VI. (1) WHEN MEN (THE ADAM) BEGAN TO MULTIPLY. — The multiplication of the race of Adam was probably comparatively slow, because of the great age to which each patriarch attained before his first-born was brought into the world: though, as the name given is not necessarily that of the eldest, but of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SONS OF GOD.... — The literal translation of this verse is, _And the sons of the Elohim saw the daughters of the adam that they were good_ (beautiful); _and they took to them wives whomsoever they chose._ Of the sons of the Elohim there are three principal interpretations: the first, that of the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID. — As the Sethites are now the fallen race, it is their covenant Jehovah who determines to reduce the extreme duration of human life to that which, under the most favourable sanitary influences, might still be its normal length. MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE WITH MAN. — The mea... [ Continue Reading ]
GIANTS. — Heb., _Nephilim,_ mentioned again in Numbers 13:33, and apparently a race of great physical strength and stature. Nothing is more probable than that, at a time when men lived for centuries, human vigour should also show itself in producing not merely individuals, but a race of more than or... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAW. — Really, _And Jehovah saw._ IMAGINATION. — More exactly, _form, shape._ Thus every idea or embodied thought, which presented itself to the mind through the working of the heart — that is, the whole inner nature of man — “was only evil continually” — Heb., _all the day,_ from morning t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT REPENTED THE LORD. — If we begin with the omniscience and omnipotence of God as our postulates, everything upon earth must be predestined and immutably fore-ordained. If we start with man’s free will, everything will depend upon human choice and action. Both these sides must be true, though o... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL DESTROY. — Heb., _delete, rub out._ FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH. — Heb., _the_ adâmâh_,_ the tilled ground which man had subdued and cultivated. BOTH MAN, AND BEAST. — Heb., _from man unto cattle, unto creeping thing, and unto fowl of the air,_ The animal world was to share in this destructi... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOAH FOUND GRACE. — This is the first place where grace is mentioned in the Bible, and with these words ends the _Tôldôth Adam._ It has traced man from his creation until his wickedness was so great that the Divine justice demanded his punishment. But it concludes with words of hope. Jehovah’s p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH (Genesis 6:9; Genesis 9:28). (9) NOAH WAS A JUST MAN AND PERFECT IN HIS GENERATIONS. — “Just” is, literally, _righteous,_ one whose actions were sufficiently upright to exempt him from the punishment inflicted upon the rest of mankind. “Perfect” means _sound, healthy,_ and c... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EARTH. — This is the larger word, and it occurs no less than six times in these three verses, thus indicating a more widespread calamity than if adâmâh only had been used, as in Genesis 6:7. But the earth that “was corrupt before God” was not the whole material globe, but that part which man, no... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED HIS WAY UPON THE EARTH. — These material things were incapable alike of moral good or evil, but man had made them the instruments of working his carnal will, and because of the associations connected with them they must be effaced, or _rubbed out._ (See Note on Genesis 6:7.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE END OF ALL FLESH IS COME BEFORE ME. — A metaphor taken from the customs of earthly kings. Before an order is executed the decree is presented to the sovereign, that it may finally be examined, and if approved, receive the sign manual, upon which it becomes law. I WILL DESTROY THEM. — Not the ve... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE THEE AN ARK. — _Têbâh,_ a word so archaic that scholars neither know its derivation, nor even to what language it belongs. It is certain, however, that it was an oblong box, not capable of sailing, but intended merely to float. In the Chaldean account of the deluge, the language everywhere is t... [ Continue Reading ]
CUBITS. — The cubit is the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. As, further, it was regarded as one-fourth of a man’s height, we may safely compute it at eighteen inches, except where the sacred or longer cubit is expressly mentioned. Thus the ark was 450 feet long, 75 b... [ Continue Reading ]
A WINDOW. — Not the word so rendered in Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2, which means a _lattice;_ nor that in. Genesis 8:6, which means an _aperture;_ but “zohar,” _light, brightness._ In the dual, _double-light,_ it is the usual word for “midday,” but it does not occur elsewhere in the singular. It was e... [ Continue Reading ]
A FLOOD. — _Mabbul,_ another archaic word. It is used only of the deluge, except in Psalms 29:10, where, however, there is an evident allusion to the flood of Noah. EVERY THING THAT IS IN THE EARTH SHALL DIE. — That this by no means involves the theory of a universal deluge has been shown with admir... [ Continue Reading ]
MY COVENANT. — There had been no covenant with Adam or with the Sethites, but in the higher state of things which began with Noah, man was to hold a more exactly defined relation to God; and though they had begun to attach the notion of Deity to the name Jehovah in the days of Enos (Genesis 4:26), y... [ Continue Reading ]
(19-22) OF EVERY LIVING THING OF ALL FLESH, TWO... — The vast size of the ark and the wide terms used of the animals to be collected into it, make it evident that Noah was to save not merely his domestic cattle, but many wild species of beasts, birds, and creeping things. But the terms are condition... [ Continue Reading ]