No'ah, the name of two persons in the Bible. 1. (Heb. No'dch, 113, the same as STiiS, consolation or peace; Sept. and N. T. NaJs, as Matt, xxiv, 37; Jose- phus, Niifoc.) The tenth in descent from Adam ; son of Lamech, and second father of the human family; born B.C. 3115, A.M. 1058. In the following account of this patriarch we largely foUovv the articles in Kitto's and Smith's Dictionaries.
1. Lamech, no doubt, named his son thus in alhision to the promised deliverer from sin (Gen. v, 29), and the conduct of the latter corresponded to the faith and hope of his father (Gen. vi, 8, 9). In marked contrast with the simplicity and soberness of the Biblical narrative is the wontlerful story told of Noah's birth in the book of Enoch. Lamech's wife, it is said, "brought forth a child, the flesh of which was white as snow and red as a rose ; the hair of whose head was white like wool, and long ; and whose eyes were beautiful. When he opened them he illuminated all the house like the sun. And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife, open- ing also his mouth, he spoke to the Lord of righteous- ness." Lamech is terrified at the prodigy, and goes to his father Methuselah, and tells him that he has begot- ten a son who is unlike other children. On hearing the story, i\Iethuselah proceeds, at Lamech's entreaty, to consult Enoch, "whose residence is with the angels." Enoch explains that in the days of his father Jared, " those who were from heaven disregarded the word of the Lord . . . laid aside their class and intermingled with women;" that consequently a deluge was to be sent upon the earth, whereby it should be "washed from all corruption;" that Noah and his children should be saved, and that his posterity should beget on the earth giants, not spiritual, but carnal (Book of Enoch, eh. cv, p. l()l-3).
During the long period of six hundred j'ears (Gen. vii, 11), the age of Noah at the time of the flood, we learn little more than that he was a just and pious man, and that at the age of five hundred he had three sons (v, 32; vi, 10). On the relative ages of his sons, see Shem, But the wickedness of the human race had long called upon the wisdom and justice of God for 8ome signal display of his displeasure, as a measure of righteous government and an example to future ages. For a long time, probably for many centuries, the better part of men, the descendants of Seth, had kept them- selves from association with the families of the Cainite race. The former class had become designated as " the sons of (iod." faitliful and obedient ; the latter were called by a term evidently designed to form an appellation of the contrary import, "daughters of men," of impious
and licentious men. See Sons of God. These women possessed beauty and blandishments, by which they won the affections of unwar}' men, and intermarriages upon a great scale took place. As is usual in such al- liances, the worse part gained the ascendency. The offspring became more depraved than the parents, and a universal corruption of minds and morals took place. Many of them became "giants, the mighty men of old, men of renown" (Heb. nephilim [q. v.], apostates, as the word implies), heroes, warriors, plunderers, "filling the earth with violence." God mercifully afforded a res- pite of one hundred and twenty years (vi, 3 ; 1 Pet. iii, 20; 2 Pet. ii, 5), during which Noah sought to bring them to repentance. Thus he was "a preacher of righteousness," exercising faith in the testimony of God, by the contrast of his conduct condemning the world (Heb. xi, 7) : and perhaps he had long labored in that pious work. See Spiuits in Prison.
At last the threatening was fulfilled. All human kind perished in the waters, except this eminently fa- vored and righteous man, with his three sons (born about a hundred years before) and the wives of the four. See Dkluge. At the appointed time this terrible state of the earth ceased, and a new surface was disclosed for the occupation and industry of the delivered family. In some places that surface would be washed bare to the naked rock, in others sand would be deposited, which would be long uncultivable ; but by far the larger por- tion would be covered with rich soil. With agriculture and its allied arts the antediluvians must have been well acquainted. The four men, in the vigor of their mental faculties and bodily strength, according to the then existing scale of human life, would be at no loss for the profitable application of their powers.
2. Noah's first act after he left the ark was to build an altar, and to offer sacrifices. This is tlie first altar of which we read in Scrii)ture, and the first burnt sacri- fice. Noah, it is said, took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Then the narrative adds with childlike simplicity : " And Jehovah smelled a smell of rest (or satisfaction), and Jehovah said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake ; for the imagina- tion of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done." Jehovah accepted the sacrifice of Noah as the acknowledgment on the part of man that he desires rec- onciliation and communion with God ; and therefore the renewed earth shall no more be wasted with a plague of waters, but so long as the earth shall last seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. See Rainbow.