And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Verse 29. The days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years] The oldest patriarch on record, except Methuselah and Jared. This, according to the common reckoning, was A. M. 2006, but according to Dr. Hales, 3505.
“HAM,” says Dr. Hales, “signifies burnt or black, and this name was peculiarly significant of the regions allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or children of his eldest son Cush, were allotted the hot southern regions of Asia, along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, Susiana or Chusistan, Arabia, c. to the sons of Canaan, Palestine and Syria; to the sons of Misraim, Egypt and Libya, in Africa.
The Hamites in general, like the Canaanites of old, were a seafaring race, and sooner arrived at civilization and the luxuries of life than their simpler pastoral and agricultural brethren of the other two families. The first great empires of Assyria and Egypt were founded by them, and the republics of Sidon, Tyre, and Carthage were early distinguished for their commerce but they sooner also fell to decay; and Egypt, which was one of the first, became the last and basest of the kingdoms, Eze 29:15, and has been successively in subjection to the Shemites and Japhethites, as have also the settlements of the other branches of the Hamites.
“SHEM signifies name or renown; and his indeed was great in a temporal and spiritual sense. The finest regions of Upper and Middle Asia allotted to his family, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Persia, c., to the Indus and Ganges, and perhaps to China eastward.
“The chief renown of Shem was of a spiritual nature: he was destined to be the lineal ancestor of the blessed seed of the woman and to this glorious privilege Noah, to whom it was probably revealed, might have alluded in that devout ejaculation, Blessed be the LORD, the GOD of Shem! The pastoral life of the Shemites is strongly marked in the prophecy by the tents of Shem; and such it remains to the present day, throughout their midland settlements in Asia.
“JAPHETH signifies enlargement; and how wonderfully did Providence enlarge the boundaries of Japheth! His posterity diverged eastward and westward throughout the whole extent of Asia, north of the great range of Taurus, as far as the Eastern Ocean, whence they probably crossed over to America by Behring’s Straits from Kamtschatka, and in the opposite direction throughout Europe to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; from whence also they might have crossed over to America by Newfoundland, where traces of early settlements remain in parts now desert. Thus did they gradually enlarge themselves till they literally encompassed the earth, within the precincts of the northern temperate zone, to which their roving hunter’s life contributed not a little. Their progress northwards was checked by the much greater extent of the Black Sea in ancient times, and the increasing rigour of the climates: but their hardy race, and enterprising, warlike genius, made them frequently encroach southwards on the settlements of Shem, whose pastoral and agricultural occupations rendered them more inactive, peaceable. and unwarlike; and so they dwelt in the tents of Shem when the Scythians invaded Media, and subdued western Asia southwards as far as Egypt, in the days of Cyaxares; when the Greeks, and afterwards the Romans, overran and subdued the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians in the east, and the Syrians and Jews in the south; as foretold by the Syrian prophet Balaam, Nu 24:24: –
Ships shall come from Chittim,
And shall afflict the Assyrians, and afflict the Hebrews;
But he (the invader) shall perish himself at last.
“And by Moses: And the Lord shall bring thee (the Jews) into Egypt (or bondage) again with ships, c., De 28:68. And by Daniel: For the ships of Chittim shall come against him, viz., Antiochus, king of Syria, Da 11:30. In these passages Chittim denotes the southern coasts of Europe, bounding the Mediterranean, called the isles of the Gentiles or Nations see Ge 10:5. And the isles of Chittim are mentioned Jer 2:10. And in after times the Tartars in the east have repeatedly invaded and subdued the Hindoos and the Chinese; while the warlike and enterprising genius of the greatest of the isles of the Gentiles, GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, have spread their colonies, their arms, their language, their arts, and in some measure their religion, from the rising to the setting sun.” See Dr. Hales’s Analysis of Chronology, vol. 1., p. 352, &c.
Though what is left undone should not cause us to lose sight of what is done, yet we have reason to lament that the inhabitants of the British isles, who of all nations under heaven have the purest light of Divine revelation, and the best means of diffusing it, have been much more intent on spreading their conquests and extending their commerce, than in propagating the Gospel of the Son of God. But the nation, by getting the Bible translated into every living language, and sending it to all parts of the habitable globe, and, by its various missionary societies, sending men of God to explain and enforce the doctrines and precepts of this sacred book, is rapidly redeeming its character, and becoming great in goodness and benevolence over the whole earth!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Here is an omission of that solemn clause used in all the preceding generations, and he begat sons and daughters; which implies that Noah had no more than these three sons, which also appears from Gen 9:19.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years,…. He lived twenty years more than Adam did, and within nineteen of Methuselah, and his age must be called a good old age; but what is said of all the patriarchs is also said or him,
and he died: the Arabic writers say w, when the time of his death drew nigh, he ordered his son Shem by his will to take the body of Adam, and lay it in the middle of the earth, and appoint Melchizedek, the son of Peleg, minister at his grave; and one of them is very particular as to the time of his death; they say x he died on the second day of the month Ijar, on the fourth day (of the week), at two o’clock in the morning.
w Elmacinus, p. 12. Patricides, p. 11. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 254. x Patricides, ib. p. 256.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(29) All the days of Noah.While Noah attained to the same age as the antediluvian patriarchs, 950 years, human life was fast diminishing. The whole life-time of Shem was 600 years; that of Peleg, a few generations afterwards, only 239. After him only one man, Terah, is described as living more than 200 years, and of his age there is great doubt. (See Note on Gen. 11:32.) Thus before Shems death the age of man was rapidly shortening, and things were settling down to that condition in which they are set before us in profane literature.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 9:29. And all the days of Noah, &c. “It is strange,” Saurin remarks, “that the torrent of interpreters should suppose, that Noah was one hundred and twenty years building the ark, when the scripture gives no intimation to that purpose, but sufficient reason to believe, that he was not near so long as is imagined. It is plain from scripture, that he was five hundred years old, when he beget Shem, Ham, and Japheth, ch. Gen 5:32. and that, when he received the command for building the ark, the same sons were married; for the text says so expressly, (see Gen 6:18.) So that all the time between the birth and marriage of the said sons, must, at least, be supposed to intervene before the command to build the ark was given; and between the command and the execution of it could not be so long as is imagined, without a concurrence of miracles, to prevent that part of it which was first built from being rotten and decayed, before the last part of it was finished.” But let us just ask, might not the first declaration of God’s intention be given, as we have supposed on Gen 6:3 ch. 6:? Might not Noah then be appointed to declare this solemn truth to the men of those times; and consequently to get in readiness, in due time, the proper materials for building the ark?
Let us now pause a while,
“Betwixt the world destroy’d and world restor’d,” and consider the history of Noah as typical of our Great Redeemer, and of the salvation wrought by him.
That Noah was a figure of Jesus Christ, seems not obscurely hinted in his very name given him by his religious father, not without prophetic instinct. It signifies, as we have already observed, rest, comfort. So Christ is our consolation, and our rest. Of him we may truly say with the strictest propriety, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands.” Noah “was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and walked with God,” when the wickedness of men was grown to the most exorbitant height, and all flesh had corrupted their way. He dared to be good, when all were turned degenerate; and, fearless of reproach or violence, he admonished them of their wicked ways, preaching righteousness in their assemblies. So Christ preserved his integrity in every the smallest instance, in an evil and adulterous generation, preaching what he practised, with not unlike success to Noah. For it is written of him in the Psalms, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.” Psa 40:9. In some seasons of the Almighty’s vengeance, we are informed, that the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job, could not deliver a sinful people, nor yet their nearest relations, from the lifted stroke. Eze 14:14. Truly Noah, though righteous, could not by his righteousness avert the waters of the flood. But the righteousness, the meritorious obedience unto the death of the cross of our adorable Redeemer, is of such infinite value, as to deliver from death an innumerable multitude of transgressors.
But let us chiefly consider that memorable part of Noah’s history, his preparing an ark for the saving of his house; the antitype of which remarkable event, we are informed by St. Peter, is, “our being saved by baptism (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 1Pe 3:21. The long-suffering of God was now tired out, and his Spirit ceased to strive with rebellious men, whom all means had proved ineffectual to reclaim. The time was come, when the threatened vengeance was to descend with resistless fury. Noah being long before warned of God, had prepared an ark against the approaching deluge: for he believed God; and being moved with reverential fear, he obeyed the commandment of the Lord. He despised the jeers of the unbelieving world; and considered not the huge difficulties he had to surmount, before he could get a vessel constructed, of such bulk as would contain in its capacious hold, all sorts of beasts and birds, together with their necessary provisions, for so long a time as he was to be there a prisoner. That God who commanded him, that God in whom he believed, and whom he feared, enabled him also both to begin and finish. The ship is built; the cargo is taken in; the flood comes; and the waters prevail above the tallest trees and loftiest mountains. The sinful race of men is buried in a watery grave. But the ark, the peculiar care of Heaven, though without helm or mast, rides triumphant over the foaming billows. At length a dove, fetching in her mouth an olive-leaf, informs the inhabitants of the ark, that the waters were abated. They are at last released from their tedious confinement. The venerable patriarch, overwhelmed with gratitude for such a wonderful preservation amidst the howling waste, sacrifices unto the Lord, who smells a savour of rest, and renews with him his gracious covenant, that he will no more curse the ground for man’s sake. A glorious rainbow is seen over his head stamping the clouds, which from that time became a peaceful sign, that the waters shall never more cover the face of the earth; and that, though the waves should toss themselves against the sandy shores, they shall never prevail.Who sees not in this whole transaction, a lively picture of the method of our salvation by Jesus Christ, from a far more dreadful flood, that shall, sooner or later, descend upon the head of every impenitent sinner? In Jesus Christ we have the antitype of Noah, both floating in the ark, standing at the altar, and compassed with the rainbow. Indeed he is at once the ark that saves us from the floods of divine wrath, the sacrifice that atones the incensed justice of God, and the rainbow which makes our clouds of every sort to wear sweet smiles. Though Noah’s ark, and sacrifice, and rainbow, were things different from himself, and from one another, in Jesus Christ they are all conjoined.
What mortal wit could have contrived such an expedient as the ark of Noah, to save from an universal deluge? Noah was not the contriver of this project. It was wholly planned by God. Even so; if men and angels had tortured their invention to save a guilty world, they could never have so much as suggested that method which the wisdom of God has fallen upon in the mediation of Jesus Christ. It was no doubt very strange to see the wildest beasts and birds dwelling peaceably together under the same roof, in that time of common danger; but not more strange than what happens every time when sinners are converted to God, and enter into his sanctuary. For in Jesus Christ, the men of ravenous natures forget their natural ferocity, and put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercy, humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering; and, to use the lofty stile of the prophet, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fat-ling together:they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.” Isa 6:9. Dreadful, to be sure, were the buffetings of the rolling surges on the sides of the ark, when heaven and earth seemed to conspire its ruin: but being protected by a superior Providence, the vessel, though heavy-laden, weathered the storm, preserved alive all the creatures that were within her, and at last rested upon the mountains of Ararat. So did the waves and billows of the Father’s wrath go over thine head, O suffering Saviour! and the floods of ungodly men made thee afraid. Psa 18:4. But thou wast more than a conqueror, and at last didst find thy rest on the mountains of eternal glory. “Thou art our hiding-place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, the waters of God’s wrath had swallowed us up quick: then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul; the proud waters had gone over our soul.” Psa 124:2; Psa 124:8.When we are told in the sacred history, that a dove alighted on the ark with the olive-leaf, what should hinder us to think of the holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, who alighted upon him in the waters of Jordan, in the likeness of that gentle bird? and who brings glad tidings of great joy to all the inhabitants of the ark, when he assures them, by the most incontestible proofs, that the winter of wrath is past, and the rain is over and gone? Son 2:11.The holy fire is now gone forth at the appointed season; and, beholding the dismal desolation, he offers an atoning sacrifice of every clean bird and beast; and the Lord smelled a savour of rest. This naturally leads us to think of him, who gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. Eph 5:2. So well pleased is God with Jesus Christ, that with him he establishes his covenant, and with all his seed. Hear what himself declares by the mouth of his holy prophet Isaiah: “This is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted!” Isa 9:11. See how the frowning clouds now smile with the glorious colours of the rainbow, the cheerful token of God’s covenant. Such is the glorious transformation of all your afflictions by Jesus Christ, O ye heirs of righteousness! They are clouds indeed, dark clouds; but so far from drowning, they shall even fructify your soul, and make you revive as the corn. What before was an indication of wrath, and a cause of fear, is now a token of love, and an encouragement of faith. A rainbow for ever encompasses the throne of your God. And though, like that mighty angel in the Revelation, ch. Gen 10:1. he should be clothed with a cloud in the dispensations of his providence, his sunny face will produce a rainbow round about his head.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Noah lived, in all, 950 years; a sojourner in two worlds it may be said of him, and yet but a sojourner; for at length he died, and came under the universal sentence. Gen 3:19
REFLECTIONS.
READER! if your feelings correspond with mine, from the perusal of this sweet chapter, you will like to dwell with peculiar rapture on what God saith in it, concerning the rainbow; and if, under the Holy Ghost’s teaching, you are led to discover some of those precious things, which seem to be connected with it, you will love to consider it again and again, in the most devout contemplation. Methinks, I could forever gaze on it, while the words of the Lord vibrate on my ear, or are present to my remembrance. What though I know that beautiful arch it forms in the heavens is produced from natural causes, and is constructed solely from the reflection of the sun-beams on the drops of rain; yet do I not know, also, that the God of nature is the God of grace too; and that such is the sovereignty of his goodness and his power, that all things are made to act subordinate to his high designs, who worketh according to the counsel of his own will. And shall I not indulge the pleasing thought, when my God causeth this glorious object to be hung out for man’s notice in the heavens, though the means producing it be natural, yet the sign intended from it is gracious? Great Father of mercies! hast thou said, that thou wilt set thy bow in the cloud, that it shall be a token of thy merciful engagements to mankind; that thou wilt look upon it, and that thou wilt remember thine everlasting covenant? Oh! then, give me grace, to look upon it also; and to behold in it, by an eye of faith, that mighty Angel, even the Lord Jesus Christ, whom John, the beloved apostle, in after ages, saw clothed with a rainbow round the throne. May I so look by grace, until mine eye awakens all the affections of my heart, and my soul is confirmed and established in the full assurance of faith and dependence upon all the covenant promises of God the Father, in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Ver. 29. See Trapp on “ Gen 9:28 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
am 2006, bc 1998
nine: Gen 5:5, Gen 5:20, Gen 5:27, Gen 5:32, Gen 11:11-25, Psa 90:10
Reciprocal: 2Sa 19:32 – fourscore 1Ch 1:4 – Noah
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 9:29. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years Here the clause, and he begat sons and daughters, is omitted, whence we may infer that he had no more than the three sons already mentioned.