And God spoke unto Noah, saying,
15 19. Noah is commanded to leave the Ark, and to replenish the Earth. (P.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– XXVII. The Ark Was Evacuated
19. mshpachah, kind, clan, family. shpchah, maid-servant; related: spread.
20. mzbeach, altar; related: slay animals, sacrifice.
21. ‘olah, whole burnt-offering. That which goes up. Step; related: go up.
Gen 8:15-19
The command to leave the ark is given and obeyed. As Noah did not enter, so neither does he leave the ark, without divine direction. The fowl, the cattle, and the creeper. Here, again, these three classes are specified under the general head of every living tiring. They are again to multiply on the earth. Every living thing. This evidently takes the place of the cattle mentioned before. After their families. This word denotes their tribes. It is usually applied to families or clans.
Gen 8:20-22
The offering of Noah accepted. The return to the dry land, through the special mercy of God to Noah and his house, is celebrated by an offering of thanksgiving and faith. Builded an altar. This is the first mention of the altar, or structure for the purpose of sacrifice. The Lord is now on high, having swept away the garden, and withdrawn his visible presence at the same time from the earth. The altar is therefore erected to point toward his dwelling-place on high. Unto the Lord. The personal name of God is especially appropriate here, as he has proved himself a covenant keeper and a deliverer to Noah. Of all clean cattle, and every clean fowl. The mention of clean birds renders it probable that these only were taken into the ark by seven pairs Gen 7:3. Every fit animal is included in this sacrifice, as it is expressive of thanksgiving for a complete deliverance. We have also here the first mention of the burnt-offering ‘olah; the whole victim, except the skin, being burned on the altar. Sacrifice is an act in which the transgressor slays an animal and offers it in whole, or in part as representative of the whole, to God. In this act he acknowledges his guilt, the claim of the offended law upon his life, and the mercy of the Lord in accepting a substitute to satisfy this claim for the returning penitent. He at the same time actually accepts the mercy of the Most High, and comes forward to plead it in the appointed way of reconciliation. The burnt-offering is the most perfect symbol of this substitution, and most befitting the present occasion, when life has been granted to the inmates of the ark amidst the universal death.
Gen 8:21
The effect of this plea is here described. The Lord smelled the sweet savor. He accepted the typical substitute, and, on account of the sacrifice, the offerers, the surviving ancestors of the post-diluvian race. Thus, the re-entrance of the remnant of mankind upon the joys and tasks of life is inaugurated by an articulate confession of sin, a well-understood foreshadowing of the coming victim for human guilt, and a gracious acceptance of this act of faith. The Lord said in his heart. It is the inward resolve of his will. The purpose of mercy is then expressed in a definite form, suited to the present circumstances of the delivered family. I will not again curse the soil any more on account of man. This seems at first sight to imply a mitigation of the hardship and toil which man was to experience in cultivating the ground Gen 3:17. At all events, this very toil is turned into a blessing to him who returns from his sin and guilt, to accept the mercy, and live to the glory of his Maker and Saviour. But the main reference of the passage is doubtless to the curse of a deluge such as what was now past. This will not be renewed. Because the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. This is the reason for the past judgment, the curse upon the soil: not for the present promise of a respite for the future. Accordingly, it is to be taken in close connection with the cursing of the soil, of which it assigns the judicial cause. It is explanatory of the preceding phrase, on account of man. The reason for the promise of escape from the fear of a deluge for the future is the sacrifice of Noah, the priest and representative of the race, with which the Lord is well pleased. The closing sentence of this verse is a reiteration in a more explicit form of the same promise. Neither will I again smite all living as I have done. There will be no repetition of the deluge that had just overswept the land and destroyed the inhabitants.
Gen 8:22
Henceforth all the days of the earth. – After these negative assurances come the positive blessings to be permanently enjoyed while the present constitution of the earth continues. These are summed up in the following terms:
| HEAT | Sowing, beginning in October |
| | Reaping, ending in June |
| COLD | Early fruit, in July |
| | Fruit harvest, ending in September |
The cold properly occupies the interval between sowing and reaping, or the months of January and February. From July to September is the period of heat. In Palestine, the seedtime began in October or November, when the wheat was sown. Barley was not generally sown until January. The grain harvest began early in May, and continued in June. The early fruits, such as grapes and figs, made their appearance in July and August; the full ingathering, in September and October. But the passage before us is not limited to the seasons of any particular country. Besides the seasons, it guarantees the continuance of the agreeable vicissitudes of day and night. It is probable that even these could not be distinguished during part of the deluge of waters. At all events, they did not present any sensible change when darkness reigned over the primeval abyss.
The term of this continuance is here defined. It is to last as long as the order of things introduced by the six days creation endures. This order is not to be sempiternal. When the race of man has been filled up, it is here hinted that the present system of nature on the earth may be expected to give place to another and a higher order of things.
Here it is proper to observe the mode of Scripture in the promise of blessing. In the infancy of mankind, when the eye gazed on the present, and did not penetrate into the future, the Lord promised the immediate and the sensible blessings of life, because these alone are as yet intelligible to the childlike race, and they are, at the same time, the immediate earnest of endless blessings. As the mind developes, and the observable universe becomes more fully comprehended, these present and sensible sources of creature happiness correspondingly expand, and higher and more ethereal blessings begin to dawn upon the mind. When the prospect of death opens to the believer a new and hitherto unknown world of reality, then the temporal and corporeal give way to the eternal and spiritual. And as with the individual, so is it with the race. The present boon is the earnest in hand, fully satisfying the existing aspirations of the infantile desire. But it is soon found that the present is always the bud of the future; and as the volume of promise is unrolled, piece by piece, before the eye of the growing race, while the present and the sensible lose nothing of their intrinsic value, the opening glories of intellectual and spiritual enjoyment add an indescribable zest to the blessedness of a perpetuated life. Let not us, then, who flow in the full tide of the latter day, despise the rudiment of blessing in the first form in which it was conferred on Noah and his descendants; but rather remember that is not the whole content of the divine good-will, but only the present shape of an ever-expanding felicity, which is limited neither by time nor sense.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 8:15-19
Noah went forth
Mans going forth after the judgments of God –
I.
THAT HE GOES FORTH UPON THE DIVINE COMMAND (Gen 8:15-17).
1. That Noah was counselled to go forth from the ark on a day ever to be remembered.
2. That Noah was commanded to go forth from the ark when the earth was dry.
II. THAT HE GOES FORTH IN REFLECTIVE SPIRIT. We can readily imagine that Noah would go forth from the ark in very reflective and somewhat pensive mood.
1. He would think of the multitudes who had been drowned in the great waters.
2. He would think of his own immediate conduct of life, and of the future before him.
III. THAT HE GOES FORTH IN COMPANY WITH THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED HIS SAFETY.
1. He goes forth in company with the relatives of his own family. God permitted the family of Noah to be with him in the ark, to relieve his solitude, to aid his efforts, to show the protective influence of true piety; and now they are to join him in the possession of the regenerated earth, that they may enjoy its safety and aid its cultivation.
2. He goes forth in company with the life-giving agencies of the universe. (J. S.Exell, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
15, 16. And God spake . . . GoforthThey went forth in the most orderly mannerthe humanoccupants first, then each species “after their kinds” [Ge8:19], literally, “according to their families,”implying that there had been an increase in the ark.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And God spake unto Noah, saying,…. Whether in a dream or vision, or by an articulate voice, appearing in an human form, or by an impulse on his mind, is not certain; however, the Lord spoke so to him, that he heard him and understood him: it was, no doubt, very rejoicing to him, since he had not heard his voice for a year or more, at least that we read of; and what he said to him was as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Here is, I. Noah’s dismission out of the ark, v. 15-17. Observe, 1. Noah did not stir till God bade him. As he had a command to go into the ark (ch. vii. 1), so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. Note, We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set him before us in all our removes. Those only go under God’s protection that follow God’s direction and submit to his government. Those that steadily adhere to God’s word as their rule, and are guided by his grace as their principle, and take hints from his providence to assist them in their application of general directions to particular cases, may in faith see him guiding their motions in their march through this wilderness. 2. Though God detained him long, yet at last he gave him his discharge; for the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, it shall speak truth (Hab. ii. 3), it shall not lie. 3. God had said, Come into the ark which he says, not, Come forth, but, Go forth, which intimates that God, who went in with him, staid with him all the while, till he sent him out safely; for he has said, I will not leave thee. 4. Some observe that, when they were ordered into the ark, the men and the women were mentioned separately (ch. vi. 18): Thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives; hence they infer that, during the time of mourning, they were apart, and their wives apart, Zech. xii. 12. But now God did as it were new-marry them, sending out Noah and his wife together, and his sons and their wives together, that they might be fruitful and multiply. 5. Noah was ordered to bring the creatures out with him, that having taken the care of feeding them so long, and been at so much pains about them, he might have the honour of leading them forth by their armies, and receiving their homage.
II. Noah’s departure when he had his dismission. As he would not go out without leave, so he would not, out of fear or humour, stay in when he had leave, but was in all points observant of the heavenly vision. Though he had been now a full year and ten days a prisoner in the ark, yet when he found himself preserved there, not only for a new life, but for a new world, he saw no reason to complain of his long confinement. Now observe, 1. Noah and his family came out alive, though one of them was a wicked Ham, whom, though he escaped the flood, God’s justice could have taken away by some other stroke. But they are all alive. Note, When families have been long continued together, and no breaches made among them, it must be looked upon as a distinguishing favour, and attributed to the Lord’s mercies. 2. Noah brought out all the creatures that went in with him, except the raven and the dove, which, probably, were ready to meet their mates at their coming out. Noah was able to give a very good account of his charge; for of all that were given to him he had lost none, but was faithful to him that appointed him, pro hac vice–on this occasion, high steward of his household.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 15-19:
As Noah waited for God’s voice to instruct him to enter the ark, so he waited within the ark until God told him to exit. Only two creatures preceded him; the raven, and the dove. All others followed in orderly progression, as they had entered. All who went in, came out. Not one was lost, either of humans or animals or creeping things. It is suggested that Divine intervention interrupted the normal breeding process during the stay in the ark, to prevent over-crowding and to assure an adequate food supply.
Peter cites the ark experience as an illustration of the role of baptism in the Christian experience (1Pe 3:20, 21). The “eight souls” of Noah’s family were saved from physical death, not by the waters of the flood, but because they were inside the ark. They entered the ark before the flood waters came. This illustrates the salvation of the soul of man, before baptism. We are not saved by the waters of baptism; we are saved because we are in Christ, who is our Ark of deliverance, see Ro 8:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. And God spake unto Noah. Though Noah was not a little terrified at the judgment of God, yet his patience is commended in this respect, that having the earth, which offered him a home, before his eyes, he yet does not venture to go forth. Profane men may ascribe this to timidity, or even to indolence; but holy is that timidity which is produced by the obedience of faith. Let us therefore know, that Noah was restrained, by a hallowed modesty, from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature, till he should hear the voice of God directing him to do so. Moses winds this up in a few words, but it is proper that we should attend to the thing itself. All ought indeed, spontaneously, to consider how great must have been the fortitude of the man, who, after the incredible weariness of a whole year, when the deluge has ceased, and new life has shone forth, does not yet move a foot out of his sepulcher, without the command of God. Thus we see, that, by a continual course of faith, the holy man was obedient to God; because at God’s command, he entered the ark, and there remained until God opened the way for his egress; and because he chose rather to lie in a tainted atmosphere than to breathe the free air, until he should feel assured that his removal would be pleasing to God. Even in minute affairs, Scripture commends to us this self-government, that we should attempt nothing but with an approving conscience. How much less is the rashness of men to be endured in religious matters, if, without taking counsel of God, they permit themselves to act as they please. It is not indeed to be expected that God will every moment pronounce, by special oracles, what is necessary to be done; yet it becomes us to hearken attentively to his voice, in order to be certainly persuaded that we undertake nothing but what is in accordance with his word. The spirit of prudence, and of counsel, is also to be sought; of which he never leaves those destitute, who are docile and obedient to his commands. In this sense, Moses relates that Noah went out of the ark as soon as he, relying on the oracle of God, was aware that a new habitation was given him in the earth.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. The Disembarkation (Gen. 8:15-19).
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of all flesh, both birds, and cattle, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him: 19 every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatsoever moveth upon the earth, after their families, went forth out of the ark.
(1) Note that Noah obeyed God in every detail. M. Henry (CWB, 21): Noah did not stir until God bade him. Those only go under Gods protection that follow Gods direction and submit to his government. God had said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the Ark (Gen. 7:1); once the occupants were all inside the Ark, God closed the door (Gen. 7:16); and now that the Flood had abated and the earth was again ready for re-population, God spake unto Noah and his house, Go forth from the ark (Gen. 8:16). Always it was God who directed, and always Noah obeyed. Again, Henry (CWB, 21): Note, God consults our benefit rather than our desires. We would go out of the ark before the ground is dried: and perhaps, if the door be shut, are ready to remove the covering. Gods time of showing mercy is certainly the best time, when the mercy is ripe for us and we are ready for it.
(2) Note some interesting facts about Noahs family:
(1) The name of Noahs wife is not given, nor are the names of the wives of Noahs sons. Though no mention is made of the fact specifically, it seems obvious that their loyalty to their husbands and to God was evidenced by their obedience. By way of contrast, the names of the women in the Line of Cain are given, and they are names which indicate sheer worldliness and irreligiousness (cf. Gen. 4:16-24).
(2) The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The etymology of these names is not certain but they seem to have the following import: Shem (name, renown), Ham (dark-colored), and Japheth (wide spreading, he enlarges). Traditionally Shem has been regarded the oldest of the three; however, there are authorities who take the position that Japheth was the eldest and Ham the youngest of the three (cf. Gen. 10:21). (See under Part XIX supra). (3) The language of Gen. 9:18-19 apparently forbids our assumption that Noah sired other sons after the withdrawal from the ark; nor is there any statement made in earlier chapters (especially ch. 5) that Noah begat sons and daughters, as is made of each of the patriarchs who preceded him, before the Flood. (4) Finally, it is most significantis it not?that there is no indication that either Noah or any of his sons was a polygamist. This again is evidence of the general piety which seems to have characterized the Line of Seth. It seems evident that the men in the Ark respected the Divine origin and sanctity of the marriage relation.
(3) The withdrawal from the Ark took place on the 27th day of the second month of the 601st year of .Noahs life, On that day Noah and his house, and all creatures that were with him in the Ark, came forth on dry land, They had gone into the Ark from a world filled with debauchery and violence; they came forth from the Ark into an earth purged by Divine judgment, new and clean, and bright with opportunity. The Ark became the second cradle of the race: from it Noah and his family went forth to a new probation.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
See Gen. 9:28-29.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15-19) Go forth . . . At the end of exactly a solar year, thus curiously rectified, Noah, his family, and all the animals belonging to the Noachian world-circle are to leave the ark. The vast extent of the flood, and the total destruction of all that had existed before, is indicated by the repetition of the primval command, in Gen. 1:22, to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. Whatever the flood may have been with respect to the whole globe, it was to Noah and his race absolutely a. new beginning of things.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
God the Creator Tells Those Who are in the Ark That All Is Now Well ( Gen 8:15-19 )
Gen 8:15-17
‘And God spoke to Noah saying, “Go out from the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, both bird and domesticated animal, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth”.’
At last the cataclysm is over and they can leave their refuge. Here God gives Noah His preliminary confirmation, which will be more solemnly enacted later, of His purpose for the world. This word of encouragement is nicely timed. The feelings of those who are in the ark are impossible to gauge. They have just experienced the destruction of their world and now they must face what appears to be an uncertain future. So God immediately confirms that there is a future. The earth is to begin again in the same way as before.
Gen 8:18-19
‘So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, every animal, every creeping thing and every bird, whatever moves on the earth (land), after their families, went out of the ark.’
Notice the repetitiveness even within two sentences. Repetitiveness is a feature of the whole narrative to encourage audience participation and memory. As always Noah obeys God and does exactly what He says.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
EXPOSITION
Gen 8:15-17
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark. For which command doubtless the patriarch waited, as he had done for instructions to enter in (Gen 7:11), “being restrained by a hallowed modesty from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature till he should hear the voice of God directing him to do so” (Calvin). Thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. The order is different, in Gen 7:7, whence Ambrose noteth, “non commiscetur sexus in introitu, sod commiscetur in ingressu.” Bring forth with theeGod having preserved alive the creatures that a twelvemonth before had been taken into the ark, and were now to be restored to their appropriate habitations on the earthevery living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (cf. Gen 7:21; Gen 9:10); that they may breed abundantlysharatz, to creep or crawl, used of reptiles and small water animals (Gen 1:20; Gen 7:21); hence to swarm, or multiply (Gen 9:7)in the earth, and be fruitful (Gen 1:22), and multiplyliterally, become numerousupon the earth.
Gen 8:18, Gen 8:19
And Noah went forth,in obedience to the Divine command,and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him,in obedience to Noah, to whom alone the Divine instructions were communicated;an early instance of filial subjection to parents. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, i.e. the chayyah, the remes, the ‘oph, all creepers upon the ground (cf. Gen 1:26; Gen 7:8, Gen 7:14), all of which had previously entered in. After their kinds. Hebrew, families, tribes (Gen 10:18); i.e. not confusedly, but in an orderly fashion, as they had come in, each one sorting to its kind. Went forth out of the ark.
Gen 8:20
And Noah builded an altar. Mizbeach, a place for slaying sacrifices, from zabach, to slaughter animals (Gen 31:54), to slay in sacrifice (Le Gen 9:4; 1Sa 1:4), as , from , is the first altar mentioned in history. The English term (from altus, high) signifies a high place, because the altar was commonly a raised structure or mound of earth or stones (Exo 20:24). Keil thinks that altars were not required prior to the Flood, the Divine presence being still visibly among men at the gate of Eden, “so that they could turn their offerings and their hearts towards that abode.” Poole, Clarke, Bush, and Inglis hold that the antediluvian sacrifices presupposed an altar. Unto the Lord. Jehovah, the God of salvation. And took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. Vide Gen 7:2. “Seldom has there been a more liberal offering in proportion to the means of the giver. His whole stock of clean animals, wherewith to fill the world, was seven pairs of each” (Inglis). And offered. By Divine appointment, since his service was accepted; and “all religious services which are not perfumed with the odor of faith are of an ill savor before God (Calvin); but “God is peculiarly well pleased with free-will offerings, and surely, if ever an occasion existed for the exercise of grateful and adoring sentiments, the present was one” (Bush). Burnt offerings. ‘oloth, literally, things that ascend, from ‘alah, to go up, alluding not to the elevation of the victims on the altar, but to the ascension of the smoke of the burnt offerings to heaven (cf. Jdg 20:40; Jer 48:15; Amo 4:10). On the altar.
Gen 8:21
And the Lord (Jehovah) smelledas is done by drawing the air in and out through the nostrils; from the root ruach, to breathe; high; to smella sweet savor. Reach hannichoach literally, an odor of satisfaction, acquiescence, or rest; from nuach, to rest, with an allusion to Noah’s name (vide Gen 5:29); (LXX.); (cf. Le Gen 2:12; Gen 26:31; Num 15:3; Eze 6:13). The meaning is that the sacrifice of the patriarch was as acceptable to God as refreshing odors are to the senses of a man; and that which rendered it acceptable was
(1) the feeling from which it sprang, whether gratitude or obedience;
(2) the truths which it expressedit was tantamount to an acknowledgment of personal guilt, a devout recognition of the Divine mercy, an explicit declaration that he had been saved or could only be saved through the offering up of the life of another, and a cheerful consecration of his redeemed life to God;
(3) the great sacrifice of which it was a type. Paul, by using the language of the LXX. (Eph 5:2), shows that he regarded the two as connected. And the Lord said in his heart. I.e. resolved within himself. It is not certain that this determination on the part of Jehovah was at this time communicated to the patriarch (cf. Gen 6:3, Gen 6:7 for Divine inward resolves which were not at the moment made known), unless the correct reading be to his (Noah‘s) heart, meaning the Lord comforted him (cf. Jdg 19:3; Rth 2:13; Isa 40:2; Hos 2:14), which is barely probable. I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake. Literally, I will not add to curse. Not a revocation of the curse of Gen 3:17, nor a pledge that such curse would not be duplicated. The language refers solely to the visitation of the Deluge, and promises not that God may not some. times visit particular localities with a flood, but that another such world-wide catastrophe should never overtake the human race. For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Gen 6:5 assigns this as the reason for man’s destruction; a proof of inconsistency between the Elohistic author and his Jehovistic editor (Bleek). “Hie inconstantiae videtur Deus accusari posse” (Luther). “God seems to contradict himself by having previously declared that the world must be destroyed because its iniquity was desperate” (Calvin). Some endeavor to remove the incongruity by translating as although (Bush, Inglis), but “there are few (if any) places were can be rendered although“ (T. Lewis). Others connect it with “for man’s sake,” as explanatory not of the promise, but of the past judgment (Murphy), or as stating that any future cursing of the ground would not be for man’s sake (Jacobus). The true solution of the difficulty appears to lie in the clause “from his youth,” as if God meant to say that whereas formerly he had visited man with judicial extermination on account of his absolute moral corruption, he would now have regard to the circumstance that man inherited his depravity through his birth, and, instead of smiting man with punitive destruction, would visit him with compassionate forbearance (Keil, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). Tayler Lewis regards the expression as strongly anthropopathic, like Gen 6:6, and indicative of the Divine regret at so calamitous an act as the Deluge, although that act was absolutely just and necessary. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. There should be no more deluge, but
Gen 8:22
While the earth remaineth. Literally, as yet, all the days of the earth, i.e. henceforth, so long as the earth continues, expressing the ideas of repetition and continuance (vide Gen 8:12). Seed-time and harvest,from roots signifying to scatter, e.g. seed, and to cut off, specially grain; (LXX.)and cold and heat, (LXX.)and summer and winter. Properly the cutting off of fruits, from a root meaning to cut off, hence summer; and the time when fruits are plucked, hence autumn (including winter); the import of the root being to gather, to pluck off; (LXX.). The first term of each pair denotes the first half of the year, and the second term of each pair the second half. And day and night (cf. Gen 1:5) shall not cease. Hebrew, lo yish-bothu, shall not sabbatise, or keep a day of rest; i.e. they shall continue ever in operation and succession. This Divine promise to conserve the orderly constitution and course of nature is elsewhere styled “God’s covenant of the day and of the night” (cf. Jer 33:20, Jer 33:25).
Traditions of the Deluge.
1. The Babylonian.
(1) From the Chaldean monuments. As deciphered from the eleventh tablet of the Izdubar series, the story of the Flood is briefly this:Izdubar, whom George Smith identifies with Nimrod, the founder of Babylonia, is informed by Hasisadra, whom the same authority believes to represent Noah, of a Divine commandment which he had received to construct a ship after a specified pattern, in which to save himself and “the seed of all life,” because the city Surippak wherein he dwelt was to be destroyed. After first attempting to excuse himself, as he explains to Izdubar, on the ground that “young and old will deride him,” Hasisadra builds the ship, and causes to go up into it “all my male servants and my female the ants, the beast of the field, the animal of the field, the sons of the people, all of them,” while the god Shamas makes a flood, causing it to rain heavily. The flood destroys all life from the face of the earth Six days and nights the storm rages; on the seventh it grows calm. Twelve measures above the sea rises the land. The ship is stopped by a mountain in the country of Nizir. After seven days Hasisadra sends forth a dove, “which went and turned, and a resting-place it did not find, and it returned;” then a swallow, and finally a raven. On the decrease of the waters he sends forth the animals, and builds an altar on the peak of the mountain, and pours out a libation (‘Chaldean Genesis,’ Gen 16:1-16; ‘Records of the Past,’ vol. 7:133-141).
(2) From Berosus. The god Kronos appeared to Xisuthrus, the tenth Mug of Babylon, in a vision, and warned him of an approaching deluge upon the fifteenth day of the month Desius, by which mankind would be destroyed. Among other things the god instructed him to build a vessel for the preservation of himself and friends, and specimens of the different animals. Obeying the Divine admonition, he built a vessel five stadia in length and two in breadth, and conveyed into it his wife, children, and friends. After the flood had been upon the earth he three times sent out birds from the vessel, which returned to him the second time with mud upon their feet, and the third time returned to him no more. Find. ing that the vessel had grounded on a mountain, Xisuthrus disembarked with his wife and children, and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, in reward for which he was raized immediately to heaven.
2. The Egyptian. Though commonly alleged to be entirely unknown in the Nile valley, it is certain that the germs of the Deluge story are to be discovered even there. According to the Egyptian historian Manetho, quoted by Eusebius, Thoth, the first Hermes, erected certain pillars with inscriptions, which, after the Deluge, were transcribed into books. Plato also states in the Timaeus that a certain Egyptian priest informed Solon that the gods, when wishing to purify the earth, were accustomed to overwhelm it by a deluge, from which the herdsmen and shepherds saved themselves on the tops of the mountains. Josephus (‘Ant.,’ I. 3.9) certifies that Hieronymus the Egyptian refers to the Flood. A conception altogether analogous to that of Genesis is likewise to be found in a myth belonging to the archaic period of Seti I; which represents Ra, the Creator, as being disgusted with the insolence of mankind, and resolving to exterminate them. In short, the Egyptians believed not that there was no deluge, but that there had been several The absence of any indications of this belief in the recovered literature of ancient Egypt is not sufficient to set aside the above concurrent testimonies to its existence.
3. The Indian. Through the theft of the sacred Vedas by the giant Hayagrivah, the human race became fearfully degenerate, with the exception of seven saints and the good King Satyavrata, to whom the Divine spirit Vishnu appeared in the form of a fish, in. forming him of his purpose to destroy the earth by a flood, and at the same time to send a ship miraculously constructed for the preservation of himself and the seven holy ones, along with their wives, and one pair of each of all the irrational animals. After seven days the rain descended, when Satyavrata, confiding in the promises of the god, saw a huge ship drawing near, into which he entered as directed. Then the god appeared in the form of a fish a million miles long, with an immense horn, to which the king made the ship fast, and, drawing it for many years (a night of Brahma), at length landed it upon the highest peak of Mount Himavau. When the flood abated the god arose, struck the demon Hayagrivah, recovered the sacred books, instructed Satyavrata in all heavenly sciences, and appointed him the seventh Mann, from whom the second population of the earth descended in a supernatural manner, whence man is styled Manudsha (born of Mann). Vide Kalisch, p. 203; Auberlen’s ‘Divine Revelation,’ p. 169 (Clark’s ‘For. Theol. Lib.’ ).
4. The Grecian. It is sufficient here to refer to the well-known story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, first given in Pindar, and afterwards related by Apollodorus, Plutarch, Lucian, and Ovid, whose account bears so close a resemblance to the Biblical narrative as to suggest the probability of access to Hebrew or Syrian sources of information. The previous corruption of manners and morals, the eminent piety of Deucalion, the determination “genus mortals sub undisperdere,” the construction of a boat by Divine direction, the bursting of the storm, the rising of the waters, the universal ocean in which “jamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant,” the subsidence of the flood, the landing of the boat on Parnassus with its double peak, the consultation of the Deity “per sacras sortes,” and the answer of the god as to how the earth was to be re-peopled “ossaque post tergum magnae jactare parentis,” are detailed with such graphic power as makes them read “like amplified reports of the record in Genesis.” Indeed, by Philo, Deucalion was distinctly regarded as Noah. Cf. Ovid, ‘Metamorph.,’ lib. 1. f. 7.; ‘Kalisch on Genesis,’ p. 203; Kitto’s ‘Bible Illustrations,’ p. 150 (Porter’s edition); ‘Lange on Genesis,’ p. 294, note by Tayler Lewis; Smith’s ‘ Dictionary of the Bible,’ art. Noah.
5. The American. Traditions of the Flood appear to be even more numerous in the New World than the Old. The Esquimatux in the North, the Red Indians, the Mexicans and the Brazilians in the central parts of America, and the Peruvians in the South have all their peculiar versions of the Deluge story. Chasewee, the ancestor of the Dog. rib Indians, on the Mackensie river, according to Franklin, escaped in a canoe from a flood which overflowed the earth, taking with him all manner of four-footed beasts and birds. The Astees, the Mixtees, the Zapotess, and other nations inhabiting Mexico all have, according to Humboldt, their Noahs, Xisuthrus, or Manus (called Coxcox, Teocipactli, or Tezpi), who saves himself by a raft, or in a ship, which lands upon the summit of Colhuacan, the Ararat of the Mexicans. The legends of the Tamanacks relate that a man and woman saved themselves from the Deluge, and repeopled the earth by casting behind them the fruits of the Mauritia palm tree.
What, then, is the conclusion to be drawn from this universal diffusion of the Deluge story? The theory of Schirren and Gerland, as stated by the writer of the article Deluge in the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica,’ is that the Deluge stories were originally other-myths, descriptive of the phenomena of the sky, which have been transferred from the celestial regions to the earth; but, as Kalisch justly observes, “the harmony between all these accounts is an undeniable guarantee that the tradition is no idle invention;” or, as is forcibly stated by Rawlinson, of a tradition existing among all the great races into which ethnologists have divided mankind,the Shemites, the Hamites, the Aryans, the Turanians,”but one rational account can be given, viz; that it embodies the recollection of a fact in which all mankind was concerned.”
HOMILETICS
Gen 8:15-22
The saint and the Savior.
I. THE SAVIOR‘S INJUNCTION TO THE SAINT (Gen 8:15). The command which God addressed to Noah and the other inmates of the ark to go forth and take possession of the renovated earth may be regarded as emblematic of that Divine instruction which shall yet be given to the saints to go forth and take possession of the now heavens and the new earth, when the great gospel ship of the Christian Church, now floating on the troubled sea of life, shall have landed with its living freight upon the coasts of bliss. The Divine command to Noah was an order to pass
1. From a situation of comparative peril to a position of perfect safety. Though, certainly, before the bursting of the storm the only available shelter was that afforded by the ark, “all flesh and all in whose nostrils was the breath of life” that remained without having perished, yet even inside the ark must have seemed to the inexperienced voyagers to be at the best of only doubtful security. But now whatever danger had been connected with their twelve months’ drifting across a trackless sea was at an end. And so, though only within the shelter of the Christian Church can safety be enjoyed, yet at the best it is not entirely free from peril. What with temptations and afflictions, “fears within and foes without,” there always is a risk of making shipwreck of the soul (1Ti 1:19); but when life’s voyage has been finished, and the new heavens and the new earth have been revealed, the salvation of the saints will be complete.
2. From a period of patient hoping to a season of delightful enjoying. It is doubtful if we always sufficiently realize the greatness of the strain to which the faith of the patriarch was subjected when he was shut up within the ark and left there for over a twelvemonth without any direct communication from God, with nothing for his faith to rest upon but the simple promise that he and his should be saved. At the best it was only little foretastes or earnests of God’s complete salvation which he enjoyed: first in being sheltered from the storm; next in being floated above the waters; then in touching land upon Ararat; and again in getting signs of the approaching deliverance. Throughout the entire period he could only live in hope and patiently endure. But here at length was the time of full fruition come. Go forth from the ark. And so it is with Christ’s saints universally. Here are only earnests of the inheritance (Eph 1:14); there alone is the inheritance itself (Col 1:12). Now is the time for hoping and waiting (Rom 8:25); then is the season for seeing and enjoying (1Jn 3:2). Here the saints rest upon the promise as their guarantee (2Ti 1:1; Heb 4:1); there the saints behold and experience its realization (Heb 6:12).
3. From a condition of restrained activity to a sphere of higher and freer service. Not that Noah’s life within the ark could in any sense have been one of idleness, and neither are the lives of Christians on the earth and in the Church below; but Noah entered on another and a nobler kind of work when he left the ark than that which had engaged his powers within its precincts, and so do they who are counted worthy of attaining to Christ’s Kingdom and glory. Here, like Noah’s, the saint’s powers of service are limited and confined; there they shall attain to greater freedom and fuller scope (1Co 13:9-12; Rev 4:8.)
II. THE SAINT‘S RESPONSE TO THE SAVIOR (Gen 8:18). The command to leave the ark which God addressed to Noah was obeyed
1. Immediately. We can imagine that everything was in a state of readiness for departure when the marching orders came, so that there was no need to interpose delay. So was it with the Hebrews when the Lord led them forth from Egypt (Exo 12:11); so should Christians be always ready for their Master’s summons, whether to pass from affliction (Isa 3:11) or into it (Gen 22:1; Act 21:13), to enter upon a new sphere of work (Isa 6:8) or retire from an old one into silence (1Ki 17:3); to go down into the grave (2Ti 4:6) and wait for the apocalypse of the saints (Job 14:14), or to go up into glory and partake of the inheritance of the saints in light (Mat 24:44).
2. Universally. Not the patriarch alone, but all his family and all the creatures came forth; so did all God’s people come forth from the house of bondage (Exo 10:26); and so will all Christ’s redeemed ones who have entered into the salvation ark of his Church emerge at last into the light and felicity of heaven (Isa 51:11; Luk 12:32; 1Co 15:22; 1Th 4:14).
3. Joyfully. This we may infer. After the twelve months’ isolation, and confinement, and comparative peril we need not doubt that Noah and his family exulted with delight, and that even the lower creatures were not strangers to agreeable sensations. It was a picture of the happiness which even here the saints enjoy in the Divine interpositions on their behalf; but especially of the universal thrill of gladness which God’s redeemed family, and even “the creature itself,” shall experience in the palingenesia of the heavens and the earth (Isa 35:10; Rom 8:19-23)
4. Finally. They were never more to return to the ark, because never again should there he a flood. It was a delightful symbol of the completeness and finality of God’s salvation when the saints shall have been landed on the heights of bliss (Rev 21:4; Rev 22:3-5).
III. THE SAINT‘S WORSHIP OF THE SAVIOR (Gen 8:20). As Noah’s first act on stepping forth from the ark was to build an altar unto the Lord, so the saint’s first work on reaching heaven will be to worship; and this worship will be
1. Believing. This was implied in the very thought of offering up a sacrifice to Jehovah, but specially so in the circumstances in which the patriarch was then placed. The visible symbol of the Divine presence had retired to its original dwelling-place in the heavens, and yet Noah had as little doubt as ever he had that there was a God to worship. The building of an altar, therefore, just then and there was an explicit declaration of his faith. Without faith there can be no worship of God either there or there, on earth or in heaven (Heb 11:6).
2. Thankful. The offering of Noah was designed as an expression of his gratitude for the Lord’s mercy, and so should the worship of the saints on earth be characterized by the same spirit (Php 4:6), as we know the adorations of the saints before the throne are (Rev 7:12).
3. Generous. Noah took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, i.e. one of seven or one of fourteen (vide Expos.), in either case a munificent tribute to the God of his salvation. How seldom is the like liberality exhibited by Christ’s worshippers on earth! What a blessed thought it is that among the saints above there will be no temptation to such meanness as is often practiced by the saints below!
4. Sincere. It was no merely formal service that the patriarch presented. The burnt offering was a symbolic declaration of his self-consecrationbody, soul, and spiritto the God who had redeemed him. Of this sort is the service which Christ expects and believers should render on the earth (Mat 16:24; Luk 14:26; Rom 12:1; 1Co 6:20). Of such kind will be the worship of the saints in heaven (Rev 22:8).
IV. THE SAVIOR‘S RESPONSE TO THE SAINT (Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22). As the sacrifice of Noah was well-pleasing unto God, so will the worship of the saints find acceptance in his sight. And this acceptance of the sacrifices of the glorified, like the reception of Noah’s offering
1. Will consist in the cherishing by God of a feeling of sweet complacency towards the worshippers. As from the burning victims upon Noah’s altar there came up into the Divine nostrils a savor of rest, so from the spiritual sacrifices of Christians even here there ascends an odor of a sweet smell unto God (Php 4:18), while in the upper sanctuary the services of the redeemed go up continually before God like the smoke of incense (Rev 8:4).
2. Will be based upon the odor of the sacrifice of Christ, of which Noah’s was the type. It was not the actual service of Noah, considered as an opus operatum, that produced the feeling of complacency in God (Mic 6:7), but the sacrificial work of Christ, to which the faith of the patriarch had an outlook (Eph 5:2). For the sake of that offering up of himself once for all in the end of the world that was to be accomplished by the woman’s seed, and which Noah’s faith truly, however dimly, embraced, God accepted him and his. That same offering is the ground or basis on which all the saints sacrifices are accepted either on earth (1Pe 2:5) or in heaven (Rev 5:6).
3. Will express itself through the perpetuation of the worshipper’s safety.
(1) By averting all evil. “There shall be no more curse (Rev 22:3), as God determined in his heart (Gen 8:21), and afterwards expressed to Noah (Gen 9:15), never more to curse the ground or flood the earth.
(2) By securing all good, which was symbolized by the confirmation of the covenant of day and night.
Lessons:
1. Live in a state of readiness for the glorious appearing of the Son of man (Tit 1:13).
2. Expectantly wait for the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom 8:19).
3. Learn the nature of the saint’s service in the heavenly world (Rev 5:8).
4. Note the security for the perpetuity of heaven’s blessednessChrist’s sacrifice and God’s covenant.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 8:13-19
Rest and restoration.
Noah (Rest) comes forth from the ark in the sabbath century of his life, the six hundred and first year. He lived after the Flood 350 years, the half week of centuries; his life represented a rest, but not the rest, a half sabbath, promise of the rest which remains to the people of God.
I. AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH.
1. Not until God spake did Noah dare to do more than lift off the covering and look.
2. At the heavenly word the family, redeemed by grace, takes possession of the redeemed habitation.
II. THE REDEEMED LIFE IN ITS NEW APPOINTMENT. GO forth of the ark into the new world. There is the keynote of the Bible. Man redeemed is man living by every word of God.
1. By Divine commandment going into the prepared refuge.
2. By Divine commandment taking down old bounds and occupying new places.
3. Going forth into a promised land rejoicing in a pledged future.
4. Carrying with him all lower creatures into a new, progressive, God-blessed inheritance. The whole creation groaning and travailing, the whole creation participating in the Divine deliverance.R.
Gen 8:20-22
The sanctification of the earth.
The sweet savor of man’s burnt offerings
(1) not the offerings of caprice, but the fulfillment of Divine commands,
(2) the reciprocation of Heaven’s communications
(3) ascends from the earth-built altar and fills the Lord with satisfaction. In return for that obedience and devotion the curse is removed, the earth is sealed with the saving strength of God in a covenant of peace.
I. RELIGIOUS LIFE IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD when it is
(1) grateful acknowledgment of his mercy;
(2) humble obedience to his own revealed will;
(3) consecration of place, time, life, possessions to him.
II. UNION and COMMUNION between God and man is the foundation on which all earthly happiness and security rest.
III. The FORBEARANCE AND MERCY OF GOD in his relation to those whose hearts are yet full of evil is at once probation and grace. The ground is not cursed any more for man’s sake, but, the more evidently, that which falls upon the ground may fall upon man himself. The higher revelations of God in the post-Noachic period were-certainly larger bestowments of grace, but at the same time they involved a larger responsibility. So the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reasons as to the punishment of those who trample underfoot the covenant of the gospel. The progressive covenants which make up the history of God’s grace recorded in the Scriptures are progressive separations of the evil and the good, therefore they point to that complete and final separation in which God’s righteousness shall be eternally glorified.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 8:15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Ver. 15. And God spake unto Noah. ] See Trapp on “ Gen 8:16 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God. Elohim, the Creator, speaking from without. Compare Gen 7:16 with Gen 8:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gen 8:15-21. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;
Until then, the earth had been obnoxious to Jehovah. He had put it away from him as a foul thing, drowned beneath the flood; but after the offering of Noahs sacrifice, the Lord smelled a savour of rest.
Gen 8:21-22. And the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground. And any more for mans sake, for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Thus we see what we may expect so long as the earth remains, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Now let us read a few verses from Jeremiahs prophecy.
This exposition consisted of readings from Gen 8:15-22; and Jer 33:15-26.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Reciprocal: Heb 1:1 – at
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
There are many interesting thematic parallels between God calling Noah out of the ark and God calling Abraham out of Ur (cf. Gen 8:15 and Gen 12:1; Gen 8:16 and Gen 12:1; Gen 8:18 and Gen 12:4; Gen 8:20 and Gen 12:7; Gen 9:1 and Gen 12:2; Gen 9:9 and Gen 12:7).
"Both Noah and Abraham represent new beginnings in the course of events recorded in Genesis. Both are marked by God’s promise of blessing and his gift of the covenant." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," p. 91.]
Gen 8:15 introduces the third dispensation, the dispensation of human government. When Noah and his family stepped out of the ark to begin life on earth anew, God laid down new rules for humanity, including a new test. Previously no one had the right to take another human life (cf. Gen 4:10-11; Gen 4:14-15; Gen 4:23-24). Now, though man’s direct moral responsibility to God continued, God delegated to man certain areas of His authority. Man was now to express his obedience to God not only by obeying God directly but also by obeying the human authorities God would set over him, namely, human governors (cf. Mat 22:21; Rom 13:1-2).
The highest function of human government is the protection of human life. God now specified that human beings were not to avenge murder individually but to do so as a corporate group, to practice capital punishment, to safeguard the sanctity of human life. Human life is a gift from God that people should not dispose of except as God permits. Restraint on man in the preceding dispensation was internal (Gen 6:3), God’s Spirit working through moral responsibility. But now a new external restraint was added: the influence and power of civil government.
Unfortunately, man failed to rule his fellowman righteously. Civil leaders have abused their function as God’s vice-regents by ruling for themselves rather than for God. Examples are the failures at Babel (Gen 11:9), in Israel’s theocracy (2Ch 36:15-21), and in "the times of the Gentiles" (Dan 2:31-45). The glorious reign of Jesus Christ over the earth will supersede man’s rule eventually. The dispensation of human government ended as a specific test of human obedience when God called Abraham to be His instrument of blessing to the whole world (Gen 12:2). Nevertheless man’s responsibility for government did not end then but will continue until Christ sets up His kingdom on the earth.
Gen 8:18-19 may seem like needless repetition to the modern reader, but they underline Noah’s obedience to God’s words, which Moses stressed in the entire Flood narrative.