In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
11. the second month, on the seventeenth day ] P gives, according to its fondness for statistics, the exact date in years, months, and days. Cf. Exo 12:41 (P). The months and days apparently are reckoned on the assumption that Noah was born on the first day of the year, 600 years previously. LXX here, and in Gen 8:4, reads “twenty-seventh day,” because of Gen 8:14.
the second month ] According to Josephus ( Ant. i. 3, 3), this second month was Marchesvan, equivalent to our November, the beginning of the season of rain in Palestine. The account is, therefore, well adapted to Israelite presuppositions. But, on the supposition that Abib, or April, was reckoned as the first month, the Flood would have begun in May, the month in which the Tigris and the Euphrates are liable to be flooded through the melting of the snows in the mountains. It is doubtful whether Tisri (= October) or Abib is here regarded as the first month of the year.
the fountains of the great deep ] The origin of the Flood, according to P, was not merely rain. The Israelites believed that beneath the surface of the earth were accumulated enormous reservoirs of water, to supply, through channels or fissures, the seas, lakes, and rivers. This accumulation of water is poetically described as “the deep that coucheth beneath” (Gen 49:25), and “the great deep” (Psa 36:6; Isa 51:10; Amo 7:4). Here it is supposed that the channels, or, as the account calls them, “the fountains of the great deep,” were violently rent asunder, “broken up,” whereupon the subterranean waters swept out in portentous volume and violence over the surface of the earth.
the great deep ] On the “deep” ( tehom), here called “great,” see note on Gen 1:2.
the windows of heaven ] The other source of the Deluge is here given. Above the solid firmament (see note on Gen 1:6) were stored the masses of water which supplied the rainfall of the earth. Now “the sluices of heaven” (cf. 2Ki 7:2; 2Ki 7:19; Mal 3:10) and “the windows on high” (cf. Isa 24:18) are thrown open, and the water descends in unrestrained mass. For this description of the waters above and below, cf. Pro 8:27-29; Job 38:16. LXX , Lat. cataractae coeli. Aquila and Symmachus .
12 (J). the rain ] In this verse the cause of the Flood and its duration are given by J. Its cause, torrents of rain, the Heb. word denoting something much stronger than ordinary rain. Its duration, forty days and forty nights, as in Gen 7:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 7:11-15
The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened
The deluge; or, the judgments of God upon the sin of man
I.
THAT THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS IS IMPORTANT, AND SHOULD BE CAREFULLY NOTED AND REMEMBERED.
1. The chronology of Divine retribution is important as a record of history.
2. The chronology of Divine retribution is important as related to the moral life and destinies of men.
3. The chronology of Divine retribution is important, as the incidental parts of Scripture bear a relation to those of greater magnitude.
II. THAT GOD HATH COMPLETE CONTROL OVER ALL THE AGENCIES OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE, AND CAN READILY MAKE THEM SUBSERVE THE PURPOSE OF HIS WILL. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.
1. The Divine Being can control the latent forces and the unknown possibilities of the universe.
2. The Divine Being can control all the recognized and welcome agencies of the material universe, so that they shall be destructive rather than beneficial.
3. That the agencies of the material universe frequently cooperate with the providence of God.
III. THAT THE RETRIBUTIVE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE A SIGNAL FOR THE GOOD TO ENTER UPON THE SAFETY PROVIDED FOR THEM. In the self-same day entered Noah, etc.
IV. THAT THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS, THE AGENCIES OF RETRIBUTION, WHICH ARE DESTRUCTIVE TO THE WICKED, ARE SOMETIMES EFFECTIVE TO THE SAFETY AND WELFARE OF THE GOOD.
V. THAT IN THE RETRIBUTIVE JUDGMENTS OF GOD WICKED MEN ARE PLACED WITHOUT ANY MEANS OF REFUGE OR HOPE.
VI. THAT THE MEASURE AND LIMITS OF THE RETRIBUTIVE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE DIVINELY DETERMINED (Gen 7:20; Gen 7:24). LESSONS:
1. That the judgments of heaven are long predicted.
2. That they are commonly rejected.
3. That they are woefully certain.
4. That they are terribly severe.
5. They show the folly of sin. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
An important and eventful day
1. The fulfilment of the promise.
2. The commencement of retribution.
3. The time of personal safety.
4. The occasion of family blessing. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The deluge
I. THE DELUGE ITSELF.
1. Its reality.
(1) Christ refers to it (Mat 24:37).
(2) It rests on the traditions of all nations.
2. The means by which it was effected. Some suppose it was effected by a comet; others, that by one entire revolution of the earth, the sea was moved out of its place, and covered the face of the earth, and that the bed of the ancient sea became our new earth. There is one simple means by which it might have been easily effected. Water is composed of two gases or airs, oxygen and hydrogen–eighty-five parts of oxygen, and fifteen hydrogen. An electric spark passing through decomposes them and converts them into water. So that God, by the power of lightning, could change the whole atmosphere into water, and thus the resources of the flood are at once provided. But read carefully the account given by Moses Gen 7:11, etc.).
3. Consider its universality extended to the whole earth.
4. Consider its terrific character.
II. THE PROCURING CAUSE OF THE DELUGE.
1. Universal wickedness.
2. Impious rejection of Divine influences.
3. Final impenitency.
III. THE DELIVERANCE OF NOAH AND HIS FAMILY. APPLICATION:
1. Learn how fearful is the wrath of God. See a world destroyed.
2. How dreadful is a state of carnal presumption and security. It is a deadly opiate, destroyer of the soul.
3. The distinctions and rewards which await the righteous. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Chaldean narrative of the deluge
In general we may say that we have two Chaldean accounts of the flood. The one comes to us through Greek sources, from Berosus, a Chaldean priest in the third century before Christ, who translated into Greek the records of Babylon. This, as the less clear, we need not here notice more particularly. But a great interest attaches to the far earlier cuneiform inscriptions, first discovered and deciphered in 1872 by Mr. G. Smith, of the British Museum, and since further investigated by the same scholar. These inscriptions cover twelve tablets, of which as yet only part has been made available. They may broadly be described as embodying the Babylonian account of the flood, which, as the event took place in that locality, has a special value. The narrative is supposed to date from two thousand to two thousand five hundred years before Christ. The history of the flood is related by a hero, preserved through it, to a monarch whom Mr. Smith calls Izdubar, but whom he supposes to have been the Nimrod of Scripture. There are, as one might have expected, frequent differences between the Babylonian and the Biblical account of the flood. On the other hand, there are striking points of agreement between them, which all the more confirm the Scriptural account, as showing that the event had become a distinct part of the history of the district in which it had taken place. There are frequent references to Ereeh, the city mentioned in Gen 10:10; allusions to a race of giants, who are described in fabulous terms; a mention of Lamech, the father of Noah, though under a different name, and of the patriarch himself as a sage, reverent and devout, who, when the Deity resolved to destroy by a flood the world for its sin, built the ark. Sometimes the language comes so close to that of the Bible that one almost seems to read disjointed or distorted quotations from Scripture. We mention, as instances, the scorn which the building of the ark is said to have called forth on the part of contemporaries; the pitching of the ark without and within with pitch; the shutting of the door behind the saved ones; the opening of the window, when the waters had abated; the going and returning of the dove since a resting place it did not find, the sending of the raven, which, feeding on corpses in the water, did not return; and, finally, the building of an altar by Noah. We sum up the results of this discovery in the words of Mr. Smith: Not to pursue this parallel further, it will be perceived that when the Chaldean account is compared with the Biblical narrative, in their main features the two stories fairly agree; as to the wickedness of the antediluvian world, the Divine anger and command to build the ark, its stocking with birds and beasts, the coming of the deluge, the rain and storm, the ark resting on a mountain, trial being made by birds sent out to see if the waters had subsided, and the building of an altar after the flood. All these main facts occur in the same order in both narratives, but when we come to examine the details of these stages in the two accounts, there appear numerous points of difference; as to the number of people who were saved, the duration of the deluge, the place where the ark rested, the order of sending out the birds, and other similar matters. We conclude with another quotation from the same work, which will show how much of the primitive knowledge of Divine things, though mixed with terrible corruptions, was preserved among men at this early period: It appears that at that remote age the Babylonians had a tradition of a flood which was a Divine punishment for the wickedness of the world; and of a holy man, who built an ark, and escaped the destruction; who was afterwards translated and dwelt with the gods. They believed in hell, a place of torment under the earth, and heaven, a place of glory in the sky; and their description of the two has, in several points, a striking likeness to those in the Bible. They believed in a spirit or soul distinct from the body, which was not destroyed on the death of the mortal frame; and they represent this ghost as rising from the earth at the bidding of one of the gods, and winging its way to heaven.
Indian tradition
The seventh king of the Hindoos was Satyavrata, who reigned in Dravira, a country washed by the waves of the sea. During his reign, an evil demon (Hayagriva) furtively appropriated to himself the holy books (Vedas), which the first Manu had received from Brahman; and the consequence was, that the whole human race sank into a fearful degeneracy, with the exception of the seven saints and the virtuous king, Satyavrata. The divine spirit, Vishnu, once appeared to him in the shape of a fish, and addressed him thus: In seven days, all the creatures which have offended against me shall be destroyed by a deluge; thou alone shalt be saved in a capacious vessel, miraculously constructed. Take, therefore, all kinds of useful herbs, and of esculent grain for food, and one pair of each animal; take also the seven holy men with thee, and your wives. Go into the ark without fear; then thou shalt see God face to face, and all thy questions shall be answered. After seven days, incessant torrents of rain descended, and the ocean gave forth its waves beyond the wonted shores. Satyavrata, trembling for his imminent destruction, yet piously confiding in the promises of the god, and meditating on his attributes, saw a huge boat floating to the shore on the waters. He entered it with the saints, after having executed the divine instructions. Vishnu himself appeared, in the shape of a vast horned fish, and tied the vessel with a great sea serpent, as with a cable, to his huge horn. He drew it for many years, and landed it at last, on the highest peak of Mount Himavan. The flood ceased; Vishnu slew the demon and received the Vedas back; instructed Satyavrata in all heavenly sciences, and appointed him the seventh Manu, under the name of Vaivaswata. From this Manu the second population of the earth descended in a supernatural manner, and hence man is called manudsha (born of Manu, Mensch). The Hindoo legend concludes, moreover, with an episode resembling in almost every particular that which resulted in the curse of Ham by his father Noah. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Greek traditions
The whole human race was corrupted, violence and impiety prevailed, oaths were broken, the sacredness of hospitality was shamelessly violated, suppliants were abused or murdered, and the gods mocked and insulted. Infamy and nefariousness were the delight of the degenerated tribes. Jupiter resolved, therefore, to destroy the whole human race, as far as the earth extends and Poseidon encircles it with the girdle of the waves. The earth opened all her secret springs, the ocean sent forth its floods, and the skies poured down their endless torrents. All creatures were immersed in the waves, and perished. Deucalion alone, and his wife Pyrrha, both distinguished by their piety, were, in a small boat which Deucalion had constructed by the advice of his father Prometheus, carried to the lofty peaks of Mount Parnassus, which alone stood out of the floods. They were saved. The waters subsided. The surviving pair sacrificed to Jupiter the flight-giving, and consulted the gods, who again, through them, populated the earth by an extraordinary miracle. This tradition appears in a still more developed form in Lucian. There was a very old temple in Hieropolis, which was universally asserted to have been built by Deucalion the Scythian, when he had been rescued from the general deluge. For it is related that enormous crimes, prevalent through the whole human race, had provoked the wrath of Jupiter and caused the destruction of man. Deucalion alone was found wise and pious. He built a large chest, and brought into it his wives and children; and when he was about to enter it, boars, lions, serpents, and all other animals came to him by pairs. Jupiter removed all hostile propensities from their breasts, and they lived together in miraculous concord. The waves carried the chest along till they subsided. After this an immense gulf opened itself, which only closed after having totally absorbed the waters. This wonderful incident happened in the territory of Hieropolis; and above this gulf Deucalion erected that ancient temple, after having offered many sacrifices on temporary altars. In commemoration of these events, twice every year water is brought into the temple, not only by the priests, but by a large concourse of strangers from Syria, Arabia, and the countries of the Jordan. This water is fetched from the sea, and then poured out in the temple in such a manner that it descends into the gulf. The same tradition assumed, indeed, under different hands a different local character; Hyginus mentions the AEtna in Sicily as the mountain where Deucalion grounded; the Phrygians relate that the wise Anakos prophesied concerning the approaching flood; and some coins struck under the Emperor Septimius Severus and some of his successors in Apamea, and declared genuine by all authorities in numismatics, represent a chest or ark floating on the waves and containing a man and a woman. On the ark a bird is perched, and another is seen approaching, holding a twig with its feet. The same human pair is figured on the dry land with uplifted hands; and on several of those pieces even the name NO () is clearly visible. A legend, perhaps as old as that of Deucalion, though neither so far spread nor so developed, is that of Ogyges, who is mostly called a Boeotian autochthon, and the first ruler of the territory of Thebes, called after him Ogygia. In his time the waters of the lake Copais are said to have risen in so unusual a degree that they at last covered the whole surface of the earth, and that Ogyges himself directed his vessel on the waves through the air. Even the dove of Noah bears an analogy to the dove which Deucalion is reported to have dispatched from his ark, which returned the first time, thus indicating that the stores of rain were not yet exhausted, but which did not come back the second time, and thereby gave proof that the skies had resumed their usual serenity. (M. M.Kalisch, Ph. D.)
The flood
The sky now at last blackens into pitchy gloom, and hoarse are the thunders which seem to crash against the sides of the sky as if against iron bars. The rain comes down in solid torrents, cleaving the thick air as with wedges. Lightnings
run crossing evermore,
Till like a red bewildered map the sky is scribbled oer.
Rivers rush down in fury, overflowing their banks, sweeping away the crops, undermining the rocks, tearing up the woods, and rising above the lesser hills, till they meet with the streams which have swollen aloft from neighbouring valleys, and embrace in foam and wild commotion on the summit. Oceans are stirred up from their depths, and distant seas on the top of aerial mountains, each bringing the ruin of whole lands for a dowry. The inhabitants of a city have fallen asleep, thinking that it is only a night of unusual severity of storm, till in the morning they find themselves cut off on all sides, and a hungry sea crying with the tongues of all its waters, Give! give! and there is no escape for them; and climbing the highest towers and idol temples only protracts for a little their doom; and soon the boom of the waves, wantoning uncontrolled and alone in the market place, takes the place of the hum of men. A gay marriage party, in order to enjoy themselves more, have shut out the gloomy daylight, are dancing to the light of torches, and are finding a luxury and a stimulus to greater gaiety in the lashing of the rain on the roof and the sides of the dwelling, when suddenly the angry waters burst in, and their joy is turned into the howl of expiring women and men. In another place a funeral has reached the place of tombs amidst drenching rains and paths rendered difficult by the storm, and the bearers are about to commit the corpse to the earth, when, lo! the water bursts up through the grave, and the waves gather on all sides around, and instead of one, forty are buried, and instead of a silent sepulchre, there are shrieks and outcries of grief and of desperate sorrow–the sorrow of multitudinous death. A village among the mountains issurprised by the fierce and sudden uprise of the neighbouring stream, and the inhabitants have just time to avoid its avenging path by betaking themselves to the hills. From point to point they hurry, from the wooded steeps to the bald crags, thence to the heathy sides of the larger hills, and thence to their sky-striking summits; and to every point they are faithfully followed by the bloodhound of the flood, too certain of coming up with his prey to be hurried in his motions, and whose voice is heard, in an awful ascending gamut, climbing steep after steep, here veiled amidst thick woodlands, there striking sharp and shrill against craggy obstacles, and anon from hollow defiles, sounding low in the accents of choked and restrained wrath, but always approaching nearer and nearer, and from the anger echoed in which no escape is possible. Conceive their emotions as, standing at last on the supreme summit, they listen to this cry! Inch after inch rises the flood up the precipice, the cry swelling at every step, till at last it approaches within a few feet of the top, where hundreds are huddled together, and then
Rises from earth to sky the wild farewell;
Then shriek the timid, and stand still the brave;
And some leap overboard with dreadful yell,
As eager to anticipate their grave,
And the sea yawns around them like a hell.
Husbands and wives clasped in each others arms sink into the waves; mothers holding their babes high over the surge are sucked in, children and all; the grey hairs of the patriarch meet with the tresses of the fair virgin in the common grave of the waters, which sweep by one wild lash all the tenants of the rock away, and roll across a shout of triumph to the hundred surges, which on every side of the horizon have mounted their hills, and gained their victories at once over the glory of nature and the life of man. From this supposed peak, Fancy with the speed of fire flies to other regions of the earth, and sees all the high hills under the whole heaven covered; the Grampian range surmounted; and Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more under the waves; the Pyrenees and the infant kips or Apennines lost to view; the Cervins sharp and precipitous horn seen to pierce the blue-black ether no more; the eye of Mont Blanc darkened; old Taurus blotted out; the fires of Cotopaxi extinguished; the tremendous chasm of snow which yawns on the side of Chimborazo filled up with a sea of water; the hell of Heclas burning entrails slaked, and the mountains of the Himalayah overtopt; till at last, the waves rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow, have accomplished their task, have drowned a world! (G. Gilfillan.)
Flood traditions in America
It is a singular confirmation of the deluge as a great historical event that it is found engraven in the memories of all the great nations of antiquity; but it is still more striking to find it holding a place in the traditions of the most widely spread races of America, and indeed of the world at large. Thus Alfred Maury, a French writer of immense erudition, speaks of it as a very remarkable fact that we find in America traditions of the deluge coming infinitely nearer those of the Bible and of the Chaldean religion than the legends of any people of the old world. The ancient inhabitants of Mexico had many variations of the legend among their various tribes. In some, rude paintings were found representing the deluge. Not a few believe that a vulture was sent out of the ship, and that, like the raven of the Chaldean tablets, it did not return, but fed on the dead bodies of the drowned. Other versions say that a humming bird alone, out of many birds sent off, returned with a branch covered with leaves in its beak. Among the Cree Indians of the present day in the Arctic circle in North America, Sir John Richardson found similar traces of the great tradition. The Crees, he says, spoke of a universal deluge, caused by an attempt of the fish to drown one who was a kind of demigod with whom they had quarrelled. Having constructed a raft, he embarked with his family, and all kinds of birds and beasts. After the flood had continued some time, he ordered several waterfowls to dive to the bottom, but they were all drowned. A musk rat, however, having been sent on the same errand, was more successful, and returned with a mouthful of mud. From other tribes in every part of America, travellers have brought many variations of the same worldwide tradition, nor are even the scattered islands of the great Southern Ocean without versions of their own. In Tahiti, the natives used to tell of the god Ruahatu having told two men who were at sea fishing–Return to the shore, and tell men that the earth will be covered with water, and all the world will perish. Tomorrow morning go to the islet called Toamarama; it will be a place of safety for you and your children. Then Ruahatu caused the sea to cover the lands. All were covered, and all men perished except the two and their families. In other islands we find legends recording the building of an altar after the deluge; the collection of pairs of all the domestic animals, to save them, while the Fiji islanders give the number of the human beings saved as eight. Thus the story of the deluge is a universal tradition among all branches of the human family with the one exception, as Lenormant tells us, of the black. How else could this arise but from the ineradicable remembrance of a real and terrible event. It must, besides, have happened so early in the history of mankind that the story of it could spread with the race from their original cradle, for the similarity of the versions over the earth point to a common source. It is, moreover, preserved in its fullest and least diluted form among the three great races, which are the ancestors of the three great families of mankind–the Aryans, from whom sprang the populations of India, Persia, and Europe; the Turanians, and the Semitic stock, who were the progenitors of the Jew, the Arab, and other related races, including the Cushite and Egyptian. These, it is striking to note, were the specially civilized peoples of the early world, and must have learned the story before they separated from their common home in western Asia. (C. Geikie, D. D.)
The extent of the flood
Thoughtful men of all shades of religious opinion have come to the conclusion that the Noachian deluge was only a local one, though sufficiently extensive in its area to destroy all the then existing race of men. In support of this view many arguments have been offered, of which a few may be briefly stated. The stupendous greatness of the miracle involved in a universal deluge seems a strong reason to doubt the likelihood of God having resorted to a course wholly unnecessary to effect the end mainly in view–the judgment of mankind for their sins. There could certainly be no apparent reason for submerging the vast proportion of the world which was then uninhabited, or of raising the waters above the tops of mountains to which no living creature could approach. It is to be remembered, moreover, that the addition of such a vast mass of water to the weight of the earth–eight times that contained in the ocean beds–would have disarranged the whole solar system, and even the other systems of worlds through the universe; for all are interbalanced with each other in their various relations. Then this immeasurable volume of water, after having served its brief use, must have been annihilated to restore the harmony of the heavenly motions: the only instance in the whole economy of nature of the annihilation of even a particle of matter. Nor could any part of either the animal or vegetable worlds have survived a submersion of the planet for a year; and hence everything, except what the ark contained, must have perished; including even the fish; of which many species would die out if the water were fresh, others, if it were brackish, and others, again, if it were salt. Men of the soundest orthodoxy have further urged that physical evidences still exist which prove that the deluge could only have been local. Thus Professor Henslow supports De Candolles estimate of the age of some of the baobab trees of Senegal as not less then 5,230 years, and of taxodium of Mexico as from 4,000 to 6,000; periods which carry still living trees beyond that of the flood. There is, moreover, in Auvergne, in France, a district covered with extinct volcanoes, marked by cones of pumice stone, ashes, and such light substances as could not have resisted the waters of the deluge. Yet they are evidently more ancient than the time of Noah; for since they became extinct rivers have cut channels for themselves through beds of columnar basalt, that is, of intensely hard crystallized lava, of no less than 150 feet in thickness, and have even eaten into the granite rocks beneath. And Auvergne is not the only part where similar phenomena are seen. They are found in the Eifel country of the Prussian Rhine province, in New Zealand, and elsewhere. Nor is the peculiarity of some regions in their zoological characteristics less convincing. Thus the fauna of Australia is entirely exceptional; as, for example, in the strange fact that quadrupeds of all kinds are marsupial, that is, provided with a pouch in which to carry their young. The fossil remains of this great island continent show, moreover, that existing species are the direct descendants of similar races of extreme antiquity, and that the surface of Australia is the oldest land, of any considerable extent, yet discovered on the globe–dating back at least to the Tertiary geological age; since which it has not been disturbed to any great extent. But this carries us to a period immensely more remote than Noah. Nor is it possible to conceive of an assemblage of all the living creatures of the different regions of the earth at any one spot. The unique fauna of Australia–survivors of a former geological age–certainly could neither have reached the ark nor regained their home after leaving it; for they are separated from the nearest continuous land by vast breadths of ocean. The polar bear surely could not survive a journey from his native icebergs to the sultry plains of Mesopotamia; nor could the animals of South America have reached these except by travelling the whole length northwards of North America and then, after miraculously crossing Behring Straits, having pressed westwards across the whole breadth of Asia, a continent larger than the moon. That even a deer should accomplish such a pedestrian feat is inconceivable, but how could a sloth have done it–a creature which lives in trees, never, if possible, descending to theground, and able to advance on it only by the slowest and most painful motions? Or, how could tropical creatures find supplies of food in passing through such a variety of climates, and over vast spaces of hideous desert? Still more–how could any vessel, however large, have held pairs and sevens of all the creatures on earth, with food for a year, and how could the whole family of Noah have attended to them? There are at least two thousand mammals; more than seven thousand kinds of birds, from the gigantic ostrich to the humming bird; and over fifteen hundred kinds of amphibious animals and reptiles; not to speak of 120,000 kinds of insects, and an unknown multitude of varieties of ingusoria. Nor does this include the many thousand kinds of mollusca, radiata, and fish. Even if the ark, as has been supposed by one writer, was of 80,000 tons burden, such a freightage needs only be mentioned to make it be felt impossible. Look which way we like, gigantic difficulties meet us. Thus, Hugh Miller has noticed that it would have required a continuous miracle to keep alive the fish for whom the deluge water was unsuitable, while even spawn would perish if kept unhatched for a whole year, as that of many fish must have been. Nor would the vegetable world have fared better than the animal, for of the 100,000 known species of plants, very few would survive a years submersion. That a terrible catastrophe like that of the flood–apart from the all-sufficient statements of Scripture–is not outside geological probability, is abundantly illustrated by recorded facts. The vast chains of the Himalayah, the Caucasus, the Jura mountains, and the Alps, for example, were all upheaved in the Pliocene period, which is one of the most recent in geology. A subsidence or elevation of a district, as the case might be, would cause a tremendous flood over vast regions. Nor are such movements of the earths surface on a great scale unknown even now. Darwin repeatedly instances cases of recent elevation and depression of the earths surface. On one part of the island of St. Maria, in Chili, he found beds of putrid mussel shells still adhering to the rocks, ten feet above high-water mark, where the inhabitants had formerly dived at low-water spring tides for these shells. Similar shells were met with by him at Valparaiso at the height of 1,300 feet. And at another place a great bed of now-existing shells had been raised 350 feet above the level of the sea. No difficulty on geological grounds can therefore be urged against such a catastrophe having happened in the early ages of our race as would have swept the whole seat of human habitation with a deluge in whose waters all mankind must have perished. The great cause, without question, of the belief that the flood was universal has been the idea that the words of Scripture taught this respecting that awful visitation. But it by no means does so. The word translated earth in our English version has not only the meaning of the world as a whole, but others much more limited. Thus it often stands for Palestine alone, and even for the small district around a town, or for a field or plot of land. Besides, we must not forget that such words are always to be understood according to the meaning attached to them by the age or people among whom they are used. But what ideas the ancient Hebrews had of the world has been already shown, and the limited sense in which they used the most general phrases–just as we ourselves often do when we wish to create a vivid impression of wide extent or great number–is seen from the usage of their descendants, in the New Testament. When St. Luke speaks of Jews dwelling at Jerusalem out of every nation under heaven, it would surely be wrong to press this to a literal exactness. When St. Paul says that the faith of the obscure converts at Rome was spoken of throughout the whole world, he could not have meant the whole round orb, but only the Roman Empire. And would anyone think of taking in the modern geographical sense his declaration that already, when he was writing to the Colossians, the gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven? (C. Geikie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. In the six hundredth year, c.] This must have been in the beginning of the six hundredth year of his life for he was a year in the ark, Ge 8:13; and lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and died nine hundred and fifty years old, Ge 9:29; so it is evident that, when the flood commenced, he had just entered on his six hundredth year.
Second month] The first month was Tisri, which answers to the latter half of September, and first half of October; and the second was Mareheshvan, which answers to part of October and part of November. After the deliverance from Egypt, the beginning of the year was changed from Marcheshvan to Nisan, which answers to a part of our March and April. But it is not likely that this reckoning obtained before the flood. Dr. Lightfoot very probably conjectures that Methuselah was alive in the first month of this year. And it appears, says he, how clearly the Spirit of prophecy foretold of things to come, when it directed his father Enoch almost a thousand years before to name him Methuselah, which signifies they die by a dart; or, he dieth, and then is the dart; or, he dieth, end then it is sent. And thus Adam and Methuselah had measured the whole time between the creation and the flood, and lived above two hundred and forty years together. See Clarke on Ge 5:3.
Were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.] It appears that an immense quantity of waters occupied the centre of the antediluvian earth; and as these burst forth, by the order of God, the circumambient strata must sink, in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the elevated waters. This is probably what is meant by breaking up the fountains of the great deep. These waters, with the seas on the earth’s surface, might be deemed sufficient to drown the whole globe, as the waters now on its surface are nearly three-fourths of the whole, as has been accurately ascertained by Dr. Long. See Clarke on Ge 1:10.
By the opening of the windows of heaven is probably meant the precipitating all the aqueous vapours which were suspended in the whole atmosphere, so that, as Moses expresses it, Ge 1:7, the waters that were above the firmament were again united to the waters which were below the firmament, from which on the second day of creation they had been separated. A multitude of facts have proved that water itself is composed of two airs, oxygen and hydrogen; and that 85 parts of the first and 15 of the last, making 100 in the whole, will produce exactly 100 parts of water. And thus it is found that these two airs form the constituent parts of water in the above proportions. The electric spark, which is the same as lightning, passing through these airs, decomposes them and converts them to water. And to this cause we may probably attribute the rain which immediately follows the flash of lightning and peal of thunder. God therefore, by the means of lightning, might have converted the whole atmosphere into water, for the purpose of drowning the globe, had there not been a sufficiency of merely aqueous vapours suspended in the atmosphere on the second day of creation. And if the electric fluid were used on this occasion for the production of water, the incessant glare of lightning, and the continual peals of thunder, must have added indescribable horrors to the scene. See Clarke on Ge 8:1. These two causes concurring were amply sufficient, not only to overflow the earth, but probably to dissolve the whole terrene fabric, as some judicious naturalists have supposed: indeed, this seems determined by the word mabbul, translated flood, which is derived from bal or balal, to mix, mingle, confound, confuse, because the aqueous and terrene parts of the globe were then mixed and confounded together; and when the supernatural cause that produced this mighty change suspended its operations, the different particles of matter would settle according to their specific gravities, and thus form the various strata or beds of which the earth appears to be internally constructed. Some naturalists have controverted this sentiment, because in some cases the internal structure of the earth does not appear to justify the opinion that the various portions of matter had settled according to their specific gravities; but these anomalies may easily be accounted for, from the great changes that have taken place in different parts of the earth since the flood, by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, c. Some very eminent philosophers are of the opinion “that, by the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, we are to understand an eruption of waters from the Southern Ocean.” Mr. Kirwan supposes “that this is pretty evident from such animals as the elephant and rhinoceros being found in great masses in Siberia, mixed with different marine substances whereas no animals or other substances belonging to the northern regions have been ever found in southern climates. Had these animals died natural deaths in their proper climate, their bodies would not have been found in such masses. But that they were carried no farther northward than Siberia, is evident from there being no remains of any animals besides those of whales found in the mountains of Greenland. That this great rush of waters was from the south or south-east is farther evident, he thinks, from the south and south-east sides of almost all great mountains being much steeper than their north or north-west sides, as they necessarily would be if the force of a great body of water fell upon them in that direction.” On a subject like this men may innocently differ. Many think the first opinion accords best with the Hebrew text and with the phenomena of nature, for mountains do not always present the above appearance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the six hundredth year; either complete, or rather current or begun; otherwise he had lived three hundred and fifty one years after the flood, not three hundred and fifty only, as it is written, Gen 9:29.
In the second month; either,
1. Of that year of Noahs life; or,
2. Of the year. Now as the year among the Hebrews was twofold; the one sacred, for the celebration of feasts, beginning in March, of which see Exo 12:2; the other civil, for the better ordering of mens political or civil affairs, which began in September. Accordingly this second month is thought, by some, to be part of April and part of May, the most pleasant part of the year, when the flood was least expected or feared; by others, part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered the fruits of the earth, and laid them up in the ark. So the flood came in with the winter, and was by degrees dried up by the heat of the following summer. And this opinion seems the more probable, because the most ancient and first beginning of the year was in September; and the other beginning of the year in March was but a later institution among the Jews, with respect to their feasts and sacred affairs only, which are not at all concerned here.
The fountains of the great deep, i.e. of the sea, called the deep, Job 38:16, 30; 41:31; Psa 106:9; and also of that great abyss, or sea of waters, which is contained in the bowels of the earth. For that there are vast quantities of waters there, is implied both here and in other scriptures, as Psa 33:7; 2Pe 3:5; and is affirmed by Plato in his Phaedrus, and by Seneca in his Natural Questions, 3.19, and is evident from springs and rivers which have their rise from thence; and some of them have no other place into which they issue themselves, as appears from the Caspian Sea, into which divers rivers do empty themselves, and especially that great river Volga, in such abundance, that it would certainly drown all those parts of the earth, if there were not a vent for them under ground; for other vent above ground out of that great lake or sea they have none. Out of this
deep therefore, and out of the sea together, it was very easy for God to bring such a quantity of waters, as might overwhelm the earth without any production of new waters, which yet he with one word could have created. So vain are the cavils of atheistical antiscripturists in this.
The fountains are said to be broken up here, also Psa 74:15, by a metonymy, because the earth and other obstructions were broken up, and so a passage opened for the fountains; as bread is said to be bruised, Isa 28:28, and meal to be ground, Isa 47:2, because the corn, of which the meal and bread were made, was bruised and ground.
The windows of heaven were opened; which some understand of the waters, which, from Gen 1:7, they suppose were placed by God above the visible heavens, and reserved and kept, as it were, in prison for this very purpose; and now the prison-doors were opened, and they let loose and sent down for the destruction of the world. But others more fitly understand it of the clouds, which are called the windows of heaven, Mal 3:10; so 2Ki 7:2,19; Psa 78:23; Isa 24:18, which then grew thicker and bigger with waters; nor is there any inconvenience in it, if we say that God created a great quantity of waters for this end, which afterwards he annihilated.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,…. Not complete, but current, for otherwise Noah would have lived after the flood three hundred and fifty one years, whereas he lived but three hundred and fifty; Ge 9:28
in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month: as the Jews had two ways of beginning their year, one at the spring, and the other at autumn; the one on ecclesiastical accounts, which began at Nisan, and which answers to March and April; and then the second month must be Ijar, which answers to part of April and part of May: and the other on civil accounts, which began at Tisri, and answers to part of September and part of October; and then the second month must be Marchesvan, which answers to part of October and part of November; so they are divided about this month in which the flood was: one says it was Marchesvan; another that it was Ijar t; a third in particular says u it was on the tenth of Marchesvan that all the creatures came together into the ark, and on the seventeenth the waters of the flood descended on the earth; and this is most likely, since this was the most ancient way of beginning the year; for it was not until after the Jews came out of Egypt that they began their year in Nisan on sacred accounts; and besides the autumn was a proper time for Noah’s gathering in the fruits of the earth, to lay up in the ark, as well as for the falling of the rains; though others think it was in the spring, in the most pleasant time of the year, and when the flood was least expected: the Arabic writers w, contrary to both, and to the Scripture, say, that Noah, with his sons, and their wives, and whomsoever the Lord bid him take into the ark, entered on a Friday, the twenty seventh day of the month Adar or Agar: according to the Chaldean account by Berosus x, it was predicted that mankind would be destroyed by a flood on the fifteenth of the month Daesius, the second month from the vernal equinox: it is very remarkable what Plutarch y relates, that Osiris went into the ark the seventeenth of Athyr, which month is the second after the autumnal equinox, and entirely agrees with the account of Moses concerning Noah: according to Bishop Usher, it was on the seventh of December, on the first day of the week; others the sixth of November; with Mr. Whiston the twenty eighth:
the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened; and by both these the flood of waters was brought upon the earth, which drowned it, and all the creatures in it: by the former are meant the vast quantities of subterraneous waters, which are more or greater than we know; and might be greater still at the time of the deluge:
“there are large lakes, (as Seneca observes z,) which we see not, much of the sea that lies hidden, and many rivers that slide in secret:”
so that those vast quantities of water in the bowels of the earth being pressed upwards, by the falling down of the earth, or by some other cause unknown to us, as Bishop Patrick observes, gushed out violently in several parts of the earth, where holes and gaps were made, and where they either found or made a vent, which, with the forty days’ rain, might well make such a flood as here described: it is observed a, there are seas which have so many rivers running into them, which must be emptied in an unknown manner, by some subterraneous passages, as the Euxine sea; and particularly it is remarked of the Caspian sea, reckoned in length to be above one hundred and twenty German leagues, and in breadth from east to west about ninety, that it has no visible way for the water to run out, and yet it receives into its bosom near one hundred rivers, and particularly the great river Volga, which is of itself like a sea for largeness, and is supposed to empty so much water into it in a year’s time, as might suffice to cover the whole earth, and yet it is never increased nor diminished, nor is it observed to ebb or flow: so that if, says my author, the fountains of the great deep, or these subterraneous passages, were continued to be let loose, without any reflux into them, as Moses supposes, during the time of the rain of forty days and forty nights; and the waters ascended but a quarter of a mile in an hour; yet in forty days it would drain all the waters for two hundred and forty miles deep; which would, no doubt, be sufficient to cover the earth above four miles high: and by the former, “the windows” or flood gates of heaven, or the “cataracts”, as the Septuagint version, may be meant the clouds, as Sir Walter Raleigh b interprets them; Moses using the word, he says, to express the violence of the rains, and pouring down of waters; for whosoever, adds he, hath seen those fallings of water which sometimes happen in the Indies, which are called “the spouts”, where clouds do not break into drops, but fall with a resistless violence in one body, may properly use that manner of speech which Moses did, that the windows or flood gates of heaven were opened, or that the waters fell contrary to custom, and that order which we call natural; God then loosened the power retentive in the uppermost air, and the waters fell in abundance: and another writer upon this observes c, that thick air is easily turned into water; and that round the earth there is a thicker air, which we call the “atmosphere”; which, the further it is distant from the earth, the thinner it is, and so it grows thinner in proportion, until it loseth all its watery quality: how far this may extend cannot be determined; it may reach as far as the orb of the moon, for aught we know to the contrary; now when this retentive quality of waters was withdrawn, Moses tells us, that “the rain was upon the earth forty days” and “forty nights”: and therefore some of it might come so far as to be forty days in falling; and if we allow the rain a little more than ten miles in an hour, or two hundred and fifty miles in a day, then all the watery particles, which were 10,000 miles high, might descend upon the earth; and this alone might be more than sufficient to cover the highest mountains.
(We now know that the earth’s atmosphere does not extent more than a few miles above the earth’s surface, before thinning out rapidly. If all the water vapour in our present atmosphere fell as rain, the ground would be covered to an average depth of less than two inches d. Even if there was a vapour canopy, this would not be a major source or water. Most of the water came from subterranean sources or volcanic activity. We know that volcanic eruptions spew much steam and water vapour into the atmosphere. This would later fall as rain. For a complete discussion of this see the book in footnote e. Ed.)
t In Bab. Roshhashanah, fol. 11. 2. u Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. w Elmacinus, p. 11. apud Hottinger. p. 251. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 8. x Apud Syncell. p. 30, 31. y De Iside & Osir. z Nat. Quaest. l. 3. c. 30. a Bedford’s Scripture Chronology, c. 12. p. 154. b History of the World. B. l. c. 7. sect. 6. c Bedford’s Scripture Chronology. p. 153. See Scheuchzer. Physica, vol. 1. p. 45. Ray’s Physico-Theolog. Discourses, Disc. 2. c. 2. p. 71. d The Genesis Flood, Whitcomb and Morris, 1978, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, p. 121. e Ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Here is, I. The date of this great event; this is carefully recorded, for the greater certainty of the story.
1. It was in the 600th year of Noah’s life, which, by computation, appears to be 1656 years from the creation. The years of the old world are reckoned, not by the reigns of the giants, but the lives of the patriarchs; saints are of more account with God than princes. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Noah was now a very old man, even as men’s years went then. Note, (1.) The longer we live in this world the more we see of the miseries and calamities of it; it is therefore spoken of as the privilege of those that die young that their eyes shall not see the evil which is coming, 2 Kings xxii. 20. (2.) Sometimes God exercises his old servants with extraordinary trials of obedient patience. The oldest of Christ’s soldiers must not promise themselves a discharge from their warfare till death discharge them. Still they must gird on their harness, and not boast as though they had put it off. As the year of the deluge is recorded, so,
2. We are told that it was in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, which is reckoned to be about the beginning of November; so that Noah had had a harvest just before, from which to victual his ark.
II. The second causes that concurred to this deluge. Observe,
1. In the self-same day that Noah was fixed in the ark, the inundation began. Note, (1.) Desolating judgments come not till God has provided for the security of his own people; see ch. xix. 22, I can do nothing till thou be come thither: and we find (Rev. vii. 3) that the winds are held till the servants of God are sealed. (2.) When good men are removed judgments are not far off; for they are taken away from the evil to come, Isa. lvii. 1. When they are called into the chambers, hidden in the grave, hidden in heaven, then God is coming out of his place to punish,Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21.
2. See what was done on that day, that fatal day to the world of the ungodly. (1.) The fountains of the great deep were broken up. Perhaps there needed no new creation of waters; what were already made to be, in the common course of providence, blessings to the earth, were now, by an extraordinary act of divine power, made the ruin of it. God has laid up the deep in storehouses (Ps. xxxiii. 7), and now he broke up those stores. As our bodies have in themselves those humours which, when God pleases, become the seeds and springs of mortal diseases, so the earth had in it bowels those waters which, at God’s command, sprang up and flooded it. God had, in the creation, set bars and doors to the waters of the sea, that they might not return to cover the earth (Psa 104:9; Job 38:9-11); and now he only removed those ancient land-marks, mounds, and fences, and the waters of the sea returned to cover the earth, as they had done at first, ch. i. 9. Note, All the creatures are ready to fight against sinful man, and any of them is able to be the instrument of his ruin, if God do but take off the restraints by which they are held in during the day of God’s patience. (2.) The windows of heaven were opened, and the waters which were above the firmament were poured out upon the world; those treasures which God has reserved against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war,Job 38:22; Job 38:23. The rain, which ordinarily descends in drops, then came down in streams, or spouts, as they call them in the Indies, where clouds have been often known to burst, as they express it there, when the rain descends in a much more violent torrent than we have ever seen in the greatest shower. We read (Job xxvi. 8) that God binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them; but now the bond was loosed, the cloud was rent, and such rains descended as were never known before nor since, in such abundance and of such continuance: the thick cloud was not, as ordinarily it is, wearied with waterings (Job xxxvii. 11), that is, soon spent and exhausted; but still the clouds returned after the rain, and the divine power brought in fresh recruits. It rained, without intermission or abatement, forty days and forty nights (v. 12), and that upon the whole earth at once, not, as sometimes, upon one city and not upon another. God made the world in six days, but he was forty days in destroying it; for he is slow to anger: but, though the destruction came slowly and gradually, yet it came effectually.
3. Now learn from this, (1.) That all the creatures are at God’s disposal, and that he makes what use he pleases of them, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy, as Elihu speaks of the rain, Job 37:12; Job 37:13. (2.) That God often makes that which should be for our welfare to become a trap, Ps. lxix. 22. That which usually is a comfort and benefit to us becomes, when God pleases, a scourge and a plague to us. Nothing is more needful nor useful than water, both the springs of the earth and the showers of heaven; and yet now nothing was more hurtful, nothing more destructive: every creature is to us what God makes it. (3.) That it is impossible to escape the righteous judgments of God when they come against sinners with commission; for God can arm both heaven and earth against them; see Job xx. 27. God can surround men with the messengers of his wrath, so that, if they look upwards, it is with horror and amazement, if they look to the earth, behold, trouble and darkness,Isa 8:21; Isa 8:22. Who then is able to stand before God, when he is angry? (4.) In this destruction of the old world by water God gave a specimen of the final destruction of the world that now is by fire. We find the apostle setting the one of these over against the other, 2Pe 3:6; 2Pe 3:7. As there are waters under the earth, so tna, Vesuvius, and other volcanoes, proclaim to the world that there are subterraneous fires too; and fire often falls from heaven, many desolations are made by lightning; so that, when the time predetermined comes, between these two fires the earth and all the works therein shall be burnt up, as the flood was brought upon the old world out of the fountains of the great deep and through the windows of heaven.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 11-24:
The Scriptures are precise in fixing the exact date for the beginning of the Deluge: the six hundredth year, the second month, the seventeenth day, of Noah’s life. It is not possible to fix the date according to today’s calendar; However, Noah and his family followed the Lord’s instructions regarding the animal creatures, the creeping things, and the fowls. Then they entered themselves into the ark as Jehovah instructed. Noah himself did not close the door of the ark. It is significant that Jehovah Himself did this last remaining task.
After seven days’ waiting, the rains began. This in itself was unusual; Ge 2:5, 6 indicates that there was no rain upon the pre-flood world. The ground was watered by means of a mist. The rains continued to fall unabated for forty days and forty nights.
Another source of waters in the Deluge: the “windows of heaven were opened.” This likely refers to the “waters which were above the firmament” (Ge 1:7), which surrounded the atmosphere or the visible heavens immediately above the earth.
The third source of waters: the “fountains of the great deep.” These are subterranean springs and rivers, some of which today have outlets deep in the ocean floor.
The fact that these three natural sources of water produced the Deluge in no way negates the miraculous nature of this event. The Scriptures reveal that God frequently used natural events for miraculous purposes.
The Deluge was not confined to the geographical area where Noah lived. It extended over the entire planet. The tremendous weight of the waters, the silt and sediment deposits, the catastrophic effects of the Flood likely produced a change in the geography of the pre-flood world, with the post-flood earth little resembling what it formerly was. In numerous places throughout the world archaeologists have discovered layers of strata of one civilization upon another for a depth of hundreds of feet, then a stratus of clay and water-borne sediment several feet thick, with evidence of human habitation beneath this layer of clay.
Another evidence of the universality of the Flood is the very name of Noah and human etymology. Various forms of the name “Noah” may be found in the language and traditions of peoples throughout the world. The Sanskrit Manu can trace its derivation from an equivalent word in “Proto-Indo-European” language. “Manu” is the name of the flood-hero in the legends and traditions of India. Another name in ethnic tradition is “mannus,” founder of West Germanic peoples. Egypt, Sumeria, Crete, Greece, the once mighty Congo Empire of Africa, Japan, all have traditions of a mighty hero whose name in these various languages bears striking resemblance to “Noah.” Even on the American continent, both North and South America, this tradition holds among the native peoples. Wherever people settled after the Flood, they carried the Flood-tradition, though in the course of time it became corrupted to fit their own particular religion. All these traditions confirm the fact that the Deluge of Noah’s day was universal.
The highest mountain on earth today is Mount Everest. This mountain peak is a part of the Himalyas, and is situated on. the border of Nepal and Tibet. Its height is 29,028 feet above sea-level. If this was the highest peak in the pre-flood world, the flood-waters were approximately 29,052 feet deep, or about five and a half miles deep at sea-level.
All life-forms on earth “in whose nostrils (was) the breath of life” perished in the Deluge. Only Noah and his family, and the creatures in the ark, were saved alive.
The flood-waters continued to rise for one hundred and fifty days before they became quiet and began to abate.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up. Moses recalls the period of the first creation to our memory; for the earth was originally covered with water; and by the singular kindness of God, they were made to recede, that some space should be left clear for living creatures. And this, philosophers are compelled to acknowledge, that it is contrary to the course of nature for the waters to subside, so that some portion of the earth might rise above them. And Scripture records this among the miracles of God, that he restrains the force of the sea, as with barriers, lest it should overwhelm that part of the earth which is granted for a habitation to men. Moses also says, in the first chapter, that some waters were suspended above in the heaven; and David, in like manner, declares, that they are held enclosed as in a bottle. Lastly, God raised for men a theater in the habitable region of the earth; and caused, by his secret power, that the subterraneous waters should not break forth to overwhelm us, and the celestial waters should not conspire with them for that purpose. Now, however, Moses states, that when God resolved to destroy the earth by a deluge, those barriers were torn up. And here we must consider the wonderful counsel of God; for he might have deposited, in certain channels or veins of the earth, as much water as would have sufficed for all the purposes of human life; but he has designedly placed us between two graves, lest, in fancied security, we should despise that kindness on which our life depends. For the element of water, which philosophers deem one of the principles of life, threatens us with death from above and from beneath, except so far as it is restrained by the hand of God. In saying that the fountains were broken up, and the cataracts opened, his language is metaphorical, and means, that neither did the waters flow in their accustomed manner, nor did the rain distil from heaven; but that the distinctions which we see had been established by God, being now removed, there were no longer any bars to restrain the violent irruption.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 7:11. Great deep.] The great abyssthe mighty roaring deep: Heb. tehmsame word as in Gen. 1:2; Pro. 8:24, &c: Sept. and Vulg. abyss. Broken up.]Or, burst open.Windows.] Prop. the latticed, enclosed; hence gen. window, flood-gate; but Sept. waterfalls.
Gen. 7:16. Shut him in.] Lit. Then does Jehovah shut up round about him. How touchingly beautiful! Thena closing act, as when a mother closes up about her dear ones for the night: Jehovah,the God of covenant grace, the Becoming One, ever becoming some further and something fresh to those who trust in him. It is He who performs this graceful and gracious act.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 7:11-24
THE DELUGE; OR, THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON THE SIN OF MAN
There are some who regard the deluge as the outcome of the natural workings of physical laws, and not as a miraculous visitation of heaven; they intimate that it was the ordinary result of flood and rain, so common in those Eastern climes. We think, however, that the supposition is far from being satisfactory, and is inadequate to the requirements of the case. It was evidently the result of supernatural intervention. The ordinary floods and rains of these Eastern countries have never exercised such a destructive influence upon the lives of men and animals either before or since. It was unique in its effects. And certainly if it had been the ordinary outcome of natural laws, it would have been of frequent occurrence. It is true that God sometimes sends his retribution through the ordinary workings of nature, thus rebuking and punishing the sin of man; but the deluge is no instance of this method of retribution. We are inclined to think that the flood occurred about April; certainly before Autumn. Both the time of its advent, the effect of its working, and the purpose of it, mark it as a miracle of heaven. As such Noah would regard it, and as such it is full of significant teaching to human souls.
I. That the chronology of the Divine judgments is important, and should be carefully noted and remembered. In the six hundredth year of Noahs life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
1. The chronology of Divine retribution is important as a record of history. Some men are accustomed to regard historic dates as of very little importance, as things only to be learnt by the schoolboy. And certain it is that dates are not as important as facts or principles, but they have a significance peculiarly their own, and are generally evidences of credibility and certainty. We cannot afford to neglect them. History is full of them. They remind us of great transactions, of battles won. They are also important in the domestic life. They chronicle events both joyous and sad; the birth of a child, the death of a parent. They are useful in the Church, either to recall days of persecution, acts of heroism, and times of emancipation from the power of evil. It is well that the exact dates should be assigned to the judgments of heaven, that men may study and remember them, and that their anniversary may be hallowed by becoming reverence and prayer. In those primitive times the long lives of the greatest men were as calendars for the chronicle of important events, they denoted the progress of the world. And it is better to fasten history to the life of an individual than to the dead pages of a book, as men make the record they chronicle. We ought to be more minute students of the histories of God, and of His judgments upon the sin of man, as they relate to the inner life of the soul, and record a history no unaided human pen could write.
2. The chronology of Divine retribution is important as related to the moral life and destinies of men. The deluge is not merely a cold record of history, a transaction of the hoary past, but an event of more than ordinary moral meaning. It contains a great lesson for humanity to learn, and ought to be the continued study of men. It announces the terrible ruin which sin irretrievably works to the life and commerce of countries; that it destroys a multitude of lives, and renders the material universe a desolate watery grave. It shows that the judgments of God are determined, and that they are not deterred by consequences. How many souls would be hurried into an unwelcome eternity of woe by the deluge. Hence the date of such a calamity should never be obliterated from the mind of man; but should be the portal to all the great verities of which it is the symbol.
3. The chronology of Divine retribution is important, as the incidental parts of Scripture bear a relation to those of greater magnitude. We are not to regard the events and parts of Scripture as unrelated to each other; but as blending in one sublime harmony and purpose. The blade of grass is related to the tree. The flower is related to the star, and we are not to neglect the former because it is not of equal size to the latter. We must pay heed to the incidental and lesser portions of sacred history, even to its dates, as parts of a great and sacred whole, needful and useful.
II. That God hath complete control over all the agencies of the material universe, and can readily make them subserve the purpose of His will. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.
1. The Divine Being can control the latent forces and the unknown possibilities of the universe. Man is ignorant of the grand and untoward possibilities of the created world. He beholds things, announces their properties, defines their spheres of action, proclaims their names, and vainly imagines that he has exhausted their capability. Thus he views the sea and the dry land. But the most elementary forms of matter are unknown even to the most industrious investigator and to the most learned in scientific discovery. Men may write books about the wonders of the great deep, but their pages are as the mutterings of a child. Science cannot tabulate the resources of the earth; they are only seen by the eye of the Creator. They are only responsive to the touch of omnipotence. This consideration should make men reverent in mood when they speculate as to the future of the material structure in which they now reside. The, as yet, undrilled, yea, almost unknown, legions of the material world are ready at the call of heaven to rebuke and punish the misdoing of man.
2. The Divine Being can control all the recognized and welcome agencies of the material universe, so that they shall be destructive rather than beneficial. The agencies now brought into the service of Divine retribution were, in the ordinary method of things, life-giving and life-preserving. But immediately upon the behest of God they became most destructive in their influence. When Jehovah would reprove the sin of man He can easily change His choicest blessings into emissaries of pain and grief. He can make the fertilizing waters to overflow their banks and to drown the world they were intended to enrich.
3. That the agencies of the material universe frequently co-operate with the providence of God. The world in which man lives is so arranged that it shall minister to his need, enrich his commerce, and delight his soul. It was made for man. But not less was it made for God, primarily to be the outlet of His loving heart, but often to manifest His repugnance to moral evil. All the forces and agencies of nature are arranged on the side of moral rectitude under the command of the Eternal King of heaven and earth. They will reward the good. They will punish the wicked. They re-echo the voices of inspired truth. The waters of the mighty deep catch their rhythm from the truth of God. The Spanish armada was defeated by a storm more than by the arms of men. Providence is on the side of rectitude and truth.
III. That the retributive judgments of God are a signal for the good to enter upon the safety provided for them. In the self-same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noahs wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark. It was not enough for Noah to build an ark for his safety during the coming deluge; he must also enter it. And when the good man saw the rain falling upon the earth, he felt that the threatened judgment was near, and that the closing scenes had come upon the degenerate multitude. This was the signal for his final entrance into the ark. And so when the predicted end of the universe shall come, and all things are about to be destroyed by fire, then shall the good enter into the permanent enjoyment of the heavenly rest and condition, and the wisdom of their conduct will be acknowledged. But in that day men will stand in their own individuality, they will not be saved, as were the sons and relatives of Noah, because they belong to pious families. There will be many holy parents in the ark, while their wicked sons will be carried away by the great waters.
IV. That in Divine judgments, the agencies of retribution, which are destructive to the wicked, are sometimes effective to the safety and welfare of the good. And the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. Thus we find that the same waters which were destructive to the wicked inhabitants of the ancient world, were in harmony with the provision made by Noah, and so enhanced his safety in these perilous times. And so it has sometimes occurred that the retributive events of Providence, which have been injurious to the sinful, have been a means of benediction to the good. The cloud may be a guide to the Israelites, whereas to the Egyptians it may only be a great darkness, or a wild flame. The rod of heaven may smite the evil and the good, but to the latter it blossoms and brings forth fruit.
V. That in the retributive judgments of God wicked men are placed without any means of refuge or hope. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven, were covered. The degenerate multitudes of that wicked age had no method of escape in the time of this terrible retribution. They had made no provision for the deluge; they had rejected the warnings of Noah. They might climb the tall trees, and ascend the high mountain, but the rising and angry tide soon swept them from their refuge. Men cannot climb above the reach of the judgment of God. They can only be saved in the appointed way, according to the Divine invitation. Those who despise the ark can be saved in no other manner. And so in the judgments which shall come upon the world in its last days, then those who have rejected the offers of mercy urged upon them by a faithful gospel ministry, will be without hope and without refuge amidst the terrible doom.
VI. That the measure and limits of the retributive judgments of God are divinely determined. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. The judgments of God are marked and definite as to their duration. They are determined beforehand in this respect, and are not left to wild caprice, or uncertain chance. The Divine Being determines how high the waters shall rise, and how long they shall prevail. He only knows the entire meaning of sin, and therefore alone arranges its punishment. God knows the measure of all human sorrow. LESSONS:
1. That the judgments of heaven are long predicted.
2. That they are commonly rejected.
3. That they are wofully certain.
4. That they are terribly severe.
5. They show the folly of sin.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 7:11-12. It is the Spirits purpose that the Church should keep a true chronology of Gods works.
Admirable is Gods providence in keeping souls alive between waters above and beneath.
It is Gods word alone to break and bind the fountains of the great deep, shut and open the windows of heaven.
At Gods word heaven and the deep are both ready to destroy sinners.
In the second month. In April, as it is thought, when everything was in its prime and pride; birds chirping, trees sprouting, &c., nothing less looked for than a flood; then God shot at them with an arrow suddenly, (Psa. 64:7), as saith the Psalmist. So shall sudden destruction (1Th. 5:3) come upon the wicked at the last day, when they least look for it. So the sun shone fair upon Sodom the same day wherein, ere night, it was fearfully consumed. What can be more lovely to look on than the cornfield a day before harvest, or a vineyard before the vintage?(Trapp).
Gen. 7:13-15. An important and eventful day:1 The fulfilment of promise.
2. The commencement of retribution.
3. The time of personal safety.
4. The occasion of family blessing.
Polygamy was not in the church saved from the waters.
Some of all kinds of creatures hath Gods goodness saved in the common deluge.
The breath of life is in Gods hand to give or take.
The animals:
1. Their number.
2. Their order.
3. Their obedience.
THE DOOR WAS SHUT
Gen. 7:16. And the Lord shut him in, Gen. 7:16. Noah could build the ark, could preach to the people, could bear all manner of scorn and contempt, but I conceive, strong man as he was, there was one thing he could not do, that was to shut the door of the ark against the people who in a few hours would clamour for admittance. We can readily picture to ourselves this great-hearted man as he receives the last creature into the ark, looking round on the crowd who wondered and scoffed at his procedure. There he sees his old workmen, young wives leaning on their strong husbands; little children playing with simple gladness; old men and women leaning on their staffs; perhaps distant relatives and friends. What conflict must have raged in his bosom at the thought of cutting them off from the only means of salvation, from the awful and impending doom which awaited the world. It was too much for Noah to do, so the Lord shut him in! Let us meditate on the significance of this act.
I. It teaches us, as God is the author so also is he the finisher of our work. God implants in the mothers heart the desire to teach her children of Himself, but He must apply the instruction. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God must give the increase. The seeker after salvation may pray, and read the word, and attend the means of grace, but God only can save the soul. We may speak words of comfort to the distressed, the Holy Spirit must convey the message to the heart.
II. It teaches that they who do His will shall not go unrewarded. Noah built the ark, so God insures his safety therein. Paul may fear lest after doing Gods will in preaching to others, that he shall be a castaway; but he has no ground for alarm. Paul was never less like himself than when he said those words, or rather when he was distressed with that fear. The righteous cannot know the misery of rejection. Those who put their trust in God shall never be confounded.
III. It teaches that those who do Gods will are preserved from all dangers. The Lord shut him in! so that he might not perpetrate any rash act. Had he possessed the power of opening the door, he might have jeopardized the safety of the whole family by bringing down the vengeance of God. Noahs had been a critical position but for this. Think of him as he hears the rush of waters; the shrieks of the drowning; the cries of the young and old. If you had been in his position, with the knowledge you could open the door, and take some in, would you not have been tempted to do so? But God shut him in, and when He shutteth no man can open. So shall God fortify the soul at the great day of final judgment. Mothers, fathers, children, shall see their relatives cast out, and yet be preserved from one rash word, or unbelieving act.
IV. It teaches that those who do Gods will must not expect immediate reward. Noah becomes a prisonerfor five months he had no communication from Godfor twelve months he resided in the ark. But God remembered Noah and brought him out into a wealthy place.
V. It teaches that the hand which secures the saint destroys the sinners. As God shut Noah in, insuring his safety, He shut out the world to experience the fearful doom of their sin. Hereafter the door shall be shut. On which side will you be.[Stems and Twigs.]
THE DIVINE COMMANDS
Gen. 7:16. As God had commanded him.
I. The Divine commands are severe in their requirements, Noah was required by them to build an ark, which would involve him in much anxiety and labour. He was exposed to the ridicule and fanaticism of men in so doing; for the commands of God relate to unseen things and to future events, and are not understood by the wicked. The commands of God often impose a great and continuous service, somewhat difficult to be performed. They sometimes place men in important and critical stations of life.
II. The Divine commands are extensive in their requirements. They relate not merely to the building of the ark as a whole, but to every minute detail in the great structure; and so in the moral life of man, the commands of God have reference to all the little accidents of daily life. They extend to the entire manhoodto its every sphere of action. If we offend in little, we are verily guilty of sad disobedience.
III. The Divine commands are influential to the welfare of man. Through obedience to the commands of God, Noah was preserved from the deluge; and if men would only obey the voice of God in all things, they would be shielded from much harm, and many perils. Obedience renders men safe, safe from the guilt of sin, and from the woe of Divine retribution. Thus the commands of God, though they may involve arduous service through many years, and though they extend to the entire life of man, are nevertheless influential to the temporal and eternal welfare of obedient souls.
INCREASED AFFLICTION
Gen. 7:17. And the waters increased.
I. That affliction is progressive in its development and severity. In the first place the rain is sent, then the fountains of the great deep are broken up, and then the high hills are covered with water. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (Psalms 42-7). Sorrow does not generally advance upon men all at once, its cold wave gradually rises and chills their hearts. How many souls in the wide world could write a mournful comment on the gradual increase of human grief.
II. That increased affliction is the continued and effective discipline and punishment of God. The waters of the deluge were designed to exterminate the sinful race which had corrupted the earth, and hence they covered the highest mountains, that all life should be destroyed. Augmented affliction is often occasioned by sin, and is intended to punish and remove it.
Every word of vengeance must exactly be fulfilled which God hath spoken.
Gods judgments are gradual on the wicked.
Waters of death to some, are made waters of life to others by the word of God.
Gen. 7:19-24. The bounds of nature cannot keep water from destroying, when God makes it to overflow.
Not a word of God falls to the ground concerning those whom he appoints to ruin.
No kind of life can be exempt from death, when wickedness giveth up to vengeance.
The times of increasing and perfecting vengeance are determined by God. He measures waters and numbers days.
THE ALMOST SOLITARY PRESERVATION OF A GOOD MAN FROM IMMINENT AND LONG-CONTINUED PERIL
Gen. 7:23. And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark.
I. Then moral goodness is sometimes a safeguard from the imminent perils of life. The Christian Church is constantly being reminded that the good share the dangers and calamities of the wicked, and that the same event happens to all irrespective of moral character. But this statement is not always true, for even in the circumstances of this life moral goodness is often a guarantee of safety. Heavenly ministries are ever attendant upon the good, to keep them in all their ways. God often tells good men of the coming woe, and also shows them how to escape it. Purity is wisdom.
II. Then moral goodness is signally honoured and rewarded by God. Of all the inhabitants of that ancient and degenerate world, many of them illustrious and socially great, only Noah and his relatives were saved from the destructive deluge. In this we see the true honour which God puts upon the good, as well as the safety by which He environs them. It is honourable to be morally upright.
III. Then moral goodness may sometimes bring a man into the most unusual and exceptional circumstances. It may make a man lonely in his occupation and life-mission, even though he be surrounded by a crowded world; it may make him unique in his character, and it may render him solitary in his preservation and safety. Noah was almost alone in the ark; he would be almost alone in his occupation of the new earth on which he would soon tread. And thus goodness often makes men sublimely unique in their circumstances. It requires a brave heart to be equal to the requirements of such a position.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Flood! Gen. 7:11. The scientific man asserts as the latest generalization of his science, that there is in nature the uniformity of natural sequence, in other words, that nature always moves along the same path, and that law is a necessity of things. He thus indirectly asserts the probability of miracles, indeed, he admits them. For, where there is no law, there is no transgression; and the very belief in miracles depends upon this uniformity. In nature we and deviations from this law of uniformity; and so it is in the region of providence and grace. God has a certain course of dealing generally with man, and He is pleased to diverge from that course at times, as in this instance of the flood, of Sodoms miraculous overthrow, and of Pharaohs destruction in the Red Sea. Thus
Nature is still as ever
The grand repository where He hides
His mighty thoughts, to be dug out like diamonds.Bigg.
Lessons! Gen. 7:11. It is not enough to follow in the track of the deluge, and listen to the wail of the antediluvians; it is not enough to analyse philosophically the causes of the earths upheaval and overflow; it is not enough to regard the narrative as a school for the study of Noahs character, and to gaze with an admiration that is almost awe upon one of the stalwart nobility of mankind. We must draw the lessons which the record is designed to teach, how abhorrent sin is in the sight of God in all ages, how earnest He is in the preservation of His saints to the end of time, how He shapes the things of time and sense for the evolution of His own design, educing order from its vast confusions, and resolving its complications into one grand and marvellous unity, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, and how He can and will accomplish all that He has purposed in spite of wrath of men, or rage of seas:
For what He doth at first intend,
That He holds firmly to the end.Herrich.
Divine Dates! Gen. 7:12. Mans dates are often trivial, as we see in the pages of an almanac or diary. Not so with the Divine chronology. His dates stand out like suns amid encircling stars. Around them human dates must constellate. Therefore He does not despise them. With Him they are no trifle; and He would have us view them in the same light, regarding each date in the Divine chronology as the poet expressed himself of nature, that
Each moss,
Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank
Important in the plan of Him who framed
This scale of beings.Thomson.
Helplessness! Gen. 7:18. A man overboard! is the cry! Then the passengers lean over the bulwarks with eyes riveted on the spot where a few rising airbells tell his whereabouts. Presently the head emerges above the wave, then the arms begin to buffet the water. With violent efforts he attempts to shake off the grasp of death, and to keep his head from sinking. He makes instinctive and convulsive efforts to save himself; though these struggles only exhaust his strength, and sink him all the sooner. When the horrible conviction rushed into the souls of the antediluvian sinners that the flood had really come, how they must have struggled, clutching at straws and twigs in the vain hope of physical salvation. Yet, though the bodies of all perished; shall we doubt that the spirits of many were pardoned? As it is at times with the dying sinner, when the horrible conviction rushes into his soul that he is lost, when he feels himself going down beneath a load of guilt, he grasps that which before he despised; so these drowning wretches clutched at the saving truth of Noahs preaching. They were saved, yet so as by fire, as
With failing eye, and thickening blood,
They prayed for mercy from their God.Studley.
Chronology! Gen. 7:12. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Spring clothes the earth with verdure; summer develops this verdure into its highest beauty and luxuriance; autumn crowns it with ripeness and fruitfulness; but Winter comes with its storms and frosts apparently to destroy all. Yet this apparently wanton destruction tends more to advance the progress of nature than if summer were perpetual. Just so with the Divine retribution of the deluge. As the wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about to the north; as it whirleth continually, and returneth again according to his circuits; so with the flood of waters. It was a part of the Divine plan, by which moral progress should be made, so that creation might by retrogression rise to a higher platform of inner life. Schiller says that the Fall was a giant stride in the history of the human race. So was the Divine retribution at the deluge. A wise and benevolent purpose lay hid under the apparently harsh and severe judgment. It was not only a terrible remedy for a terrible disease, but also a lever by which humanity was raised nearer to God. Dark as it was, the darkness was needed to display the lights, in it we see the sable robe,
Of the Eternal One, with all its rich,
Embroidery and emblazonment of stars.
Gods Door! It was shut as much for the security of those within, as for the exclusion of those without. When the father nightly bars the house-door, he does it for the protection of his family who are safely slumbering. God shut the door not merely to signify that the day of grace was past, but to secure the comfort and safety of Noah and his family from perishing by water. For this then was it that
The ark received her freightage, Noah last,
And God shut to the door.
Security! Swinnock says of travellers on the top of the Alps that they can see the great showers of rain fall under themdeluging the plains and flooding the riverswhile not one drop of it falls on them. They who have God for their refuge and ark are safe from all storms of trouble and showers of wrath. Noah and his family had no wetting though the windows of heaven yawned wide enough for seas to descend.
Yes! Noah, humble, happy saint,
Surrounded with the chosen few,
Sat in his ark, secure from fear,
And sang the grace that steered him through.
Troubles! Gen. 7:18. An old Puritan said that Gods people were like birds: they sing best in cages. The people of God sing best when in the deepest trouble. Brooks says: The deeper the flood was, the higher the ark went up to heaven. God imprisoned Noah in the ark that he might learn to sing sweetly. No doubt the tedium of their confinement was relieved by many a lark-like carol. The elements would make uproar enough at the first; but God could hear their song as well as when the commotion in nature ceased, and
None were left in all the land,
Save those delivered by Gods right hand,
As it were in a floating tomb.
Graduation! Gen. 7:19. Sorrows come not single spies, but in battalions. This gradual increase of human griefthis progressive rise of the waters of affliction is doubtless designed to lead men to repentance. It is said that when a rose-tree fails to flower, the gardener deprives it of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one faded leaf after another. But when every leaf is dropped: then the florist brings it out to bloom in the light. God sought by the graduation of the waters of the floodby the progressive loss of each foothold, to awaken men to repentance. Over the result He has cast a veil; but hope prompts the thought that some sought and obtained mercy, before
Beast, man and city shared one common grave,
And calm above them rolled the avenging wave,
Whilst yon dark speck, slow-floating, did contain
Of beast or human life the sole remain.Procter.
Judgment! Gen. 7:20. The men of the age of Noah were not more taken by surprise when the windows of heaven were opened to rain upon the earththe men of Jerusalem were not struck with greater consternation when the eagles of Rome came soaring towards them, bearing on their wings the vengeance of one mightier than Csarthan the men of the last day shall be. Signs and wonders shall, no doubt, precede the coming of that day; but the men then living will fail to take note of these signs! But why is it thus? Has Providence any delight in snaring the sinner? No; but he is blinded and infatuated by his own sin. No matter how plain the warnings of approaching doom may be, he passes on with an eye that will not see! No matter how terribly it may lighten and thunder, he has no ear to hear; until at length he is taken and destroyedreceiving as he sinned
The weight
And measure of eternal punishment
Weighd in the scales of Perfect Equity.Bickersteth.
Divine Care! Gen. 7:23. A pious old man, who had served God for many years, was sitting one day with several persons, eating a meal upon the bank near the mouth of a pit in the neighbourhood of Swansea. While he was eating, a dove, which seemed very tame, came and fluttered in his breast and slightly pecked him. It then flew away, and he did not think much about it; till in five minutes it came again, and did the same. The old man then said: I will follow thee, pretty messenger, and see whence thou comest. He rose up to follow the bird; and whilst he was doing so, the banks of the pit fell in. On his return he discovered that all his companions were killed. Thus was Noah preserved!
Who then would wish or dare, believing this,
Against His messengers to shut the door?Lowell.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(11) In the second month.That is, of the civil year, which commenced in Tisri, at the autumnal equinox. The flood thus began towards the end of October, and lasted till the spring. The ecclesiastical year began in Abib, or April; but it was instituted in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt (Exo. 12:2; Exo. 23:15), and can have no place here. The year was evidently the lunar year of 360 days, for the waters prevail for 150 days (Gen. 7:24), and then abate for 150 days (Gen. 8:3). Now, as the end of the first period of 150 days is described in Gen. 8:4 as the seventeenth day of the seventh month, whereas the flood began on the seventeenth of the second month, it is plain that the 150 days form five months of thirty days each. But see farther proof on Gen. 8:14.
The fountains of the great deep broken up (Heb., cloven), and the windows (lattices) of heaven were opened.This is. usually taken by commentators as a description of extraordinary torrents of rain, related in language in accordance with the popular ideas of the time and of the narrator himself. The rains poured down as though the flood-gates which usually shut in the upper waters were thrown open, while from the abysses of the earth the subterranean ocean burst its way upwards. But the words at least suggest the idea of a great cosmic catastrophe, by which some vast body of water was set loose. Without some such natural convulsion it is very difficult to understand how the ark, a vessel incapable of sailing, could have gone against the current up to the water-shed of Ararat. As the annual evaporation of the earth is also a comparatively fixed quantity, the concentrated downpour of it for forty days and nights would scarcely have produced a flood so vast as the deluge of Noah evidently was. It is thus probable that there was, besides the rains, some vast displacement of water which helped in producing these terrific effects.
We shall have occasion subsequently to notice the exactness of the dates (Gen. 8:14). Tradition might for a short time hand them down correctly, but they must soon have been committed to writing, or confusion would inevitably have crept in.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Six hundredth year second month seventeenth day Dates and measures throughout the narrative are given with an arithmetical minuteness which removes it entirely out of the region of poetry . In fact, there is no poetic colouring, no vividly emotional expression, such as might naturally be expected in the description of such an awfully impressive judgment . It reads like a simple diary of events from an eye-witness who is profoundly impressed with their divine origin and purpose, but who makes no attempt at rhetorical embellishment. See further on Gen 8:4.
Fountains of the great deep The fathomless ocean .
Broken up Rent, or cloven asunder .
The windows Lattices, sluices; margin, floodgates. The waters came from the great deep and from the skies. Two natural causes of the deluge are here, then, clearly assigned the overflowing ocean and the descending rains. The word deep ( ) primarily signifies the original watery abyss (Gen 1:2) out of which the “dry land” was elevated, and would here, therefore, be naturally applied to the ocean returning over the sinking land . This unique event is described in wholly unique phraseology . The water rushes upon the earth from the ocean as if from a multitude of suddenly opened fountains . Bursting fountains from the deep and opened lattices in the skies are pictorial conceptions of one who saw and felt the awful judgment; yet, as said above, there is no attempt at an elaborate description of scenes which have furnished poetry and painting an exhaustless field .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Flood ( Gen 7:11-16 )
Gen 7:11-12
‘In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day, were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the covered openings of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.’
Notice how precise is the statement which confirms that we have here a memory of an eventful day. Indeed, who, who was there, could forget that day? For on that day it all happened, and its date was remembered precisely.
The description confirms that there was more to it than rain. Waters flooded up as well as down. The seas rose as well as the rains falling. A huge tidal wave swept over the land to combine with the continual torrential rain from the heavens.
But there really is no justification for talking about fountains and windows as though they were intended to be taken literally. These people well knew that the rain came from the clouds, and that the seas had been there from the beginning. But huge amounts of water came flowing up as from giant springs, and water came down in torrents of which they had never seen the like, released they knew not how, for forty days and forty nights (see on Gen 7:4), yet in a way that they knew it was controlled by God. Language failed in the attempt to describe the situation, so they had to turn to metaphor. But it was not intended to be ‘a scientific description’ or to be taken literally (we still say ‘the rain came down in bucketfuls’!). They were not trying to describe the cosmos. Apart from a few learned men at a later time, no one even gave a thought to the mechanics of the world. They described what they saw, as best they could, in terms of everyday things in their everyday lives.
We do not know how the date was originally passed down, but the ancients worked on phases of the moon and the seasons of the year, and would certainly have had names for them, and possibly had names for each day in the moon cycle. When the account was written down the writer interpreted this as above.
Gen 7:13-16
‘On that very day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark. They, and every animal after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort, went into the ark to Noah, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as Elohim commanded him, and Yahweh shut him in.’
The reason for this repetition, which as we have seen is characteristic of ancient narratives and was especially appreciated by the listeners (compare nursery stories today), is to stress the exact obedience of Noah to the command of Elohim in Gen 6:19-20, and to indicate the perfect timing of God.
Noah had been told to commence entry into the ark seven days previously (Gen 7:1) but it is clear that the task took the whole seven days allotted so that it was finally completed on the very day the Flood came, and on that day the final creature entered the ark, and Noah and his family went in for the last time.
So in Gen 6:19-20 we have the Creator’s command to take creatures of all kinds into the ark, in Gen 7:2-3 we have the command from God as the covenant God to take in seven and seven of clean creatures, in Gen 7:7-9 we have the obedience to this command but shown as included in the fulfilment of the total command which is brief in summary form, and in Gen 7:14-16 we have the final declaration of the fulfilment of the Creator’s plan in detail which ties in with the original command. This continual repetition stresses that these, and only these, survive the catastrophe and that the plan is to replenish the earth. The danger with such a cataclysm was that attention might be on the dreadful flood, but the continual repetition ensures that the listener is kept very much aware of the survivors. As every good teacher knows, repetition of what is important aids the memory of his hearers.
Then ‘Yahweh shut him in’. Note the change from Elohim to Yahweh. He has entered with all living things at the command of God the Creator (the wording re the living creatures ‘after their kinds’ also echoes Genesis 1) but now it is Yahweh who shuts him in. Thus God, the covenant God, tenderly ensures the safety of His servant. The thought is not that Noah left the blocking of the gap to God, but that God Himself ensured that what Noah had done was strong enough and safe enough for the ordeal ahead. In the end their security depended not on what Noah had done, but on the faithfulness of God, Who would watch over them in what was to come. They were safe because they were safe in His hands.
EXCURSUS.
The Flood has been thought of in terms of the ending of the ice age when sea levels would rise dramatically and the skies would be filled with dense vapour, and all kinds of catastrophic events could have arisen depending on the land levels of the world at the time, but it could equally have been caused by an asteroid striking the seas and causing an unprecedented calamity, including vast clouds and huge tidal waves. However, in the end we have to accept the fact that we can have no final and specific explanation, for we do not know when it occurred, nor can we know what conditions were like at the time.
The Flood in fact lasts what was probably twelve moon cycles (a year) and ten days (Gen 8:14), roughly 354 days. Its exact length would depend on the number of days to the each moon cycle over that period. The sequence in the narrative is as follows:
1). Flood commences – 17th day of the second month
2). Ark rests on Mount Ararat – 17th day of seventh month. There are 5 moon cycles from second to seventh month which times thirty using a recognised ‘standard 30 day method’ of indicating days of a ‘month’, would equal 150 days, the period not to be taken literally (‘150 days’ is thus really a technical way of translating ‘five moon cycles’ which is what the original possibly said. Moon cycles would actually be for 28/29 days thus the period in our terminology would be about 140 – 145 days). As has been previously suggested five may be the number of covenant (later the ‘commandments’ will be given in two sets of five), or if not it is a number representing completeness.
3). Waters have abated and tops of mountains seen – 1st day of tenth month
4). Waters have receded from land which can now be seen as ‘dry’ because no longer covered by water – 1st day of first month. This is five and a half moon cycles after the seventh month. This is possibly the second ‘150 days’ (Gen 8:3), meaning five moon cycles (thus ignoring the part cycle). The whole period in our terminology would be about 155 – 160 days (140 – 145 + the extra fifteen days). With 2). this makes about 300 real days. This last 150 days includes the forty days of waiting (8:6) as the first 150 days had included the forty days of rain, and also includes the sending out of the birds.
5). The land, being ‘dry land’ again because it has come out of the sea (compare Gen 1:9), now dries out thoroughly until on 27th day of second month it is again fit for use.
(END OF EXCURSUS).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Flood Begins
v. 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
v. 12. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. v. 13. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; v. 14. they and every beast after his kind and all the cattle after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
v. 15. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
v. 16. And they that went in went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Gen 7:11, Gen 7:12
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month. Not
(1) of Noah’s 600th year. (Knobel); but either
(2) of the theocratic year, which began With Nisan or Abib (Exo 12:2; Exo 13:4; Exo 23:15; Exo 34:18; Deu 16:1; Neh 2:1), either in March or April (Rabbi Joshua, Ambrose, Luther, Calvin, Mercerus, Havernick, Kalisch, Alford, Wordsworth); or
(3) of the civil year, which commenced with the autumnal equinox in the month Tisri, “called of old the first month, but now the seventh” (Chaldee Paraphrase; Exo 32:16; Exo 34:22), corresponding to September or October (Josephus, Rabbi Jonathan; Kimchi, Rosenmller, Keil, Murphy, Bush, Ainsworth, ‘Speaker’s Commentary ). In support of the former maybe alleged the usual Biblical mode of reckoning the sacred year by numbers, and in defense of the latter that the ecclesiastical year did not begin till the time of the Exodus. In the seventeenth day of the month. “The careful statement of the chronology, which marks with such exactness day and month in the course of this occurence, puts all suspicion of the history to shame” (Havernick). The same day were all the fountains of the great deepi.e. the waters of the ocean (Job 38:16, Job 38:30; Job 41:31; Psa 106:9) and of subterranean reservoirs (Job 28:4, Job 28:10; Psa 33:1-22 :73 Deu 8:7)broken up. “Byamctynomy because the earth and other obstructions were broken up, and so a passage opened for the fountains” (Poole). “The niphal or passive form of denotes violent changes in the depths of the sea, or in the action of the earthat all events in the atmosphere” (Lange). And the windows of heaven were opened. Arubboth, from arabh, to twinenetwork or lattices; hence a window, as being closed with lattice-work instead of glass (Ecc 12:3); here the flood-gates of heaven, which are opened when it rains (cf. Gen 8:2; 2Ki 7:19; Isa 24:18; Mal 3:10). And the rain wasliterally, and there was (happened, came) violent rain; , different from , which denotes any rain, and is applied to other things which God pours down from heaven (Exo 9:18; Exo 16:4)upon the earth forty days and forty nights (cf. Gen 7:4). Though the language is metaphorical and optical, it clearly points to a change in the land level by which the ocean waters overflowed the depressed continent, accompanied with heavy and continuous rain, as the cause of the Deluge (contrast with this the works of the third and fourth creative days); yet “the exact statement of the natural causes that concurred in the Deluge is a circumstance which certainly in no wise removes the miraculous nature of the whole factwho has unveiled the mysteries of nature?but which certainly shows how exact was the attention paid to the external phenomena of the Deluge” (Havernick).
Gen 7:13, Gen 7:14
In the selfsame dayliterally, in the bone, or strength, or essence (Gen 2:23) of that dayin that very day (cf. Gen 17:23, Gen 17:26); “about noonday, i.e. in the public view of the world” (Poole) a phrase intended to convey the idea of the utmost precision of time” (Bush)entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the wives of his three sons with them, into the ark. Not inconsistent with Gen 7:4, Gen 7:5, which do not necessarily imply that the actual entry was made seven days before the Flood; but merely that Noah then began to carry out the Divine instructions. The threefold recital of the entryfirst in connection with the invitation or command (Gen 7:5), and again in the actual process during the seven days (Gen 7:7), and finally on the day when the Flood began (Gen 7:15),besides lending emphasis to the narrative, heightens its dramatic effect. They, and every beast after his Mad, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort (literally, wing). The creatures here specified correspond with the enumerationviz; chay-yah, behemah, remesin Gen 1:25, q.v. The last clause, kol-canaph, Kalisch, following Clericus, translates, though, according to Rosenmller, without satisfactory reasons, “every winged creature,” and so makes “three classes of winged beingsthe eatable species (), the birds which people the air and enliven it by the sounds of their melodies (), and the endless swarms of insects (), the greatest part of which possess neither the utility of the former nor the beauty of the latter. Gesenius, however, translates it “birds of all kinds,” and Knobel regards it as synonymous with “every bird.” The LXX. give the sense of the two clauses: .
Gen 7:15
And they went in unto Noah into the ark (cf. Gen 6:20, which affirmed they should come), two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. Cf. the three expressions for an animated creature (Gen 1:30), : (Gen 7:4), .
Gen 7:16
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God (Etohim) had commanded him. This evidently closed an Elohistic passage, according to Colenso, as the ensuing clause as manifestly belongs to the Jehovistic interpolator; but the close connection subsisting between the two clauses forbids any such dislocation of the narrative as that suggested. “On the supposition of an independent Jehovistic narrative, Bishop Colenso feels it necessary to interpolate before the next statement the words, ‘And Noah and all his house went into the ark'”. And the Lord (Jehovah) shut him in. Literally, shut behind, him, i.e. closed up the door of the ark after him ( , LXX.); doubtless miraculously, to preserve him both from the violence of the waters and the rage of men. The contrast between the two names of the Deity is here most vividly presented. It is Elohim who commands him about the beasts; it is Jehovah, the covenant God, who insures his safety by closing the ark behind him.
Gen 7:17-19
And the flood was forty days upon the earth. Referring to the forty days’ and nights’ rain of Gen 7:4 ( , LXX.), during which the augmentation of the waters is described in a threefold degree. And the waters increased. Literally, grew great. The first degree of increase, marked by the floating of the ark. And bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. Literally, it was high from upon the earth, i.e. it rose above it. And the waters prevailed. Literally, were strong; from , to be strong; whence the Gibborim of Gen 6:4. And were increased greatly on the earth. Literally, became great, greatly. The second degree of increase, marked by the going of the ark. And the ark wenti.e. floated along; , LXX. (Psa 104:26)upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly. Literally, and the waters became strong, exceedingly. The third degree of increase, marked by the submergence of the mountains. And all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. A clear assertion of the universality of the Flood (Keil, Kalisch, Alford, Bush, Wordsworth); but the language does not necessarily imply more than that all the high hills beneath the spectator’s heaven were submerged (cf. Gen 41:57; Exo 9:25; Exo 10:15; Deu 2:25; 1Ki 10:24; Act 2:5; Col 1:25, for instances in which the universal terms all and every must be taken with a limited signification); while it is almost certain that, had the narrator even designed to record only the fact that all the heights within the visible horizon had disappeared beneath the rising waters, he would have done so by saying that “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.” While, then, it is admitted that the words may depict a complete submergence of the globe, it is maintained by many competent scholars that the necessities of exegesis only demand a partial inundation (Poole, Murphy, Taylor Lewis, ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ Inglis).
Gen 7:20
Fifteen cubits upwardhalf the height of the arkdid the waters prevail. Literally, become strong; above the highest mountains obviously, and not above the ground simply; as, on the latter alternative, it could scarcely have been added, and the mountains were covered.
Gen 7:21, Gen 7:22
describe the effect of the Deluge in its destruction of all animal and human life. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth. A general expression for the animal creation, of which the particulars are then specified. Both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. Literally, in fowl, and in cattle, &c. (cf. Gen 7:14). And every man. i.e. all the human race (with the exception of the inmates of the ark), which is further characterized as all in whose nostrils was the breath of life. Literally, the breath of the spirit of lives, i.e. all mankind. A clear pointing backwards to Gen 2:7, which leads Davidson to ascribe Gen 2:22, Gen 2:23 to the Jehovist, although Eichhorn, Tuch, Bleek, Vaihinger, and others leave them in the fundamental document, but which is rather to be regarded as a proof of the internal unity of the book. Of all that was in the dry land,a further specification of the creatures that perished in the Flood,died. It is obvious the construction of Gen 2:21, Gen 2:22 may be differently understood. Each verse may be taken as a separate sentence, as in the A.V; or the second sentence may commence with the words, “And every man,” as in the present exposition. Thus far the calamity is simply viewed in its objective result, In the words which follow, which wear the aspect of an unnecessary repetition, it is regarded in its relation to the Divine threatening.
Gen 7:23
And every living substance was destroyedliterally, wiped out (cf. Gen 6:7; Gen 7:4)which was upon the face of the ground, both man, andliterally, from, man urgecattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the hearten; and they were destroyedwiped, out by washing (cf. Gen 6:7)from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. The straits to which the advocates of the documentary hypothesis are sometimes reduced are remarkably exemplified by the fortunes of these verses (21-23) in the attempt to assign them to their respective authors. Astruc conjectures that Gen 7:21 was taken from what he calls monumentum B, Gen 7:22 from “monument” A, and Gen 7:23 from monument C. Eichhorn ascribes Gen 7:21, Gen 7:22 to an Elohistic author, and Gen 7:23 to a Jehovistic. Ilgen assigns Gen 7:21, Gen 7:22 to the first, and Gen 7:23 to the second Elohist. Bleek, all three to the Elohist; and Davidson Gen 7:21 to the Elohist, Gen 7:22, Gen 7:23 to the Jehovist. Amid such uncertainty it will be reasonable to cling to the belief that Moses wrote all the three verses, at least till the higher criticism knows its own mind.
Gen 7:24
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. Additional to the forty days of rain (Murphy), making 190 since the commencement of the Flood; or more probably inclusive of the forty days (Knobel, Lange, Bush, Wordsworth, ‘Speaker’s Comment.’ Inglis),which, reckoning thirty days to the month, would bring the landing of the ark to the seventeenth day of the seventh month, as stated in Gen 8:4.
HOMILETICS
Gen 7:19
Was the Flood universal?
I. THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT. Unquestionably the language of the historian appears to describe a complete submergence of the globe beneath a flood of waters, and is capable of being so understood, so far as exegesis can determine. Unquestionably also that this was the writer’s meaning would never have been challenged had it not been for certain difficulties of a scientific nature, as well as of other kinds, which were gradually seen to attach to such hypothesis. But these difficulties having arisen in men’s minds led to a closer and more careful investigation of the Scripture narrative, when it was found
1. That the language of the historian did not necessarily imply that the catastrophe described was of universal extent (vide Exposition).
2. That, if it had been only partial and local in its operation, in all probability the same, or at least closely similar, terms would have been selected to depict its appearance, as observed by a spectator.
3. That the purpose for which, according to the inspired record, the Deluge was sent could have been completely effected without the submergence of the entire globethat purpose being the destruction of the human race, which, it is believed, had not at that time overspread the earth, but was confined to a limited region contiguous to the valley of the Euphrates, That this last conjecture is not of recent origin, but was early entertained by theologians, is proved by the facts that Aben Ezra “confuteth the opinion of some who in his days held the Deluge not to have been universal” (Willet); that Bishop Patrick notes (Gen 7:19) that “there were those anciently, and they have their successors now, who imagined the Flood was not universal, ,but only there where men then dwelt;” that Matthew Poole writes, “Peradventure this Flood might not be universal over the whole earth, but only over all the habitable world, where either men or beasts lived, which was as much as either the meritorious cause of the Flood, men’s sins, or the end of it, the destruction of all men and beasts, required” (Synopsis, Gen 7:19); and that Bishop Stillingfleet in his ‘Origines Sacrae’ remarks, “I cannot see any necessity, from the Scriptures, to assert that the Flood did spread itself over all the surface of the earth. That all mankind (those in the ark excepted) were destroyed by it is most certain, according to the Scriptures; but from thence follows no necessity at all of asserting the universality of it as to the globe of the earth, unless it be sufficiently proved that the earth was peopled before the Flood, which I despair of ever seeing proved”. This opinion, it is almost needless to observe, has been adopted by the majority of modem scholars.
4. That subsequent Scriptural references to this primeval catastrophe are at least not decidedly at variance with the notion of a limited Deluge. Gen 9:15 places emphasis on the fact that the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, i.e. all mankind. Isa 54:9, pointing back to Gen 9:15, says that as God swore in the days of Noah that the earth would be no more inundated as to carry off the entire population, so did he swear then that he would not rebuke Israel. The language does not, as Wordsworth thinks, imply the universality of the Deluge. 2Pe 2:5; 2Pe 3:6 refers to the destruction of the , i.e. the world of men, the specially mentioned in the former of these passages. So far then as Scripture is concerned we are not shut up to the necessity of regarding the Deluge as universal.
II. SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.
1. Astronomical. It is urged that, as there is no sufficient evidence of any general subsidence of the earth’s crust, the theory proposed by some harmonists, that the land and water virtually exchanged places (this was supposed to be borne out by the existence of shells and corals at the top of high mountains), having now been completely abandoned (that the outlines of the great continental seas have been substantially the same from the beginningvide Gen 1:1-31. Gen 1:9, Expos.), the entire surface of the globe could be covered only by a large earth’s mass. Kalisch supposes eight tunes increase of water being added to the aggregate of water contained in all the seas and oceans of the earth; that this must have produced such a shock to the solar system as to have caused a very considerable aberration in the earth’s orbit, of which: however, no trace can be detected; and that, consequently, it is unphilosophical to imagine that such a disturbance of the entire stellar world as would necessarily follow on that event would be resorted to in order to destroy a race of sinful beings in one of the smallest planets of the system. ButBiblical science, which recognizes an incarnation of the Word of God in order to save man, will always hesitate to pronounce anything too great for the Almighty to permit or do in connection with man.
(2) It is gratuitous to infer that because a general subsidence of the earth’s crust cannot now be traced, there was none. Absence of evidence that a thing was is not equivalent to presence of proof that a thing was not. Witness the third day’s vegetation and antediluvian civilization.
(3) If even the earth’s surface were covered with water, it is doubtful if it would be much more in effect than the breaking out of a profuse sweat upon the human body, or the filling up with water of the indentures on the rough skin of an orange, in which case it is more than probable that the apprehended disturbance of the solar system would prove in great part imaginary.
2. Geological. At one time believed to afford incontestable evidence of a universal deluge in the drift formations, the diluvium of the earlier geologists (of late, with better reason, ascribed to the influence of a glacial, period which prevailed over the greater part of Central and Northern Europe m prehistoric times), geological science is now held to teach exactly the opposite. The extinct volcanoes of Langue-dec and Auvergne are believed to have been in operation long anterior to the time of man’s appearance on the earth, the remains of extinct animals being found among their sconce; and yet the lava cones are in many instances as perfect as when first thrown up, while the dross lies loose upon their sides, which it is scarcely, supposable would be the case had they been subjected to any cataclysmal immersion such as is presupposed in the Deluge. But here the mistake is that of imagining the Noachic Flood to have been of any such violent torrential character. On the contrary, the Scripture narrative represents the waters as having risen and subsided slowly, and the whole phenomenon to have been of such a kind as, while destroying human life, to effect comparatively little change upon the face of nature; and, besides, careful scientific observers have declared that the volcanic scoriae in question is not so loose as is sometimes alleged (Smith’s ‘Bib. Dict.,’ art. Noah).
3. Zoological. This refers to the difficulty of accommodating all the animals that were then alive. So long of course as Raleigh’s computation of eighty-nine distinct species of animals was accepted as correct, the task imposed upon apologists was not of a very formidable character. But of mammalia alone there are now known to exist 1658 different species, thus making about 4000 and upwards of individuals (the clean beasts being taken in sevens or seven pairs) that required to be stalled in the ark; and when to these are added the pairs of the 6000 birds, 650 reptiles, and 550,000 insects that are now recognized by zoologists, the difficulty is seen to be immensely increased. An obvious remark, however, in connection with this is that there is a tendency among modern zoologists unnecessarily to multiply the number of species. But in truth a prior difficulty relates to the collection of these multitudinous creatures from their respective habitats. If the entire surface of the globe was submerged, then must the fauna belonging to the different continents have been conveyed across the seas and lands towards the ark, and reconducted thence again to their appropriate settlements in some way not described and impossible to imagine; whereas if the inundated region extended (through the subsidence of the earth’s crust) to the Mediterranean on the west, and the Indian Ocean on the south and east, it is apparent that neither would this difficulty have proved insuperable, nor would the collection of the animals have been rendered unnecessary, the devastated country being so wide that only by preservation of the species could it have been speedily replenished.
III. The CONCLUSION, therefore, seems to be that, while Scripture does not imperatively forbid the idea of a partial Deluge, science appears to require it, and, without ascribing to all the scientific objections that are urged against the universality of the Flood that importance which their authors assign to them, it may be safely affirmed that there is considerable reason for believing that the mabbul which swept away the antediluvian men was confined to the region which they inhabited.
Gen 7:23
The Deluge.
I. A STRIKING TESTIMONY TO THE DIVINE FAITHFULNESS.
1. In respect of threatenings against the wicked. Whether the faith of Noah ever betrayed symptoms of wavering during the long interval of waiting for the coming of the Flood it is impossible to say; it can scarcely be doubted that the men who for six score years had seen the sun rise and set with unwearied regularity, that had watched the steady and continuous movement of nature’s laws and forces throughout the passing century, oftentimes exclaimed, Where is the promise of his coming, for all things continue as they were from the beginning?” And yet God kept his word, and fulfilled his threatening. “The flood came, and took them all away” (Mat 24:39). Cf. the Divine threatenings against Babylon (Jer 51:33), against Tyre (Isa 23:12), against Jerusalem (2Ki 21:13; Jer 26:18), against the Jews (Deu 28:49). Let impenitent sinners thereby be reminded that there is one more word of doom which he will yet cause to come to pass (Psa 9:17; 2Th 1:8; 2Pe 3:10).
2. In respect of promises to the saints. At the same time that he foretold to Noah the destruction of his licentious and violent contemporaries, he distinctly promised that he would establish his covenant with Noah, and preserve both him and his amid the general overthrow. And that too he implemented in due time and to the letter. Let the saints then learn to trust the precious promises of God (2Pe 1:4) which have been given to enable them to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust ( , i.e. the destruction that is already operating in the world and coming out of, as it is carried in, the world’s lust).
II. A SIGNAL DISPLAY or THE DIVINE POWER.
1. In controlling his creatures.
(1) In collecting the animals, which he did, doubtless, by making use of their instincts which led them to apprehend the coming danger. Vide Job 39-41, for God’s power over the animal creation.
(2) In using the powers of naturebreaking up the flood-gates of the deep, and opening the windows of heaven. The phenomenon was distinctly miraculous; but if God made the world, causing it to stand together out of the water and through the water, the supernatural character of the Deluge should not occasion difficulty. Nor should the power of God be overlooked in the ordinary phenomena of nature. “Nature is but another name for an effect whose cause is God.” In the miracle God reveals what he is always silently and imperceptibly doing in the natural event. Nothing happens in the realm of providence without the concurrence of Almighty power (Amo 3:6; Mat 10:29). Let God’s power exhibited over nature’s forces remind us of his ability to bring the present terrestrial economy to an end as he has promised (2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:11).
(3) In destroying the lives of men. In every case life is a gift of God, and can only be recalled by him (Deu 32:39; 2Sa 2:6). Yet, unless when God interposes to destroy on a large scale,e.g. by famine, pestilence, war, accident,his absolute and unchallengeable control over men’s lives (Psa 31:15) is apt to be forgotten. And with what infinite ease he can depopulate the fairest and most crowded regions he has often shown; witness, in addition to the Flood, the destruction of the cities of the plain (Gen 19:24, Gen 19:25), of the first-born in Egypt (Exo 12:29), of the army of Pharaoh (Exo 14:27), of the host of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:35).
2. In punishing his enemies. That appalling visitation is fitted to remind us that God is able to execute vengeance
(1) On the greatest sinners. Having cast down the sinning angels, and drowned the world of the ungodly, and burnt up the filthy Sodomites, it is scarcely likely that any criminal will be beyond his power to apprehend and chastise (2Pe 2:9; Jud 1:15).
(2) In the severest forms. Having all the resources of nature at his command,the gleaming thunderbolt, the sweeping flood, the sleeping volcano, the tempestuous hurricane, all the several and combined potencies of fire, air, earth, and water,he can never want a weapon wherewith to inflict upon his adversaries “the tribulation and wrath, indignation and anguish,” he has decreed for their portion (Rom 2:8, Rom 2:9; 2Th 1:8, 2Th 1:9; Rev 20:15; Rev 21:8).
(3) It the most unexpected times. Few things connected with the Noachic Deluge are more impressive and paralyzing to the mind than the suddenness of the surprisal with which it sprang upon the wicked generation that for 120 years had been disbelieving its reality and ridiculing the warnings of the patriarch. “So ALSO SHALL THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE.”
(4) With the most inevitable certainty. Tempted by their long lives to imagine that the penalty of death was cancelled or had become inoperative, or at least would not really be put in force against them, these men of the first age were recalled from their delusive reasonings. The Deluge was God’s proclamation that the penalty was still in force against sinners, God’s explanation of what that penalty meant, God’s certification that that penalty was sure.
3. In protecting his people. The ark floating on the waters was a visible sermon to all time coming of God’s ability to save them who believe and obey him. And, like the shelter enjoyed by Noah, the salvation which God bestows upon his people is
(1) graciousflowing from the Divine mercy;
(2) freewith no condition attached except that men shall, like Noah, believe and obey;
(3) adequatecontaining all that is required for their spiritual necessities, as the ark held abundant provision for the voyage;
(4) secure“ the Lord shut him inn.”
So says Christ, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (Joh 10:28).
III. A SOLEMN ATTESTATION OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS. Proclaiming
1. That the Divine character was holy. A deity who is himself subject to imperfection is inconceivable. But sinful men are prone to forget that God is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. In this last age of the world God has discovered that to men by sending forth an image or likeness of himself in the person of his Son, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners (cf. Joh 14:9). In the first age he announced the same great truth by the water-flood.
2. That the Divine law was holy. That, besides being himself personally pure, he requires sinless obedience at the hands of his creatures, the Almighty has in every separate era or epoch of human history taken pains to inform men; in Edenic times by the forbidden tree; in ante diluvian by the Deluge; in Mosaic by Mount Sinai; in Christian by the cross of Cal vary.
3. That the Divine government was holy. That from the first the world has been governed in the interests of holiness is unmistakably me a doctrine or scripture. If any in Noah’s time believed either that God was indifferent to righteousness, or that it was possible for “the throne of iniquity to have fellowship with him” they must have been terribly undeceived when the crack of doom was heard above their heads. So will it be when the righteous Judge reveals himself a second time in flaming fire to render unto every man according to his deeds.
Lessons:
1. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18).
2. “There is nothing too hard for the Lord” (Gen 18:14).
3. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31).
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 7:16
The believer’s safety.
Parable of the ten virgins speaks of a final separation. “The door was shut.” ‘There our thoughts are turned to those without; here, to those within. The time was come when the choice must be made. “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” The broad and narrow way. The confinement of the ark or the freedom of home; and, in view of the flood, the frail vessel or the mountains. Trust in Christ or trust in self (cf. Rom 10:3). He chose the way of faith. God shut him in (cf. Isa 26:3). He knew he was safe. The world saw no good in it. The pause of seven days (Gen 7:10) illustrates the present state. Believers rejoicing in their safety; the world unconvinced of danger.
I. CHRIST OFFERS SAFETY TO ALL. The ark was prepared that all might be saved. The condemnation was because they did not care (Joh 3:19). There was room and welcome for all who would come (cf. Luk 14:22). Noah did not preach impossible things. When Jericho was destroyed Rahab was saved. When Sodom, Lot. God bids all seek and find refuge in Christ (Rom 3:22).
II. CHRIST IS A REFUGE FROM THE CONVICTION OF SIN. How many are living without serious concern. Not rejecting the gospel; they hear it, and approve, and think that all is well. Like St. Paul, “alive without the law.” God’s commandments not understood; his holiness not known. Let such a one be led to see how God’s law reaches to the springs of life and feeling, and to feel the working of the “law of sin” in his members; then what a flood. “Who will show us any good?” Good deeds cannot give peace. Worldly good as wormwood. Conscience repeats, He has been knocking, and I have not opened (Pro 1:26). Yet, hark! his voice again: “Come unto me.” It is not too late. Even now, if thou wilt, the Lord will shut thee in.
III. THE SAFETY OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE, whom God shuts in. Who shall lay anything to their charge? Who shall condemn? Who shall separate? (Rom 8:33-35). The flood is without. Noah is weak and helpless as the world. His safety is God’s refuge. The Christian is surrounded by evil influences, messengers of Satan. Temptations to worldliness or to spiritual pride; cares and anxieties hindering prayer; suggestions of unbelief, and hard thoughts of God; the fainting of nature because so little progress made. But in Christ is safety. Coming to him daily as we are; with weak faith, with many perplexities, with the marks of many falls. His word is, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” In the trials of life “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”M.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 7:11. Second monthseventeenth day, &c. The sacred historian is exact in pointing out the period of this awful event; which came to pass on the seventeenth day of the second month of that year, which was the six hundredth of Noah’s life. Now, before the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, the second month was Marchesvan, which begins about the middle of our October, and ends about the middle of November: so that the seventeenth day of the second month, according to the generality of expositors, is about the beginning of our November: the sixth of November, says Mr. Locke.
The fountains of the great deep broken up In the original account of the disposal of the water, we are told, that all which was created was either carried aloft in clouds, or gathered together in the great communicating receptacle, called sea. See ch. 1: And, agreeable to this account, we are informed, that the deluge was occasioned by the union of the water from above and below: the fountains of the great deep were broken up: and the windows, or flood-gates, of heaven were opened. Thus the waters again prevailed over the face of the earth, as at the beginning they covered the chaotic mass. The original word for the windows of heaven, or flood-gates, as the margin of our Bibles has it, is aruboth, which properly signifies openings, cracks, or fissures of any kind, as will appear by referring to 2Ki 7:19 and Mal 3:10.
REFLECTIONS.Two secondary causes are here assigned for the deluge; the deeps were broken up, and the windows of heaven opened. When God pleases to avenge his quarrel, all creatures above, below, around us, are ready instruments for his judgments.
(1.) The fountains of the great deep were broken up. The earth is founded upon the floods; its bowels contain enough to destroy it, if God lets loose the waters from their prisons. (2.) The windows of heaven were opened: the clouds poured down incessant torrents forty days and nights. Learn here, 1. The greatest blessings may quickly be made the heaviest judgments. 2. To look beyond second causes to the first. If floods deluge, or earthquakes swallow up, there is one who gives each element its commission, and each judgment its orders. 3. That there are in the earth, as in the heavens above, storehouses of fire, as well as water; and that this world is doomed one day to experience their fatal influence. Be it our care, then, to secure a covert from the impending storm in Him who is the only refuge; and then, When thou passest through the waters, they shall not overflow thee; and when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt. Isa 43:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Ver. 11. In the second month. ] In April, as it is thought; then when everything was in its prime and pride; birds chirping, trees sprouting, &c., nothing less looked for than a flood; then God “shot at them with an arrow suddenly,” Psa 64:7 as saith the psalmist. So shall “sudden destruction” 1Th 5:3 come upon the wicked at the last day, when they least look for it. So the sun shone fair upon Sodom the same day wherein, ere night, it was fearfully consumed. What can be more lovely to look on, than the grain field a day before harvest, or a vineyard before the vintage?
All the fountains of the great deep, &c.
a Nos quasi medios inter duo sepulchra posuit .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
deep. Hebrew. tehom = the waters of the abyss, as in Gen 1:2; Gen 49:25. Deu 33:13. Psa 104:6.
windows. Not challon, a small aperture (Gen 8:6), or zohar, an opening for light (Gen 6:16), but ‘arubah, lattice or net-work, not glass. Here “floodgates”. Only here, and Gen 8:2. 2Ki 7:2, 2Ki 7:19. Ecc 12:3. Isa 24:18; Isa 24:60, Isa 24:8. Hos 13:3. Mal 3:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
second month
i.e. May.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
second month: The first month was Tisri, which answers to the latter end of September and first half of October; the second was Marchesvan, which answers to part of October and part of November.
all: Gen 1:7, Gen 6:17, Gen 8:2, Job 28:4, Job 38:8-11, Psa 33:7, Psa 74:15, Pro 8:28, Pro 8:29, Isa 24:19, Jer 5:22, Jer 51:16, Eze 26:19, Amo 9:5, Amo 9:6, Mat 24:38, 1Th 5:3
windows: or, flood-gates, Gen 1:7, Gen 8:2, 2Ki 7:2, 2Ki 7:19, Psa 78:23, Psa 78:24, Mal 3:10
Reciprocal: Gen 1:6 – Let there Gen 7:24 – General Gen 8:3 – hundred Gen 8:5 – decreased continually Gen 8:13 – six Gen 8:14 – General Job 12:15 – he sendeth Job 22:16 – whose foundation was overflown with a flood Job 36:28 – General Psa 46:2 – though Psa 148:4 – waters Pro 3:20 – the depths Isa 24:18 – for the Amo 5:8 – that calleth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
DURATION AND EXTENT OF THE FLOOD
When did the flood begin (Gen 7:11)? What shows an uprising of the oceans and seas, occasioned perhaps by a subsiding of the land? How long did the rain continue? What suggests a rising of the water even after the rain ceased (Gen 7:17-19)? How long did it continue to rise (Gen 7:24)? What circumstance mentioned in Gen 2:5 may have given a terrifying accompaniment to the rain? When and where did the ark rest (Gen 8:4)?
Ararat is rendered Armenia in 2Ki 19:37 and Isa 37:38. What is the story of Noahs messengers (Gen 8:6-12)? How long did the flood last (Gen 8:14)? A beautiful parallel is found in considering the ark as a type of Christ. All the waves of divine judgment passed over Him, and He put Himself judicially under the weight of all His peoples sins. But He rose triumphantly from the grave to which that penalty had consigned Him. Nor did He thus rise for Himself only, but for all believers who are in Him by faith as was Noah and his family in the ark.
But did the flood actually occur? and did it cover the whole earth? are questions frequently asked. As to the first, the Word of God is all-sufficient to the man of faith, but it is pertinent to add that the event is corroborated by tradition and geology. As to the second, there may be a division of opinion even among those who accept the authority of Scripture.
Gen 7:19-23 seems to teach its universality, but whether this means universal according to the geography of Noah or Moses or the geography of the present, is a question as to which Christians are divided.
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Gen 7:11. In the six hundredth year of Noahs life, second month, the seventeenth day It must be observed here, that the year among the Hebrews was two-fold: the one sacred, for the celebration of feasts, beginning in March, Exo 12:12; the other civil, for mens political or civil affairs, beginning in September. Accordingly this second month has been thought by some to have been part of April and part of May, the most pleasant time of the year, when a flood was least expected or feared; by others, part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered in the fruits of the earth and laid them up in the ark: so that the flood came in with the winter, and was, by degrees, dried up by the heat of the following summer. And this latter opinion seems more probable, because the most ancient and first beginning of the year was in September; and the other beginning of it in March, a later institution, which took place among the Jews, with respect to their feasts and religious affairs only, which are not concerned here. The fountains of the great deep were broken up There needed no new creation of waters; God has laid up the deep in storehouses, Psa 33:7; and now he broke up those stores. God had, in the creation, set bars and doors to the waters of the sea, that they might not return to cover the earth, Psa 104:9; Job 38:9-11; and now he only removed these ancient mounds and fences, and the waters returned to cover the earth, as they had done at first, chap. Gen 1:9. And the windows of heaven were opened And the waters which were above the firmament were poured out upon the world; those treasures which God, has reserved against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war, Job 38:22-23. The rain, which ordinarily descends in drops, then came down in streams. We read, Job 26:8, that God binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them; but now the bond was loosed, the cloud was rent, and such rains descended as were never known before or since.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the {e} fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
(e) Both the waters in the earth overflowed and also the clouds poured down.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Flood proper 7:11-24
There are two views among evangelicals as to the extent of the Flood.
1. The flood was universal in that it covered the entire earth. Here is a summary of the evidence that supports this view.
a. The purpose of the Flood (Gen 6:5-7; Gen 6:11-13).
b. The need for an ark (Gen 6:14).
c. The size of the ark (Gen 6:15-16).
d. The universal terms used in the story (Gen 6:17-21; Gen 7:19; Gen 7:21-23). Context must determine whether universal terms are truly universal or limited (cf. Luk 2:1; Mat 28:19-20).
e. The amount of water involved (Gen 7:11; Gen 7:20; Gen 8:2).
f. The duration of the Flood: 371 days (Gen 7:11; Gen 8:14).
g. The testimony of Peter (2Pe 3:3-7).
h. The faithfulness of God (Gen 8:21).
This view has been the most popular with conservative interpreters throughout history.
"By and large, the tradition of the Christian church is that the context requires a universal flood, and many Christian scholars have maintained this position knowing well the geological difficulties it raises." [Note: Davis, p. 124. See Whitcomb and Morris; Boice, 1:278-88; Ariel A. Roth, "Evidences for a worldwide flood," Ministry (May 1984), pp. 12-14; Donald Patten, "The Biblical Flood: A Geographical Perspective," Bibliotheca Sacra 128:509 (January-March 1971):36-49; and Wolf, pp. 101-6.]
2. The flood was local and covered only part of the earth. The evidence is as follows.
a. The main arguments rest on modern geology and the improbability of a universal flood in view of consequent global changes.
b. Advocates take the universal statements in the text as limited to the area where Moses said the Flood took place.
This view has gained wide acceptance since the modern science of geology has called in question the credibility of the text.
"The principle concern of those advocating a local flood is to escape the geological implications of a universal flood." [Note: Davis, p. 124. See Ramm, pp. 229-40; and Kidner; et al.; who advocated a local flood.]
"Since the distorted concept of special creation used by the originator of the geologic column was never truly Creationistic, and organic evolution has long since become the conceptual basis for time-equivalence of index fossils, modern Creationists can justifiably point out that organic evolution is the basis for the geological column." [Note: John R. Woodmorappe, "A Diluviological Treatise on the Stratigraphic Separation of Fossils," Creation Research Society Quarterly (December 1983):135.]
Basically, this controversy, like that involving the creation account, involves presuppositions about the credibility of Scripture or science and the possibility of supernatural occurrences. The scientific community seems to be more open to catastrophism of some kind than it used to be. [Note: See Henry Morris, "Biblical Catastrophism and Modern Science," Bibliotheca Sacra 125:498 (April-June 1968):107-15. An interesting article on some ancient non-biblical accounts of the Flood is Jack P. Lewis, "Noah and the Flood in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Tradition," Biblical Archaeologist 47:4 (December 1984):224-39. See also J. Randall O’Brien, "Flood Stories of the Ancient Near East," Biblical Illustrator 13:1 (Fall 1986):60-65. ]
Some interpreters have understood the opening of the "floodgates of the sky" (Gen 7:11) as a breaking up of a water vapor canopy that some say covered the earth before the Flood. [Note: See my comments on 2:5-6.] Advocates of this "canopy theory" believe that it may account for longevity before the Flood.
"The water for Noah’s Flood came from the release of great underground sources of water (the fountains of the great deep which continued pouring forth for 150 days), and from the collapse of the waters above (presumably a vast water vapor blanket or canopy above the atmosphere), giving the 40 days and nights of rain. Psalms 104 indicates that after the Flood, the mountains were upthrust to their present positions, with associated deepening of the ocean basins, which now hold the waters of the Flood.
"These waters would not have been enough to cover today’s highest mountains. Genesis indicates no rain or rainbows before the Flood, which is consistent with the absence of high mountains that are important to the triggering of rainfall. Also, the absence of large temperature differences between poles and equator under such a greenhouse blanket of water vapor would mean an absence of the vast winds which are also necessary (now, but not before the Flood) for the rainfall cycle. Genesis describes how the earth before the Flood was watered by mists and/or springs and geysers." [Note: Ham, et al., p. 15. Cf. also pp. 117-29 for further discussion.]
"We have shown earlier that the flood narrative points ahead to Moses and the escape of the Hebrews through the Red Sea. This is evidenced again by the term ’dry land’ (haraba) in our passage (Gen 7:22) rather than the customary ’dry ground’ (yabasa). This infrequent term occurs eight times, only once more in the Pentateuch at Exo 14:21, where it describes the transformation of the sea into ’dry land’ by a ’strong east wind.’ This exodus parallel is confirmed by Gen 8:1 b, which speaks of God’s sending a ’wind’ upon the waters. Later Israel identified itself with Noah and the tiny group of survivors who escaped the wicked by the awesome deeds of God." [Note: Mathews, pp. 381-82.]