whole human race . So Paul speaks of the Gospel which he declares was then “in all the world;” and “preached to every creature which is under heaven . ” Col 1:6; Col 1:23. Thus we see that the expression, “all the high hills which were under the whole heaven” may, without the least exegetical strain upon the language, be understood to describe a deluge that, with reference to the earth, geographically considered, was local and partial .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Generations of Noah, Gen 6:9 to Gen 9:29.
Note here, again, how the history doubles back upon itself. Noah has been already introduced, (Gen 5:29; Gen 5:32,) but now the divine record of beginnings and developments takes a new departure . Compare note at beginning of chap . v, and Introd . , pp . 49, 50 .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Lord Commands Noah In Gen 6:9-22 the Lord commands Noah to build the ark.
Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Gen 6:9
Gen 5:22, “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:”
Gen 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen 6:10
Comments – The Book of Jubilees gives us the order of the births of Noah’s three sons as being the same as that given in Gen 6:10.
“And in the twenty-fifth [1205 A.M.] jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzara, the daughter of Rake’el, the daughter of his father’s brother, in the first year in the fifth week [1207 A.M.]: and in the third year thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth year thereof [1209 A.M.] she bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week [1212 A.M.] she bare him Japheth.” ( The Book of Jubilees 4.33)
Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:11
Gen 6:11 “and the earth was filled with violence” Word Study on “violence” – Strong says the Hebrew word “violence” ( ) (H2555) means, “violence, wrong.” It is interesting to note that the modern-day Islamic terrorist group located in the Gaza Strip calls itself “Hamas.” [123]
[123] “Hamas,” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia (San Francisco, California: Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.) [on-line], accessed 20 December 2008, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas; Internet.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 Gen 6:14 Gen 6:14
Gen 6:14 Word Study on “pitch” BDB says the Hebrew word “pitch” ( ) (H3724) means, “price of a life, ransom, bribe,” or “asphalt, pitch (as a covering).” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 17 times in the Old Testament being translated in the KJV as “ransom 8, satisfaction 2, bribe 2, camphire 2, pitch 1, sum of money 1, village 1.” Gen 6:14 is the only time this Hebrew word is translated as “pitch.” Otherwise, it most often refers to an atonement.
Gen 6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
Gen 6:16 Gen 6:16
[124] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Gen 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Gen 6:18 Gen 6:18
Jos 6:25, “And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household , and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.”
Act 16:15, “And when she was baptized, and her household , she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.”
Act 16:31, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house .”
Gen 6:17-18 Comments The Rich Man – Even rich men died in the flood, which illustrates Pro 11:4, “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.”
Gen 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Gen 6:20 Gen 6:21 Gen 6:21
Gen 1:29, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”
Gen 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Gen 6:22
1Pe 3:20, “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing , wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
Gen 6:22 Comments – The Fear of Man – There was no fear of man put in animals until after the flood (Gen 9:2), so this feat was truly instilled within animals by God.
Gen 9:2, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Genealogy of Noah The third genealogy in the book of Genesis is entitled “The Genealogy of Noah” (Gen 6:9 to Gen 9:29), which gives us the account of the Noah’s fulfillment of the divine commission to be fruitful and multiply. Heb 11:7 reveals the central message in this genealogy that stirs our faith in God when it describes Noah’s obedience to God in building the ark. Noah’s destiny, whose name means “rest,” was to be fruitful and bear a righteous offspring. His genealogy opens with a divine commission to build the ark and save a remnant of mankind so that God could restore peace and rest to the fallen human race. Immediately after the Flood, Noah built an altar and God spoke to him and commanded him to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 9:1). Heb 11:7 tells us how Noah fulfilled his divine commission by building the ark and saving his household.
Heb 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Lord Commands Noah Gen 6:9-22
2. The Destruction of the Flood Gen 7:1-24
3. Noah and His Family Leave the Ark Gen 8:1-22
4. Be Fruitful and Multiply Gen 9:1-7
5. God’s Covenant with Noah Gen 9:8-17
6. Noah Curses Canaan Gen 9:18-27
7. Conclusion to the Genealogy of Noah Gen 9:28-29
The Story of the Flood Within the genealogy of Noah we find the lengthy story of the Flood, by which God destroyed the earth. Jesus tells us that the story of the Flood reveals parallel events that will take place in the end times (Mat 24:37-39).
Mat 24:37-39, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
The rapture of Enoch (Gen 5:24) could parallel the rapture of the spirit-filled saints, which takes place immediately before the Great Tribulation. The building of the ark could parallel the propitiation of Christ Jesus and His office of the High Priest, which will deliver many during the time of the Great Tribulation. ( Strong says that the Hebrew word “pitch” ( ) (H3722) in Gen 6:14 means, “to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, [cover over with] pitch.”) Also, in the Scripture forty days represents a time of tribulation. Thus, the forty days of rain could represent the seven-year Tribulation Period. The one-year that Noah rested in the ark could represent the thousand-year Millennial Reign of Christ on earth (compare Gen 7:11 to Gen 8:13). Noah’s disembarkment from the ark and God’s renewal of His covenant with Noah and the earth could represent our entrance into eternity with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth under a similar renewal of covenant.
The story of Noah’s Flood refers to three dates in the life of Noah. It refers to his age of five hundred (500) years old when he bore his three sons (Gen 5:32), his age of six hundred (600) years old when he entered the ark (Gen 7:11) and his age of six hundred and one (601) years old when he disembarked from the ark (Gen 8:13). and of Jesus’ prophecies in Matthew 24-25 have a time of warning of God’s impending judgment, a time of judgment and the start of a new age. At the age of 500 he was a “preacher of righteous” warning others of God’s coming judgment. At the age of six hundred (600) the judgment of God came upon the earth. At the age of six hundred and one (601) the earth ended one age and entered into a new age for mankind. In a similar way, the disciples asked Jesus in Mat 24:3 three questions regarding warning signs, judgment and restoration. They wanted to know the warning signs of the end of the age, the time when judgment comes and the time when Jesus comes to usher us into a new age.
Many scholars suggest that the statement in Mat 24:34, which says, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled,” means that all of the events that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24-25 will take place within a man’s lifetime. If we find a parallel to this time frame in the story of Noah and the Flood, we know that he was “a preacher of righteousness” for one hundred and twenty (120) years according to Jewish tradition. Thus, it is possible that the signs and events of the end- times will last about one hundred and twenty (120) years and end with the Second Coming of Christ.
When God shut the door to the ark Noah did not know the day and hour that the flood would come. Noah knew the season of the coming of the Flood, but not the exact time. He was just being obedient. In the same way Jesus said, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” (Mat 25:13)
Historical Evidence of the Flood Literally hundreds of accounts of a flood have been documented from every corner of the world. From North, Central and South America, Africa, Europe, the Near East as well as the Far East, historians have discovered some version of a flood in most of these societies. [122]
[122] Howard F. Vos, “Flood (Genesis),” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 316-321; Mark Isaak, Flood Stores from Around the World, c1996-2002 [on-line]; accessed 14 March 2009; available from http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html; Internet.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
4. THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH (CH. 6:9-9:29).
EXPOSITION
Gen 6:9
These are the generations of Noah. “Novi capitis initium = “haec est historia Noachi (Rosenmller; cf. Gen 5:1). Noah (vide Gen 5:29) was a just man. : not of spotless innocence (Knobel); but upright, honest, virtuous, pious (vir probus); from , to be straight, hence to be just; Piel to render just or righteous (Eccl. Lat; justificare), to declare any one just or innocent (Gesenius); better “justified” or declared righteous, being derived from the Piel form of the verb (Furst). “Evidently the righteousness here meant is that which represents him as justified in view of the judgment of the Flood, by reason of his faith, Heb 11:7” (Lange). “To be just is to be right in point of law, and thereby entitled to all the blessings of the acquitted and justified. When applied to the guilty this epithet implies pardon of sin among other benefits of grace” (Murphy). And perfect. : complete, whole (, integer); i.e. perfect in the sense not of sinlessness, but of moral integrity (Gesenius, Calvin). It describes “completeness of parts rather than of degrees in the renewed character” (Bush). “The just is the right in law, the perfect is the tested in holiness” (Murphy). If, however, the term is equivalent to the of the Christian system (1Co 2:6; Heb 7:11), it denotes that complete readjustment of the being of a sinful man to the law of God, both legally and morally, which is effected by the whole work of Christ for man and in man; it is “the establishment of complete, unclouded, and enduring communion with God, and the full realization of a state of peace with him which, founded on a true and ever valid remission of sins, has for its consummation eternal glory” (Delitzsch on Heb 7:11). In his generations. , from , to go in a circle; hence a circuit of years; an age or generation (generatio, seeulum) of men. The clause marks not simply the sphere of Noah’s virtue, among his contemporaries, or only the duration of his piety, throughout his lifetime, but likewise the constancy of his religion, which, when surrounded by the filth of iniquity on every side, contracted no contagion (Calvin). “It is probable, moreover, that he was of pure descent, and in that respect also distinguished from his contemporaries, who were the offspring of promiscuous marriages between the godly and the ungodly” (Murphy). And Noah walked with God. The special form in which his just and perfect character revealed itself amongst his sinful contemporaries. For the import of the phrase see on Gen 5:22. Noah was also a preacher of righteousness (2Pe 2:5), and probably announced to the wicked age in which -he lived the coming of the Flood (Heb 11:7).
Gen 6:10
And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (cf. Gen 5:32). Here (in the story of the Flood) if anywhere, observes Rosenmller, can traces be detected of two distinct documents (duorum monumentorum), in the alternate use of the names of the Deity, the frequent repetitions of the same things, and the use of peculiar forms of expression; and in Gen 6:9-13, compared with Gen 6:5-8, Bleek, Tuch, Colenso, and others find’ the first instance of needless repetition, on the supposition of the unity of the narrative, but a sure index of the Elohistic pen, on the hypothesis of different authors; but the so-called “repetition” is explained by remembering that Gen 6:5-8 forms the close of a section “bringing down the history to the point at which the degeneracy of mankind causes God to resolve on the destruction of the world,” while the new section, which otherwise would begin too abruptly, introduces the account of the Deluge by a brief description of its cause. The structure of the narrative here is not different from what it appears elsewhere (cf. Gen 2:4; Gen 5:1).
Gen 6:11
The earth
(1) its inhabitants, as in Gen 6:11 (cf. Gen 11:1)mankind being denominated earth because wholly earthly (Chrysostom);
(2) the land, which had become defiled through their wickedness (Gen 6:12, Gen 6:13; cf. Psa 107:34)also (literally, and the earth) was corruptin a moral sense, the causes and forms of which corruption have already been detailed in the preceding paragraph. The term is elsewhere applied to idolatry, or the sin of perverting and depraving the worship of God (Exo 32:7; Deu 32:5; Jdg 2:19; 2Ch 27:2); but the special sins of the antediluvians were rather licentiousness and lawlessnessbefore Godi.e. openly, publicly, flagrantly, and presumptuously (cf. Gen 10:9); noting the intensity of their wickedness, or intimating the fact that God had seen their corruption, and so commending the Divine long-suffering (Calvin),and the earth was filled with violence. “The outward exhibition of inward carnality” (Murphy); “injurious and cruel dealing, the violating of duties towards men, ‘rapines or robberies (Chaldee)'” (Ainsworth). Cf. Gen 49:5; Joe 3:19; Oba 1:10.
Gen 6:12
And God looked upon the earth. “God knows at all times what is doing in our world, but his looking upon the earth denotes a special observance of it, as though he had instituted an inquiry into its real condition” (Bush; cf. Psa 14:2; Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14; Psa 80:2, Psa 80:3). And, behold, it was corrupt. “Everything stood in sharpest contradiction with that good state which God the Creator had established” (Delitzsch, quoted by Lange). The nature of this corruption is further indicated. For all flesh, i.e. the human race, who are so characterized here not so much for their frailty (Isa 40:5, Isa 40:6) as for their moral and spiritual degeneracy (Gen 6:3, q.v. )had corruptedskachath (, LXX. ); literally, had destroyed, wrecked, and ruined, wholly subverted and overthrownhis wayderech (from darach, to tread with the feet), a going; hence a journey, a way; e.g.
(1) of living or acting (Pro 12:15; 1Sa 18:1-30 :44)’;
(2) of worshipping God, Act 19:9, Act 19:23 (Psa 139:24; Amo 8:14).
Here it signifies the entire plan and course of life in all its ethical and religious aspects as designed for man by God (cf. Psa 119:9; and contrast “the way of Cain,” Jud 1:11; “the way of Balaam,” 2Pe 2:15)upon the earth.
Gen 6:13
And God said unto Noah, The end. (from Hophal of , to cut off) that which is cut off, the end of a time (Gen 4:3) or of a space (Isa 37:24); specially the end or destruction of a people (Eze 7:2; Amo 8:2), in which sense it is to be here understood (Gesenius, Rosenmller). The rendering which regards ketz as, like the completion, consummation, fullness of a thing (here of human fleshliness or wickedness), and the following clause as epexegetic of the present (Bush), though admissible in respect of Scriptural usage (cf. Jer 51:13; Ecc 12:13; Rom 10:4) and contextual harmony, is scarcely so obvious; while a third, that the end spoken of is the issue to which the moral corruption of the world was inevitably tending (Keil, Lange), does not materially differ from the first. Of all flesh, I.e. of the human race, of course with the exception of Noah and his family, which “teaches us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all, when used in the sense of ordinary conversation” (Murphy). Is come before me. Literally, before my face. Not “a me constitutus est” (Gesenius), “is decreed before my throne” (Kalisch); but, “is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized” (Murphy), with perhaps a glance at the circumstance that man’s ruin had not been sought by God, but, as it were, had thrust itself upon his notice as a thing that could no longer be delayed. If = the similar expression , which, when applied to rumors, signifies to reach the ear (cf. Gen 18:21; Exo 3:9; 1Ki 2:1-46 : 28; Est 9:11), it may likewise indicate the closeness or near approach of the impending calamity. For the earth is filled with violence through them. More correctly, “from their faces; a facie eorum” (Vulgate). That is, “the flood of wickedness which comes up before God’s face goes out from their face” in the sense of being perpetrated openly (Lange), and “by their conscious agency” (Alford). And, behold, I will destroy them. Literally, and behold me destroying them. The verb is the same as is translated “corrupt’ in Gen 6:12, q.v; as if to convey the idea of fitting retribution (cf. 1Co 3:17 : ; Rev 11:18 : ). Whether this destruction which was threatened against the antediluvian sinners ex tended to the loss of their souls throughout eternity may be reasoned (pro and con) from other Scriptures, but cannot be determined from this place, which refers solely to the-extinction of their bodily lives. With the earth. Not from the earth (Samaritan), or on the earth (Syriac, Rosenmller), or even the earth, “thus identifying the earth with its inhabitants” (Bush), but, together with the earth (Kalisch, Keil, Alford; cf. Gen 9:11; , LXX.). The universality of representation which characterizes this section (Gen 6:9-13) is regarded by Davidson, Colenso, and others as contradictory of Gen 6:5, which depicts the corruption as only human, and limits the destruction to the race of man. But as the two accounts belong to different subdivisions of the book, they cannot properly be viewed as contradictory.
Gen 6:14
Make thee an ark. , constr. of , etymology unknown (Gesenius); of Shemitic origin, from , to be hollow (Furst); of Egyptian derivation, a boat being called tept (Keil, Kalisch, Knobel); from the Sanskrit pota, a pot or boat (Bohlen); “a peculiar archaic term for a very unusual thing, like , the term for the Flood itself” (T. Lewis); translated (LXX.), area (Vulgate), (Nicolas Damaseenus), (Berosus); not a ship in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but a box or chest (cf. Exo 2:3) capable of floating on the waters. “Similar vessels, generally, however, drawn by horses or men, were and are still used in some parts of Europe and Asia” (Kalisch). Of gopher wood. Literally, woods of gopher (: .; the root of which, like , seams to signify to cover (Kalisch); ligna bituminata (Vulgate); pitch trees, resinous trees, such as are used in ship-building (Gesenius); most likely cypress, (Bochart, Celsius, Keil), which was used “in some parts of Asia exclusively as the material for ships, in Athens for coffins, and in Egypt for mummy cases” (Kaliseh). “It is said too that the gates of St. Peter’s Church at Rome (made of this wood), which lasted from the time of Constantine to that of Eugene IV; 1. a 1100 years, had in that period suffered no decay” (Bush). Roomskinnim, nests, applied metaphorically to the chambers of the arkshalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. : literally, shalt cover it with a covering. The substance to be employed was probably bitumen or asphalt (, LXX.; bitumen, Vulgate). The root (cf. English, cover) signifies also to pardon sin, i.e. to cover them from God’s sight (Psa 65:3; Psa 78:38; 2Ch 30:18), and to make expiation for sin, i.e. to obtain covering for them (Gen 32:20; Dan 9:24); whence gopher is used for a ransom (Exo 21:30; Exo 30:12), and capporeth, the covering of the ark (Exo 25:17), for the mercy-seat (, LXX.; propitiatorium, Vulgate).
Gen 6:15
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. The shape of it is not described, but only its dimensions given. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,a cubit = the length from the elbow to the middle finger (Deu 3:11); nearly twenty-two inches, if the sacred cubit; if the common, eighteen inches,the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. With a cubit of twenty-one inches, the length would he 525 feet, the breadth 87 feet 6 inches, dimensions not dissimilar to those of the Great Eastern which is 680 feet long, 83 feet broad, and 58 feet deep. The cubic contents of the ark with these dimensions would be 2,411,718’75 feet, which, allowing forty cubic feet per ton, would give a carrying capacity equal to 32,800 tons. P. Jansen of Holland, in 1609, proved by actual experiment that a ship constructed after the pattern of the ark, though not adapted for sailing, would in reality carry a cargo greater by one-third than any other form of like cubical content. The difficulty of building a vessel of such enormous magnitude, T. Lewis thinks, may be got over by remembering the extreme simplicity of its structure, the length of time allowed for its erection, the physical constitution of the builders, and the facilities for obtaining materials which may have existed in abundance in their vicinity. Bishop Wilkins (‘Essay towards a Philosophical Character and Language’), Dr. A. Clarke, and Bush are satisfied that the ark was large enough to contain all the animals directed to be taken into it, along with provision for a twelvemonth; but computations founded on the number of the species presently existing must of necessity be precarious; and besides, it is at least doubtful whether the Deluge was universal, or only partial and local, in which case the difficulty (so called) completely vanishes.
Gen 6:16
A window, from , to shine, hence light (, double light, or light of middayGen 43:16; Jer 6:4). Not the window which Noah afterwards opened to let out the dove, which is called (Gen 8:6), but obviously a lighting apparatus, which may have been a series of windows (Gesenius), scarcely one (Theodotion, ; Symmachus, ; Vulgate, fenestram; Kimchi, Luther, Calvin); or an opening running along the top of the sides of the ark, occupied by some translucent substance, and sheltered by the eaves of the roof (Knobel); or, what appears more probable, a light opening in the upper deck, stretching along the entire length, and continued down through the different stories (Baumgarten, Lange); or, if the roof sloped, as is most likely, an aperture along the ridge, which would admit the clear light of heaven (tsohar), and serve as a meridional line enabling Noah and the inmates of the ark to ascertain the hour of noon (Taylor Lewis). Keil and Murphy think we can form no proper conception of the light arrangement of the ark. The conjecture of Schultens, which is followed by Dathius, Michaelis, Rosenmller, and others, that the tsohar meant the covering (tectum, dorsum), “quo sane hoc aedificium carere non potuit, propter pluviam tot diernm continuam,” is obviously incorrectshalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubitto a cubit, i.e. all but a cubit (T. Lewis); into a cubit, i.e. to the extent of a cubit (Ainsworth); by the cubit, i.e. by a just measure (Kalisch)shalt thou finish itnot the window (Gesenins, Ewald, Tueh), the feminine suffix agreeing with tebah, which is feminine, and not with tsohar, which is masculine; but the arkabove. Literally, from above to above; i.e; according to the above interpretations of the preposition, either the roof, after the construction of the windows, should be regularly finished “by the just measure” (Kalisch); or the roof should be arched but a cubit, that it might be almost flat (Ainsworth); or from the eaves up toward the ridge it should be completed, leaving a cubit open or unfinished (T. Lewis). And the door of the arkthe opening which should admit its inmatesshalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories. The word stories is not in the original, but some such word must be supplied. Lunge thinks that each fiat or story had an entrance or door in the side.
Gen 6:17
And, behold, I, even I. More correctly, “And I, behold, I,” an emphatic assertion that what was coming was a Divine visitation, and not simply a natural occurrence. Do bring. Literally, bringing, the participle standing in place of the finite verb to indicate the certainty of the future action. A flood of waters upon the earth. , pronounced by Bohlen “far-fetched,” “is an archaic word coined expressly for the waters of Noah (Isa 44:9), and is used nowhere else except Psa 29:10 waters upon the earth” (Keil). The first intimation of the means to be employed in inflicting judgment on the morally corrupted world. To destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. The fishes only being excepted, “either
(1) because they did not live in the same element wherein man lived and sinned; or
(2) because they were not so instrumental in man’s sins as the beasts might be; or
(3) because man had a greater command over the beasts than over the fishes, and greater service and benefit from them” (Poole).
Gen 6:18
But with thee will I establish my covenant. (, LXX.; foedue, Vulgate; testamentum, N.T.), from , to cut or carve; hence a covenant, from the custom of passing between the divided pieces of the victims slain on the occasion of making such solemn compacts (cf. Gen 15:9; Gesenius); from , to eat, hence an eating together, a banquet (cf. Gen 31:54; Lee). On the Bible idea of covenant see Gen 15:9. My covenant = the already well-known covenant which I have made with man. And thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son’s wives with thee. This was the substance of the covenant agreement so far as Noah was concerned. The next three verses describe the arrangements about the animals.
Gen 6:19-21
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort (literally, by twos, i.e. in pairs) shalt thou bring intoor cause to enter, i.e. receive them when they come (Gen 6:20)the ark, to keep them aliveliterally, to cause to live; (LXX.); in order to preserve alive (sc. the animals)with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind (literally, of the fowl after its kind), and of cattle after their kind (literally, of the cattle after its kind), of every creeping thing of the earth after its bind, two of every sort shall come unto thee. “Non hominis actu, sed Dei nutu”. Perhaps through an instinctive presentment of the impending calamity (Lange, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee (collecting sufficient for a twelve month‘s sustenance); and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Gen 6:22
Thus did Noah; according to all that God (Elohim; in Gen 7:5 it is Jehovah) commanded (with respect to the building of the ark, the receiving of the animals, the collecting of provisions) him, so did he.
HOMILETICS
Gen 6:9-22
The building of the ark.
I. THE MAN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. A common saying, and one possessed of a show of wisdom, that a person seldom rises far above the average goodness, or sinks far below the average wickedness, of the age in which he lives. Yet it is precisely in proportion as individuals either excel or fall beneath their generation that they are able to affect it for good or evil. All epoch-making men are of this stamp. Noah, it is obvious, was not a man whose character was shaped by his contemporaries. In respect of three things, the contrast between him and them was as great and decided as could well be imagined.
1. Legal standing. Noah was a just man, i.e. a sinner justified by his believing acceptance of the gospel promise of the woman’s seed; while they were corrupt, or bad declined into infidelity.
2. Spiritual character. Noah was perfect in the sense that his heart was right with God, and his nature was renewed by Divine grace; they were wanting in all the essential characteristics of true being, “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them, because of the hardness of their hearts.”
3. Outer walk. As a consequence the daily life of Noah was one of eminent pietya walking with God, like that of Enoch; while theirs was one of impious defiance of the laws of God, and ruthless oppression of the rights of men. Learn
(1) that it is quite possible to be pious in the midst of evil times; and
(2) that only a life of close communion with God will prevent one from being overborne by the wickedness of his age.
II. THE EVENT AND ITS OCCASION. The event was
1. Appalling in its form. The destruction of a world by a flood of waters. “In the beginning,” at God’s command, the goodly fabric had risen from the waters (Gen 1:2; 2Pe 3:5), radiant in beauty, swimming in a sea of light, rejoicing its Creator’s heart (Gen 1:31); now it was about to return to the dark and formless matrix whence it sprang. If the world’s birth woke music among the morning stars (Job 38:7), surely its destruction was enough to make the angels weep!
2. Universal in its sweep. Without engaging at present in any controversy as to the actual extent of the Deluge, we may notice that Elohim represents it as destructive of the entire human race (Noah and his family excepted). Considering the impression made upon our hearts by the report of some sudden accident (the explosion of a mine, the sinking of a ship, the collision of a train), in which a number of lives are lost, it is not wonderful that the echo of this stupendous catastrophe should have vibrated through the world (see ‘Traditions of the Deluge’).
3. Supernatural in its origin. It was not an ordinary occurrence, but a distinctly miraculous phenomenon. “Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth.”
4. Punitive in its purpose. Its retributive character was distinctly implied in the form of its announcement”I will destroy.” All temporal calamities are not of this description. That all suffering is penal was the mistake of Job’s friends (Job 4:7, et passim), though not of Job himself, and certainly it is not the teaching of the Bible (cf. Job 33:29; Psa 94:12; Rom 8:28; 2Co 4:17). But this was
5. Melancholy in its occasionthe total, absolute, and radical corruption of the earth’s inhabitants. Through unbelief and disobedience they had ruined the moral nature which God had given them; and now there was no help for it but that they should be swept away.
6. Inevitable in its coming. Implied in one interpretation of the words “the end of all flesh” (vide Expos.). Sin ever carries its own retribution in its bosom; not merely, however, in recoiling upon itself with inward misery, sense of loss, weakness, depravation; but likewise in necessitating the infliction on the part of Elohim of positive retribution.
7. Near in its approach. “Behold, I am bringing I” as if it were already at hand. See here
(1) the danger of sin;
(2) the certainty of retribution;
(3) the righteousness of the wrath of God;
(4) the mercy of God in making this known to sinners, as he foretold the Flood to the antediluvians.
III. THE COMMISSION AND ITS EXECUTION.
1. It related to the safety of the Church (verse 18). At that time the antediluvian Church was small, consisting only of Noah and his family (Gen 7:1), and in all probability uninfluential and despised, by the Gibborim and Nephilim of the day ridiculed and oppressed. Endangered by the immorality and violence of the times, it was likewise imperiled by the impending Deluge. Yet God never leaves his people unprotected or unprovided for (Deu 33:12; Psa 34:15; Psa 46:5; Zec 2:5; 2Pe 2:9). The Church of God and Christ is imperishable (Isa 54:17; Mat 16:18; Mat 18:14). That was symbolized to Israel by the burning bush (Exo 3:2), and to all postdiluvian time by the ark. It was impossible that God could be unconcerned about the safety of the believing remnant in antediluvian times. The commission which came to Noah concerned the rescue of himself and children.
2. It was Divinely given (verses 13, 14). Salvation is of the Lord (Psa 3:8; Jon 2:9). Manifestly only God could have provided for the safety of Noah and his family. Directions from any other quarter, or even expedients devised by himself, must have proved both futile and presumptuous. So, whatever instructions may be given to man with a view to salvation must come from God, if they are to be successful. Schemes of redemption may be beautiful, ingenious, attractive, hopeful; if they are not God’s schemes they are worthless (Isa 43:11; Hos 13:4).
3. It was minutely detailed (verses 14-16). The plan which God proposed to Noah for the salvation of himself and house was building of an ark according to Divinely-prepared specifications. In its construction there was no room left for the exercise of inventive genius. Like the tabernacle in the wilderness, it was fashioned according to a God-given pattern. And so, in all that concerns the salvation of sinful men, from first to last the plan is God’s, admitting neither of addition nor subtraction, correction nor improvement, at the hands of the men themselves.
4. It was believingly received (Heb 11:7). Perhaps the last device that would ever have suggested itself to the mind of Noah, very likely ridiculed by his contemporaries as an act of folly, probably at times regarded with considerable misgivings by the patriarch himself, and certainly an undertaking that would involve immense labor, patient endurance, heroic self-sacrifice, it was yet accepted in a spirit of meek and unquestioning faith. And so should it be with us. When God speaks we should hear. When he directs we should obey.
5. It was obediently carried through (verse 22). This was the best test of his faith. Where obedience is absent, faith is not present. Faith always discovers its existence by obedience (Heb 11:8). Learn
(1) God’s care of his people.
(2) The sufficiency of God’s plan of salvation.
(3) The wisdom of implicitly following God’s directions.
Gen 6:22
The obedience of Noah.
I. Pious in its PRINCIPLE.
II. PROMPT in its OPERATION.
III. LABORIOUS in its EXERCISE.
IV. UNIVERSAL in its EXTENT.
V. PERSEVERING in its COURSE.
VI. SUCCESSFUL in its END.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 6:9-22
Righteousness and peace.
The description of Noah is very similar to that of Enoch, just and perfect in his generation, that is, blameless in his walk before men, which is saying much of one who lived in a time of universal corruption. And he walked with God, i.e. devout and religious, and, from the analogy of the preceding use of the words, we may say, a prophet. He preached righteousness both with lip and life. To this good and great prophet the announcement is made of the coming judgment. “The secret Of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.” The earth is filled with violence through men, and therefore with man must be destroyed. With the message of judgment there is also the message of mercy, as at the first.
THE ARK, AN EMBLEM OF SALVATION BY GRACE, AS AFTERWARDS (cf. 1Pe 3:19-22). The offer of salvation was a trial of faith. God did not himself provide the ark; it was made by the hands of men, of earthly materials, with ordinary earthly measurements and appointments, and prepared as for an ordinary occasion. There was nothing in the visible ark to stumble faith; but, as it was connected with a positive commandment and prophecy, it was a demand on the simple faith of the true child of God, which is of the nature of obedience. We cannot doubt that this Divine message to Noah was the Bible of that time. It appealed to faith as the word of God. And, as in all times, with the written or spoken word there was the unwritten law, the lex non scripta; for we are told that “Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” In this primitive dispensation notice these things:
1. The righteousness of God is the foundation.
2. The accordance of the world with God’s heart, as at once commanding righteousness and hating violence, is the condition of its preservation.
3. The mercy of God is connected with his special revelations in and by the men who have found grace in his sight.
4. The provisions of redemption are embodied in an ark, which is the symbol of Divine ordinances and the associated life of believers.
5. The salvation of man is the real end and aim of all judgments.
6. With the redeemed human race there is a redeemed earthcreatures kept alive in the ark to commence, with the family of God, a new life.
7. While we must not push the symbology of the Flood too far, still it is impossible to overlook the figure which the Apostle Peter saw in the ark floating on the watersthe Church of Christ as washed by the Holy Ghost in those waters, which represent not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.R.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 6:14
The way of safety.
Prediction of deluge and way of escape were alike trials of faith; beyond reach of foresight; rejected or neglected by the world. Key to the typical meaning, 1Pe 3:20, 1Pe 3:21. Baptism the initial seal of the Christian covenant. Text therefore sets forth salvation through Christ.
I. “Make thee an ark.” Why? BECAUSE SENTENCE OF DEATH RESTS UPON ALL MEN (Rom 5:12). As in the destruction of first-born (Exo 11:5). No exceptions. Covenant people saved only by the blood; so here (cf. Job 9:30). Men, even now, are slow to believe this. Maxims of society contradict it. From childhood trained to live as if no danger, as if many things more important than salvation. And when preacher proclaims (Act 2:40), men listen and approve and go on as before. Yet this is the first step towards salvation, the first work of the Holy Spiritto convince careless (Mat 16:26) and well-living people that they cannot save themselves. Until this is done Christ has no attractiveness (Isa 53:2). Who would shut himself up in the ark if no deluge coming? Who would trust it if another way would afford safety?
II. “Make thee an ark.” IT IS GOD‘S APPOINTED WAY OF SAFETY. “The Lord hath made known his salvation.” As surely as the deluge is according to his word, so surely is the way of deliverance (Rom 5:20). But mark the way. Can you trust that which seems so frail? At the root of sin lies unbelief of God’s truth. This caused the fall. God says, Will you trust me? One will say, I live a good life; is not that the main thing? (cf. 1Co 3:11). Another, I pray that God would love me, and be reconciled to me. Does he not love thee? (Tit 3:4). Is he not longing for thee? (Isa 1:18). And is not this unbelief of what God says? Thou needest indeed to pray that the Holy Spirit should open thine eyes to what God has done. But that thy prayer may be answered there must be the will to be taught (Psa 85:8).
III. “Make thee an ark.” THE TEST OF FAITH. There is a faith which does nothing, which merely- accepts a doctrine. Such was not that of Noah. His life’s work was to act on what he believed. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ, the personal, living, loving Savior; not merely the doctrine that he died and rose again. “Make thee an ark” is more than knowledge that he is the Deliverer. It is taking refuge in him, and walking in his steps.M.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 6:9. He walked with God See ch. Gen 5:22. lived as if ever in his sight, and consequently in the most exact discharge of all duties to the Lord; both in a private manner, and as a prophet, or preacher of righteousness.
Observe in this character of Noah, 1. He walked with God when all beside were walking in their own ways; he dared to be eminently singular, and to profess it too. It is a blessed proof of a heart right with God, when in evil days a man dare openly avow himself on the Lord’s side. 2. He was a despised preacher in a careless world; but the favour of God amply repaid him, and made him more highly honourable than the giants of renown. I had rather find favour in the eyes of the Lord, than be regarded by an admiring world; and have my name written in the Lamb’s book of life, than emblazoned in the annals of fame among the mightiest heroes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
THIRD PART
THE GENESIS OF THE WORLDs JUDGMENT AND OF THE WORLDs RENEWING BY MEANS OF THE FLOOD. THE FLOOD AND THE DROWNED RACE. THE ARK AND THE SAVED HUMANITY. (THE ARK AS A TYPE OF THE PIOUS FAMILY, OF THE PIOUS STATE, AND OF THE CHURCH). (Gen 6:9 to Gen 8:19.)
FIRST SECTION
The Calling of Noah. The Ark
Gen 6:9 to Gen 7:9
9These are the generations [tholedoth] of Noah; Noah was a just8 man and perfect in his generations [in his times], and Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11The earth also was corrupt9 before God [in relation to God], and the earth was filled with violence [in relation to men]. 12And God looked10 upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted3 his way [walk or conduct] upon the earth. 13And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh11 is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through4 them [before them]; and behold I will destroy4 them with the earth. 14Make thee an ark of gopher-wood [cypressa resinous wood12]; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of; the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, 16the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window [a sky-light] shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above [downwardnot above on the side, but from the top surface downwards through the different stories]; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second and third stories shalt thou make it. 17And behold I, even I, do bring a flood13 of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherever is the breath of life under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die [expire-yield the breath]: 18But with thee will I establish my covenant14; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons wives with thee. 19And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 21And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee [for a store], and it shall be for food for thee and for them. 22Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him.
See Gen 7:1 ff for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL, HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL, and EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Footnotes:
[8][Gen 6:9., primary sense, fidelity, truthfulness. , primary sense, soundness, integrity. That the terms are comparative is shown by the qualifying word that follows, , in his generations. The language gives no countenance to the opinion of Knobel, that Noah is represented as a man of spotless innocence, and that the author of this account knew nothing of any fall. So the Jewish interpreters take it, some of whom, as Rashi and Maimonides both tell us, go so far as to say that he would not have been so called in comparison with Abraham. : see remarks on this phrase as used in the account of Enoch.T. L.]
[9][Gen 6:11., primary sense, depression, sinking down. Hence, corruption, destruction.T. L.].
[10][Gen 6:12.. And God saw the earthlooked at the earth, and lo. Some would render: saw that the earth was; but the other mode is the more literal, as well as the more expressive. It may be called anthropopathic, as expressing something like surprise, but it is all the more striking on that very account. Had corrupted its way. . This may be taken physically as well as morally. , its way, its mode of life. Men were becoming monsters, sinking down into brutalitybecoming dehumanized through lust and cruelty, , all flesh. Dr. Murphy well remarks, that this, should teach us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all when thus used; since the mention of the whole race does not preclude the exception of Noah and his family. Commentary on Gen. p. 210.T. L.]
[11][Gen 6:13. . The end of all flesh is come up, , before me (to my face). Or it may be rendered in the present, comes up before me, giving it more the sense of a prediction (or an event seen to be inevitable unless prevented soon) than of a threatened judgment. The language is remarkably graphic; as though the events of time, as it moves on, or the roll unfolds itself, come up before the immovable, unchanging God, and the last periods of a long series were drawing nigh in their development. In this view, of Gen 6:13 would be taken in its universality. Through human wickedness and corruption there will be an end of man (of the whole human race without exception) unless means are taken for the preservation of a sound humanity, in the destruction of these who are becoming dehumanized. , another most graphic expressionfilled with violence before the face of them. Wherever they spread, violence and corruption goes with them, and before them. Compare the description of Leviathan, Job 41:14, , terror moves swiftly before him. Lo, I am destroying them (with) the earth . Another view takes as in apposition with the preceding pronoun, and as explanatory of it. It sounds harsh in rendering, but is somewhat favored grammatically by the fact that , where it is occasionally to be rendered with, always denotes the closest and most essential union, and, on this ground, it is that it comes to denote the nearest and most direct object of the verbwill destroy them, the very earth, as the means of their destruction. Other renderings are, upon the earth ( for ), with reference to 1Ki 9:25; Psa 67:2; and from the earth ( for ), 2Ki 23:35; but the examples cited for these fail to bear out the interpretation. See Rosenmller. It may be offered as a conjecture entitled to some attention, that the Hiphil participle may have the permissive sense which sometimes belongs to it (see Deu 2:28; Gen 24:17; Gen 25:30; Isa 63:15 et al.; Glassii Phil., p. 836), instead of the causative, and then it would be a case of double government: And lo I am suffering them to corrupt the earth; in which case would have its usual sense of the direct object, and there would be no need of the sudden change in from the sense of corrupting to that of destroying, although they are nearly allied; as though it were a reason for the interposition instead of a threatening of it. Lo I am letting them ruin the earth, if they are permitted thus to have their way. The interpretations generally are against this, but it may be grammatically supported, and has some grounds in the context as giving the merciful and remedial aspect of the passage the predominance over the retributive. It may at least be offered as a conjecture. The of Gen 6:12 seems to be against it, but even that may be rendered, all flesh is letting its way become corrupt upon earth.T. L.]
[12][Gen 6:14. , Rendered gopher-wood. The word occurs but once in the Scriptures. It is, however, etymologically the same with the Greek (cypress, the same radical consonants, g p rk p r), and may also be regarded as related to the Latin juniperus (g (n) p r). It may denote any resinous wood which is at the same time light and firm.T.L.].
[13][Gen 6:17.: used only of the Great Deluge, except Psa 29:10, where it comes in as a hyperbole in the description of a great storm and inundation. Lange, Gesenius, and others, derive it from , to which they give the sense fluxit, though it occurs only in some noun derivatives, the Hiphil sense being remotely secondary. The sense of flowing, however, in , if it has it at all, is quite different from the conception we have of the deluge. It is the flowing of streams, rivers, rivulets, as seen in the derivative , flumen, rivus. Aben Ezra gives us the views of the older Jewish grammarians. One class of these make it from , comparing it with Isa 24:4, , in mourning and desolate is the earth,giving to the sense of ruin and wasteness. This accounts for the dagesh in . It is dagesh compensative, they say, for the swallowed , or for , just as (from ) for . It is certainly much easier, etymologically, to account for it in this way, than by making it from , which would rather give the form . Others make it from confundit, and regard it as equal to , the dagesh arising from the swallowing, as the Jewish grammarians call it, of the first following. They compare it, in its full form, to from , Isa 35:8, or , Psa 58:9. Either of these conceptions of ruin, desolation, and confusion, suits better with the idea of the great catastrophe than simply that of flowing, especially regarded as the flowing of a river. And then, according to these acute authorities, we have a reason for the addition of , the mabbul of waters, which would be a mere tautology, and, in this case, a feeble tautology, if the word simply meant flowing. It was a wasteness, a ruin, a desolation, a confusion, or mingling together of all things (), by means of waters. Hence the special descriptive term used only of this great event, and intended to show that it was sui generis, so that it comes to be used like a proper name.T. L.]
[14][Gen 6:18.. Lange makes it from , a root not found; and the metathesis from is harsh and unexampled. The Jewish grammarians and lexicographers make it from = , primary sense, to cut, referring to the severance of the victim in sacrifice on the making of a covenant. See Psa 1:5, who have made (cut) a covenant (with me) by sacrifice. Further on this word and idea, see Exegetical and Notes.T. L.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Is not a just man, in scripture language, a justified man, in the righteousness of God our Saviour? And is not this what is meant, in that expression concerning Noah, where it is said, that he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith? Heb 11:7 ; Rom 3:19-26 . Perhaps that scripture, Ecc 7:20 , cannot be explained upon any other terms. But, considered in this point of view, then all those scriptures are plain, Luk 1:6 ; Hab 2:4 ; 2Co 1:12 ; Psa 15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 6:9 These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.
Ver. 9. Noah was a just man. ] By a twofold justice: 1. imputed; 2. imparted. By the former he was justified; by the latter, sanctified: and note, that he found grace in God’s eyes, before he was either of these; for grace is the foundation of all our felicity, and comprehends all blessings, as manna is said to have done all good tastes,
Perfect in his generation.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Genesis
THE SAINT AMONG SINNERS
Gen 6:9 – Gen 6:22
1. Notice here, first, the solitary saint. Noah stands alone ‘in his generations’ like some single tree, green and erect, in a forest of blasted and fallen pines. ‘Among the faithless, faithful only he.’ His character is described, so to speak, from the outside inwards. He is ‘righteous,’ or discharging all the obligations of law and of his various relationships. He is ‘perfect.’ His whole nature is developed, and all in due symmetry and proportion; no beauty wanting, no grace cultivated at the expense of others. He is a full man; not a one-sided and therefore a distorted one. Of course we do not take these words to imply sinlessness. They express a relative, not an absolute, completeness. Hence we may learn both a lesson of stimulus and of hope. We are not to rest satisfied with partial goodness, but to seek to attain an all-round perfectness, even in regard to the graces least natural to our dispositions. And we can rejoice to believe that God is generous in His acceptance and praise. He does not grudge commendation, but takes account of the deepest desires and main tendencies of a life, and sees the germ as a full-blown flower, and the bud as a fruit.
Learn, too, that solitary goodness is possible. Noah stood uninfected by the universal contagion; and, as is always the case, the evil around, which he did not share, drove him to a more rigid abstinence from it. A Christian who is alone ‘in his generations,’ like a lily among nettles, has to be, and usually is, a more earnest Christian than if he were among like-minded men. The saints in ‘Caesar’s household’ needed to be very unmistakable saints, if they were not to be swept away by the torrent of godlessness. It is hard, but it is possible, for a boy at school, or a young man in an office, or a soldier in a barrack, to stand alone, and be Christlike; but only on condition that he yields to no temptation to drop his conduct to the level around him, and is never guilty of compromise. Once yield, and all is over. Flowers grow on a dunghill, and the very reeking rottenness may make the bloom finer.
Learn, too, that the true place for the saint is ‘in his generations.’ If the mass is corrupt, so much the more need to rub the salt well in. Disgust and cowardice, and the love of congenial society, keep Christian people from mixing with the world, which they must do if they are to do Christ’s work in it. There is a great deal too much union with the world, and a great deal too much separation from it, nowadays, and both are of the wrong sort. We cannot keep too far away from it, by abstinence from living by its maxims, and tampering with its pleasures. We cannot mix too much with it if we take our Christianity with us, and remember our vocation to be its light.
Notice, again, the companion of the solitary saint. What beauty there is in that description of the isolated man, passing lonely amid his contemporaries, like a stream of pure water flowing through some foul liquid, and untouched by it, and yet not alone in his loneliness, because ‘he walked with God!’ The less he found congenial companionship on earth, the more he realised God as by his side. The remarkable phrase, used only of Enoch and of Noah, implies a closer relation than the other expression, ‘To walk before God.’ Communion, the habitual occupation of mind and heart with God, the happy sense of His presence making every wilderness and solitary place glad because of Him. the child’s clasping the father’s hand with his tiny fingers, and so being held up and lifted over many a rough place, are all implied. Are we lonely in outward reality? Here is our unfailing companion. Have we to stand single among companions, who laugh at us and our religion? One man, with God to back him, is always in the majority. Though surrounded by friends, have we found that, after all, we live and suffer, and must die alone? Here is the all-sufficient Friend, if we have fellowship with whom our hearts will be lonely no more.
Observe that this communion is the foundation of all righteousness in conduct. Because Noah walked with God, he was ‘just’ and ‘perfect.’ If we live habitually in the holy of holies, our faces will shine when we come forth. If we desire to be good and pure, we must dwell with God, and His Spirit will pass into our hearts, and we shall bear the fragrance of his presence wherever we go. Learn, also, that communion with God is not possible unless we are fighting against our sin, and have some measure of holiness. We begin communion with Him, indeed, not by holiness, but by faith. But it is not kept up without the cultivation of purity. Sin makes fellowship with God impossible. ‘Can two walk together, except they be agreed?’ ‘What communion hath light with darkness?’ The delicate bond which unites us in happy communion with God shrivels up, as if scorched, at the touch of sin. ‘If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie.’
2. Notice the universal apostasy. Two points are brought out in the sombre description. The first is moral corruption; the second, violence. Bad men are cruel men. When the bonds which knit society to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others’ rights. Sin saps the very foundations of social life, and makes men into tigers, more destructive to each other than wild beasts. All our grand modern schemes for the reformation of society will fail unless they begin with the reformation of the individual. To walk with God is the true way to make men gentle and pitying.
Learn from this dark outline that God gazes in silence on the evil. That is a grand, solemn expression, ‘Corrupt before God.’ All this mad riot of pollution and violence is holding its carnival of lust and blood under the very eye of God, and He says never a word. So is it ever. Like some band of conspirators in a dark corner, bad men do deeds of darkness, and fancy they are unseen, and that God forgets them , because they forget God; and all the while His eye is fixed on them, and the darkness is light about them. Then comes a further expression of the same thought: ‘God looked upon the earth.’ As a sudden beam of sunshine out of a thunder-cloud, His eye flashes down, not as if He then began to know, but that His knowledge then began, as it were, to act.
3. What does the stern sentence on the rotten world teach us? A very profound truth, not only of the certain divine retribution, but of the indissoluble connection of sin with destruction. The same word is thrice employed in Gen 6:11 – Gen 6:12 to express ‘corruption’ and in Gen 6:13 to express ‘destruction.’ A similar usage is found in 1Co 3:17 , where the same Greek word is translated ‘defile’ and ‘destroy.’ This teaches us that, in deepest reality, corruption is destruction, that sin is death, that every sinner is a suicide. God’s act in punishment corresponds to, and is the inevitable outcome of, our act in transgression. So fatal is all evil, that one word serves to describe both the poison-secreting root and the poisoned fruit. Sin is death in the making; death is sin finished.
The promise of deliverance, which comes side by side with the stern sentence, illustrates the blessed truth that God’s darkest threatenings are accompanied with a revelation of the way of escape. The ark is always shown along with the flood. Zoar is pointed out when God foretells Sodom’s ruin. We are no sooner warned of the penalties of sin, than we are bid to hear the message of mercy in Christ. The brazen serpent is ever reared where the venomous snakes bite and burn.
4. We pass by the details of the construction of the ark to draw the final lesson from the exact obedience of Noah. We have the statement twice over, He did ‘according to all that God commanded him.’ It was no easy thing for him to build the ark, amidst the scoffing of his generations. Smart witticisms fell around him like hail. All the ‘practical men’ thought him a dreamy fool, wasting his time, while they prospered and made something of life. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us the secret of his obedience: ‘By faith, Noah,’ etc. He realised the distant unseen, because he believed Him who warned him of it. The immediate object of his faith was ‘the things not seen as yet’; but the real, deepest object was God, whose word showed him these. So faith is always trust in a divine Person, whether it lays hold of the past sacrifice, the present indwelling Spirit, or the future heaven.
Noah’s example teaches us the practical effects of faith. ‘Moved with godly fear,’ says Hebrews; by which is meant, not a mere dread of personal evil, for Noah was assured of safety-but that godly reverence and happy fear which dwells with faith, and secures precise obedience. Learn that a faith which does not work on the feelings is a very poor thing. Some Christian people have a great horror of emotional religion. Unemotional religion is a great deal worse. The road by which faith gets at the hands is through the heart. And he who believes but feels nothing, will do exactly as much as he feels, and probably does not really believe much more.
So after Noah’s emotion followed his action. He was bid to prepare his ark, we have only to take refuge in the ark which God has prepared in Christ; but the principle of Noah’s obedience applies to us all. He realised so perfectly that future, with its double prospect of destruction and deliverance, that his whole life was moulded by the conduct which should lead to his escape. The far-off flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him. Therefore he could stand all the gibes, and gave himself to a course of life which was sheer folly unless that future was real. Perhaps a hundred and twenty years passed between the warning and the flood; and for all that time he held on his way, nor faltered in his faith. Does our faith realise that which lies before us with anything like similar clearness? Do we see that future shining through all the trivial, fleeting present? Does it possess weight and solidity enough to shape our lives? Noah’s creed was much shorter than ours; but I fear his faith was as much stronger.
5. We may think, finally, of the vindication of his faith. For a hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the ‘common-sense’ people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and pitching at his ark. But one morning it began to rain; and by degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool. The jests would look rather different when the water was up to the knees of the jesters; and their sarcasms would stick in their throats as they drowned. So is it always. So it will be at the last great day. The men who lived for the future, by faith in Christ, will be found out to have been the wise men when the future has become the present, and the present has become the past, and is gone for ever; while they who had no aims beyond the things of time, which are now sunk beneath the dreary horizon, will awake too late to the conviction that they are outside the ark of safety, and that their truest epitaph is ‘Thou fool!’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 6:9-10
9These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen 6:9 Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time These two descriptive words are very significant. The first one implies that Noah conformed to the standard of his understanding about the will of God. The second (BDB 1070) implies that he has a complete heart toward the LORD (e.g. Gen 17:1; Psa 18:23). The second term is later used for unblemished sacrifices. These two terms do not imply Noah’s sinlessness, as Gen 9:21 shows. See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: RIGHTEOUSNESS
Noah walked with God This (BDB 229, KB 246, Hithpael PERFECT)is a very similar phrase to Gen 5:21-24 (Hithpael IMPERFECT) where the phrase is used of Enoch.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the generations. Hebrew. toledoth = family history. man = Hebrew. ‘ish. See App-14.
perfect. Hebrew. tamin, without blemish as to breed or pedigree. See App-26. All flesh corrupted but Noah’s family. See verses: Gen 6:11, Gen 6:12.
his generations: his contemporaries. Hebrew. dor (not toledoth, as at beginning of the verse). See note on Gen 7:1.
walked. Same as Gen 5:22, Gen 5:24. Hebrew = walked habitually.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Noah Builds the Ark
Gen 6:9-22
Human sin had reached an awful climax. Sooner or later its results must have swept the human race from the earth, as smallpox will slay every native on some infected island. God only hastened by the Flood the inevitable result of wrong-doing. Amid the universal corruption and violence, one man stood out as precious in the sight of God. His name meant Rest; he was righteous toward man and blameless toward God; he walked in fellowship with God; His ear was quick to detect, and His hand deft to fulfill the divine will. By faith Noah. See Heb 11:7. Such is the character to which God reveals His secrets and with which He enters into covenant. If we live thus we shall cross the flood of death into the resurrection life, 2Pe 2:5. Not only shall we be saved, but we shall save others.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
IV. THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH
CHAPTER 6:9-22
Before the Flood
1. Noah walked with God (Gen 6:9-10)
2. The earth filled with violence (Gen 6:11-13)
3. The building of the ark commanded (Gen 6:14-21)
4. Noahs obedience (Gen 6:22)
It was grace which constituted Noah just and enabled him to walk with God. Heb 11:7 gives a full definition of Noahs faith. Seven things are shown concerning Noah:
Warned of God — The ground of faith Things not seen — The realm of faith He feared — The exercise of faith Prepared an ark — The work of faith Saved His house — The results of faith Condemned the world — The testimony of faith Heir of righteousness — The reward of faith
The ark is a type of Christ. The word gopher means atonement, and the word pitch, meaning the same, is translated more than seventy times in the Bible by to make atonement.
The ark had a window above–looking towards Heaven and not upon the earth and its judgment beneath. It had one door and only one in the side. All blessedly applicable to Christ and salvation. The deluge which came, flood of waters, covering all, so that the end of all flesh came, is a type of the death of Christ. In His death judgment was passed and executed upon all flesh. The waves and billows rolled over His innocent head. He passed through death and judgment for us and has made Himself our perfect ark, our hiding place. In Him we are lifted above the judgment waters.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
walked
Noah and Enoch are the two antediluvians of whom it is said that they “walked with God” Gen 5:24; Gen 6:9. Enoch, “translated that he should not see death” Heb 11:5 becomes a type of the saints who will be “caught up” before the great tribulation; 1Th 4:14-17; Rev 3:10; Dan 12:1; Mat 24:21. Noah, preserved through the Flood, is a type of the Israelitish people who will be preserved through the tribulation Jer 30:5-9. See “Tribulation”; Psa 2:5; Rev 7:14.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
These: Gen 2:4, Gen 5:1, Gen 10:1
just: Gen 7:1, Job 12:4, Pro 4:18, Ecc 7:20, Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20, Hab 2:4, Luk 2:25, Luk 23:50, Act 10:22, Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 11:7, 2Pe 2:5
perfect: or, upright, 2Ch 15:17, 2Ch 25:2, Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Psa 37:37, Luk 1:6, Phi 3:9-15
and Noah: Gen 5:22, Gen 5:24, Gen 17:1, Gen 48:15, 1Ki 3:6, Luk 1:6, 1Pe 2:5
Reciprocal: Gen 5:29 – he called Gen 9:21 – and was Gen 24:40 – before Gen 25:27 – a plain man Gen 37:2 – the generations Lev 26:12 – I will Deu 18:13 – Thou shalt 2Sa 22:24 – upright 1Ch 1:4 – Noah Job 2:3 – Hast thou Isa 38:3 – I have Amo 3:3 – General Mal 2:6 – he walked Mat 1:19 – a just Mat 19:21 – If
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
T
HE ARK AND ITS CONTENTS
Notice the phrase the generations of and recall the instruction about it in lesson 2. When Noah is spoken of as just and perfect, that relative sense is used in which any man is just and perfect before God who believes His testimony and conforms his life to it. It is in this sense that every true believer on Jesus Christ is just and perfect. What two charges does God make against the earth (Gen 6:12-13)? What is Noah commanded (Gen 6:14)? The measurement of the cubit is uncertain, the ordinary length being 18 inches, the sacred cubit twice that length, and the geometric, which some think may be meant, six times the common cubit. At the lowest calculation the ark was as large as some of our ocean liners. Notice covenant (Gen 6:18), and connect it with the original promise of Gen 3:15. Why was Noah to take two of every living thing into the ark (Gen 6:19-20)? What else was he to take (Gen 6:21)? Mention is made of the sevens of clean beasts (Gen 7:2), doubtless for the purpose of sacrifice in the ark and after departing from it. If inquiry be raised as to how so many animals could be accommodated in such a space, it is to be remembered
(1)that the ark in all its three stories contained probably one hundred thousand square feet of space; perhaps the animals were not the totality of all the animals known in all the world, but those known to Noah; and
(2)that the distinct species of beasts and birds even in our own day have been calculated as not more than three hundred.
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Gen 6:9. Noah was a just man Justified before God by faith in the promised Seed; for he was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, Heb 11:7. He was sanctified, and had right principles and dispositions implanted in him; and he was righteous in his conversation, one that made conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due, and to men theirs. And he walked with God, as Enoch had done before him: in his generation Even in that corrupt, degenerate age. It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith to swim against the stream, and to appear for God when no one else appears for him: so Noah did, and it is upon record to his immortal honour.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
D. What became of Noah 6:9-9:29
The Lord destroyed the corrupt, violent human race and deluged its world, but He used righteous Noah to preserve life and establish a new world after the Flood.
"Noah’s experience presents decisively the author’s assertion that the Lord judges human sin but provides a means for perpetuating the creation blessing (Gen 1:26-28) and the salvation hope for an elect seed (Gen 3:15). The recurring theme of blessing, threatened by sin but preserved by divine mercy, is found in the two narratives that make up the Noah toledot: the flood story (Gen 6:9 to Gen 9:17) and the account of the patriarch’s drunkenness (Gen 9:20-27). The former is worldwide in scope, and the latter is its microcosm. A genealogical note binds the two (Gen 9:18-19), and another concludes it (Gen 9:28-29). . . .
"Also Noah’s toledot contributes to the broader concerns of early Genesis by preparing the reader for the postdiluvian world. This ’new world’ is the setting for understanding the perpetuation of the ’blessing’ by the patriarchs (Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26), which is the main deliberation of Genesis." [Note: Mathews, pp. 349-50.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The Flood 6:9-8:22
The chiastic (palistrophic, crossing) structure of this section shows that Moses intended to emphasize God’s grace to Noah, which occupies the central part of the story.
"One mark of the coherence of the flood narrative is to be found in its literary structure. The tale is cast in the form of an extended palistrophe, that is a structure that turns back on itself. In a palistrophe the first item matches the final item, the second item matches the penultimate item, and so on. The second half of the story is thus a mirror image of the first. This kind of literary structure has been discovered in other parts of Genesis, but nowhere else is it developed on such a large scale. This may be partly due to the fact that a flood narrative is peculiarly suited to this literary form. . . .
"Particularly striking are the references to days (lines H, I, L, O). (Only the references to days form part of the palistrophe; the 40 days and nights [vii 4, 12] and the dates do not.) The periods of time form a symmetrical pattern, 7, 7, 40, 150, 150, 40, 7, 7. The turning point of the narrative is found in viii:1 ’God remembered Noah.’
"What then is the function of the palistrophe? Firstly, it gives literary expression to the character of the flood event. The rise and fall of the waters is mirrored in the rise and fall of the key words in its description. Secondly, it draws attention to the real turning point in the saga: viii 1, ’And God remembered Noah.’ From that moment the waters start to decline and the earth to dry out. It was God’s intervention that was decisive in saving Noah, and the literary structure highlights this fact." [Note: Gordon J. Wenham, "The Coherence of the Flood Narrative," Vetus Testamentum 28:3 (1978):337, 339-40. See also idem, Genesis 1-15, pp. 155-58. There is a helpful chart of the chronology of the Flood in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 39.]
The following diagram illustrates this palistrophe (chiasm) simply.
"Introduction: Noah’s righteousness and Noah’s sons (Gen 6:9-10).
A God resolves to destroy the corrupt race (Gen 6:11-13).
B Noah builds an ark according to God’s instructions (Gen 6:14-22).
C The Lord commands the remnant to enter the ark (Gen 7:1-9).
D The flood begins (Gen 7:10-16).
E The flood prevails 150 days and the water covers the mountains (Gen 7:17-24).
F God remembers Noah (Gen 8:1 a).
E’ The flood recedes 150 days, and the mountains are visible (Gen 8:1-5).
D’ The earth dries (Gen 8:6-14).
C’ God commands the remnant to leave the ark (Gen 8:15-19).
B’ Noah builds an altar (Gen 8:20).
A’ The Lord resolves not to destroy humankind (Gen 8:21-22)." [Note: Ross, Creation and . . ., p. 191. See also the charts in Mathews, p. 354; and Waltke, Genesis, p. 125.]
Conditions and events before the Flood 6:9-7:10
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This is the first time the important words "righteous" and "blameless" appear in the Bible.
"The same explanation for Enoch’s rescue from death (’he walked with God’) is made the basis for Noah’s rescue from death in the Flood: ’he walked with God’ (Gen 6:9). Thus in the story of Noah and the Flood, the author is able to repeat the lesson of Enoch: life comes through ’walking with God.’" [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 119.]
"Noah is depicted as Adam redivivus (revived). He is the sole survivor and successor to Adam; both ’walk’ with God; both are the recipients of the promissory blessing; both are caretakers of the lower creatures; both father three sons; both are workers of the soil; both sin through the fruit of a tree; and both father a wicked son who is under a curse." [Note: Mathews, p. 351, cf. p. 359. See Waltke, Genesis, pp. 127-30; and Warren Gage, The Gospel of Genesis, pp. 9-15, for striking parallels between Adam and Noah and between the prediluvian and postdiluvian worlds.]
"The two words, ’corrupt’ and ’violence,’ give us respectively the character and expression of the sin, the cause and the effect [Gen 6:11]. The corruption has led to violence, for badness always leads to cruelty in one form or another. A life that is wrong with God necessarily becomes wrong with its fellows." [Note: Thomas, p. 71.]
"Whereas God has blessed the human family with the power of procreation to fill the earth (Gen 1:28; Gen 9:1), these culprits have ’filled the earth’ by procreating ’violence’ (cf. Gen 6:13; Eze 8:17; Eze 28:16)." [Note: Mathews, p. 359.]