CHAPTER VI _The children of God, among whom the true religion was at first_ _preserved, corrupt it by forming matrimonial connections with_ _irreligious women_, 1, 2. _God, displeased with these connections and their consequences,_ _limits the continuance of the old world to one hundred and_ _... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:3. _MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE_] It is only by the influence of the Spirit of God that the carnal mind can be subdued and destroyed; but those who wilfully resist and grieve that Spirit must be ultimately left to the hardness and blindness of their own hearts, if they do not r... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:4. _THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH_] נפלים _nephilim_, from נפל _naphal_, "he fell." Those who had _apostatized_ or _fallen_ from the true religion. The Septuagint translate the original word by γιγαντες, which literally signifies _earth-born_, and which we, following them, term _gi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:5. _THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN WAS GREAT_] What an awful character does God give of the inhabitants of the antediluvian world! 1. They were _flesh_, (Genesis 6:3,) wholly sensual, the desires of the mind overwhelmed and lost in the desires of the flesh, their souls no longer discerning t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:8. _NOAH FOUND GRACE IN THE EYES OF THE LORD._] Why? Because he was, 1. _A just man_, איש צדיק ish tsaddik, a man who _gave to all their due_; for this is the ideal meaning of the original word. 2. He was _perfect in his generation _- he was in all things a consistent character, ne... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:11. _THE EARTH ALSO WAS CORRUPT_] Genesis 6:5, Genesis 6:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:13. _I WILL DESTROY THEM WITH THE EARTH._] Not only the human race was to he destroyed, but all terrestrial animals, i.e. those which could not live in the waters. These must necessarily be destroyed when the whole surface of the earth was drowned. But destroying the earth may probab... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:14. _MAKE THEE AN ARK_] תבת _tebath_, a word which is used only to express _this vessel_, and that in which Moses was preserved, Exodus 2:3; Exodus 2:5. It signifies no more than our word _vessel_ in its common acceptation - a hollow place capable of containing persons, goods, c., wi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:15. _THOU SHALT MAKE - THE LENGTH OF THE ARK-THREE HUNDRED_ _CUBITS, THE BREADTH OF IT FIFTY CUBITS, AND THE HEIGHT OF IT_ _THIRTY CUBITS_] Allowing the cubit, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, to be _eighteen_ inches, the ark must have been _four h... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:16. _A WINDOW SHALT THOU MAKE_] What this was cannot be absolutely ascertained. The original word צהר _tsohar_ signifies _clear_ or _bright_; the Septuagint translate it by επωυναγων, "_collecting_, thou shalt make the ark," which plainly shows they did not understand the word as sig... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:17. _I - DO BRING A FLOOD_] מבול; _mabbul_; a word used only to designate the _general deluge_, being never applied to signify any other kind of inundation; and does not the Holy Spirit intend to show by this that no other _flood_ was ever like this, and that it should continue to be... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:18. _WITH THEE WILL I ESTABLISH MY COVENANT_] The word ברית _berith_, from בר _bar_, to purify or cleanse, signifies properly a _purification_ or _purifier_, (see on chap. xv.,) because in all covenants made between God and man, _sin_ and _sinfulness_ were ever supposed to be on man... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:19. _TO KEEP THEM ALIVE_] God might have destroyed all the animal creation, and created others to occupy the new world, but he chose rather to _preserve_ those already created. The Creator and Preserver of the universe does nothing but what is essentially necessary to be done. Nothin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:21. _OF ALL FOOD THAT IS EATEN_] That is, of the food proper for every species of animals.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 6:22. _THUS DID NOAH_] He prepared the ark; and during one hundred and twenty years preached righteousness to that sinful generation, 2 Peter 2:5. And this we are informed, 1 Peter 3:18, c., he did by the _Spirit of Christ_ for it was only through _him_ that the doctrine of repentance... [ Continue Reading ]