_GOD BLESSETH NOAH AND HIS SONS: PERMITS THEM TO EAT FLESH: FORBIDS BLOOD: CONSTITUTES THE RAIN-BOW THE SIGN OF HIS COVENANT: NOAH IS DRUNK AND UNCOVERED IN HIS TENT; HE BLESSETH SHEM AND JAPHETH, AND CURSETH CANAAN._... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD BLESSED NOAH, &C.— The primitive benediction upon Adam is here renewed, _Be fruitful,_ &c. as well as the dominion conferred over all creatures; while a larger grant is given to Noah than to the former, namely, of animal food. For (according to our interpretation, see ch. Genesis 1:29.) it was n... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SURELY YOUR BLOOD OF YOUR LIVES, &C.— The reason given in the 4th verse for the prohibition of blood is, that _"the blood is the life;"_ and, accordingly, they are used for each other, not only in sacred but profane writers*. And, upon this declaration, the Lord goes on to prohibit murder: _"blo... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I, BEHOLD, I ESTABLISH MY COVENANT, &C.— Before Noah entered the ark, ch. Genesis 6:18. we read, that the Almighty declared his purpose of _"establishing his covenant with him;"_ which he here fulfils, and takes into it Noah's seed after him, as well as all living creatures. Now, that the covena... [ Continue Reading ]
I DO SET MY BOW IN THE CLOUD— If the covenant, as we suppose, had a two-fold reference, the bow was also a two-fold sign; and its temporal or natural respect must then, and ought now, to remind us of its much more important spiritual and gracious design. God hath always been pleased to appoint some... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I BRING A CLOUD—THE BOW SHALL BE SEEN IN THE CLOUD— It is not meant here, that the bow shall be always seen, but at certain times, often enough to put men in mind of the promise, and to stir up their belief of it. And when it is said, Genesis 9:16. _I will look upon it, that I may remember,_ it... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SONS OF NOAH, &C.— Japheth, though named last, was, as we have before observed, the eldest of Noah's sons, as appears from ch. Genesis 10:21. Shem, whom some would make the eldest, appears, says Shuckford, to have been two years younger than Japheth; for Noah was five hundred years old at the bi... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE SONS—OF THEM WAS THE WHOLE EARTH OVERSPREAD— Three things may be observed from this. 1. That though Noah lived three hundred years after he came out of the ark, yet he begat no more children; or, if he did, none of them lived to have any posterity. 2. That the deluge was universal, as the whol... [ Continue Reading ]
HE DRANK OF THE WINE, AND WAS DRUNKEN— Became inebriated, not knowing, perhaps, the nature and strength of the liquor; or being, through age, incapable of bearing it; and Moses is so faithful an historian, that he records the failings and imperfections of the most venerable patriarchs, as well as th... [ Continue Reading ]
HAM, THE FATHER OF CANAAN, SAW THE NAKEDNESS, &C.— The loose dress of those times, made it easy for any slight accident to produce that nakedness, which _Ham_ seeing, wantonly and tauntingly exposed to his brethren, instead of concealing it, as a dutiful son ought to have done. In this, perhaps, con... [ Continue Reading ]
NOAH AWOKE—AND KNEW WHAT HIS YOUNGER, &C.— Noah when awaking would find the garment upon him, which Shem and Japheth had brought, and would thence, doubtless, be led to inquire whence and how it came, and so would _know,_ by information, _what his younger son had done unto him:_ words which plainly... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID, CURSED, &C.— In consequence of this different behaviour of his sons, Noah, as a patriarch, was enlightened, and as a father of a family, who is to reward or punish his children, was empowered to foretel what should happen to their respective families: for this prophecy relates not so mu... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF SHEM, &C.— The old patriarch doth not say, _Blessed be Shem,_ as he said, _Cursed be Canaan;_ for men's evil springeth of themselves, but their good from God: and therefore, in a strain of devotion, he breaketh forth into thanksgiving to God, as the author of... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD SHALL ENLARGE, &C.— Some render the word (it is so rendered in the margin of our Bibles) God shall _persuade,_ or _allure,_ Japheth, so that he shall come over to the true religion, _and dwell in the tents of Shem._ But the best critics in the language have remarked, besides other reasons, that... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE DAYS OF NOAH, &C.— "It is strange," Saurin remarks, "that the torrent of interpreters should suppose, that Noah was one hundred and twenty years building the ark, when the scripture gives no intimation to that purpose, but sufficient reason to believe, that he was not near so long as is... [ Continue Reading ]