emn pause of seven day^ before the threatened notion "was let loose. At last the flood came ; the rs were upon the earth. The narrative is vivid forcible, though entirely wanting in that sort of tiption which in a modem historian or poet would i occupied the largest space. We see nothing of death-struggle ; we hear not the cry of despair ; ire not called upon to witness the frantic agony of Mtnd and wife, and parent and child, as they fled irror before the rising waters. Nor is a word said le sadness of the one righteous man who, safe him- , looked upon the destruction which he could not rt. But one impression is left upon the mind with iliar vividness, from the veiy simplicity of the ratlve, and it is that of utter desolation. This is ^htened by the contrast and repetition of the two 18. On the one hand we are reminded no less than times in the narrative in chaps, vi, vii, viii, who tenants of the ark were (vi, 18-21 ; vii, 1-8, 7-9, 16; viii, 16, 17, 18, 19), the favored and rescued r ; and, on the other hand, the total and absolute tttln^^ out of everything else is not less emphiftically elt upon (vi, 13, 17 ; vii, 4, 21-28). This evidently ugned contrast may especially be traced in chap. . Fir^ we read in ver. 6, **And Noah was six ndred years old when the flood came— waters upon e earth.** Then follows an account of Noah and his mily and the animals entering into the ark. Next rses 10-12 resume the subject of ver. 7: "And it me to pass after seven days that the waters of the K>d were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year ' Noah's life, In the second month, on the seventeenth ly of the month, on the selftame day were all the •untains of the great -deep broken up, and the win-
the ground" (i. e. the lower plain country). ** But the dove," it is beautifully said, "found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." After waiting for another seven days he again sent forth the dove, which returned this time with a fresh (r)*^D) olive-leaf in her month, a sign that the waters were still lower. Once more, after another in- terval of seven days, he sent forth the dove, and she "returned not again unto him any more," having found a home for herself upon the earth. No picture in natural history was ever drawn with more exquisite beauty and fidelity than this : it is admirable alike for its poetiy and its truth. Bespecting two points, we may here remark (1) that the raven was supposed to foretell changes in the weather both by its flight and its cry (J£lian, if. ^4. vii, 7 ; Virg. Gewy, i, 882, 410). Accoiding to Jewish tradition, the raven was preserved in the ark in order to be the progenitor of the birds which afterwards fed H^h by the brook Cherith. (2) The olive-tree is an evergreen, and seems to have the power of living under water, according to Theophras- tus {Hki^PlanL iv, 8) and Pliny {H,N. xiii, 60), who mention olive-trees in the Red Sea. The olive grows in Armenia, but only in the valleys on the south side of Ararat, not on the slopes of the mountain. It will not flourish at an elevation where even the mulberry, walnut, and apricot are found (Ritter, Erdhmde, jl 920).
According to a careful adjustment of the chronology of the Hebrew Kble, the Noachian deluge appears to have occurred (begun) in the year from the creation of Adam 1667, and before Christ 2616. It continued twelve lunar months and ten days, or exactly one so-
MODth.
D.y.
lDt«rTAL
Evmite.
Oeneais.
U (Nov.)
11
Command to enter the ark.
vil, 1-A
it
IT
6 days.
The nin begins.
" 5-16,17.
in(Dec)
97
89 "
The rain ceases— the waters prevail
" 18-24.
Vn (Apr.)
17
108 "
The ark grounds on Ararat.
viii, 1-1
X (Jnly)
1
78 "
Tops of the mountains visible.
** 6.
XI (Aug.)
11
89 **
Raven and dove sent out.
" 6-3.
u
17
6 "
Dove again sent out.
" 10,11.
{(
28
6 "
Dove sent ont the third time.
« 12.
I (Oct)
1
87 "
The ground becomes dry.
»' 13.
n (Nov.)
97
66 ** 870 "
Noah leaves the ark.
" 14-19.
3ws (or floodgates) of heaven were opened. And the lar year (Browne, Ordo Scedorvm, p. 826 sq.), as the un was upon the ^arth forty days and forty nights." . following tabular exhibit of the incidents will show : igain the narrative returns to Noah and is companions, and their safety in the ik (ver. 18-1^. And then in ver. 17 he words of ver. 12 are resumed, and rom thence to the end of the chapter a rery simple but very powerful and im- >re5sive description is given of the appal- ing catastrojjie : ** And the flood was OTty days upon the earth ; and the wa- ;ers increased and bare up the ark, and it eras lift up from off the earth. And the iTaters pre vailed and increased exceeding- ly upon the earth : and the ark went on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed very exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high mountains which [were] under the whole heaven were covered. Fif- teen cubits upwards did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died which moveth upon the earth, of fowl, and of cattle, and of wild beasts, and of every creeping thing which creep- eth upon the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every substance which was on the faoe of the ground was blotted out, as well man as