often, between the re.ally_g_ood. and the really evil, but the tlttainment of the highen ---the fulfilment of his D1vme 1deo., the top-stone placed upon the temple witb shout- inge : " Gro.ce, gro.ce unto it." II. "The evening and the morning were the sixth day." OuT OF THE NTGllT OF THE INJl'INITE PAST CAME FOUTH '!'HE DAWN OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND SPll\ITUAL WORLD. And when ~od saw that, then he said, It is very good. So let us set our !aces toward~ that light of heiL~en on c~rth 1 the day of Divine revelation, Divine mtercourse with man, the pure and perfect bhss of an everlasting paradise in which God and man shall find unbroken rest and joy in one another.-R. '
EXPOSITION. Kalisch translate had .finished. Other, nn- CHAPTER II. derstalHI the sense to be declared the wo1·k to Ver. 1.-Thus tho hee.vens and the earth be finished, while llaumgarten and Delitzsch we1·e finished. Literally, And finished were regard the resting as included in the Cf)ffi- the heavens and the earth, the emphatic pletion of the work, and Von Bohlen thinks position being occupied by the verb. With "the language is not CJ_uite precise." Rut the creation of man upon the sixth day the cala.h followed by rnin signifies to cease Divine Artificc1·'e labours were brought to a from prosecuting any work (Exod. xxxiv. 33; termination, and his work to e. completion. I Sam. x. 13 ; Ezek. xliii. 23), and this was, The two jclcas of cessation and perfection negatively, the aspect of that sabbatic rest are em braced in the import of calah. Not into which the Creator entered. And he simply had Elohim paused in his activity, rested on the seventh de.y from all his work but the Divine idea of his universe had been which he had me.de. Shavath, the primary realised. The finished world was a cosmos, idea of which is to sit still, depicts Elohim ammged, ornamented, and filled with organ- as desisting from his cl'eative labonrs, ancl ised, sentient, and rational beings, with assuming a postw·e of quiescent repose. The plants, animals, and man ; and now the re- expression is a pure anthropomorphism. " He splendent fabric shone before him o. mag- who fainteth not, neither is weary" (Isa. xl. nificent success - "lo ! very good." This 28 ), can be conceived of neither as resting appears to be by no means obse1;1rcly hinted nor as needing rest through either exhaustion at in the appended clo.use, and all the host or fatigue. Cessation from previous occupa- of them, which suggests the picture of o. tion is all that is implied in the figure, and wiJite.ry armament arranged in marching is quite compatible with continuous activity ordei:. Tsebaam, derived from tsaba, to go in other directions. John v. 17 represents the forth e.s a soldier (Gesenius), to join together Father ns working from that period onward for service (Furst), e.nd applied to the angels in the preservation and redemption of that (arparia ovpav,o,, Luke ii 13. 1 Kingsx.xii. world which by his preceding labours he had 19 ; 2 Chron. xviii. 18 ; Pa. cxlviii. 2) and created and made. to tho celestial bodies (ovvaµE,, TWV ovpavwv, Ver. 3.-And God blessed the seventh day Matt. xxiv. 29. Isa. xxxiv. 4 ; xl. 26 ; The blessing (cf. eh. i. 22, 28) of the seventh Dan. viii. 10), here includes, by Zeugma, day implied-I. That it was thereby declared the material heavens and earth with the to be the special object of the Divine favour. angelic and human races (cf. Feh. ix. 6). If 2. That it was thenceforth to be a day or the primary signification of the root be splen- epoch of blessing for his creation. And-3. dour, glory, like tsavah, to come forth or That it was to be invested with a permanence shine out as a star ('l'. Lewis), then will the which did not belong to the other su clays- LXX. e.nd the Vulgo.te be coITect in translat- eyery one of which passed away and gave ing 1riic o 1<oaµo, avrwv a.nd omnis ornatus place to a successor. And sanctified it. Liter- eorum, the conception being that when the ally, declared it holy, or set it apart for holy heavens and the earth were completed they purposes. As afterwards Mount Sinai was were a bl'illiant array. sanctified (Exod. xix. 23), or, for the time Ver. 2.-And on the seventh day God being, invested with a sacred character as the (Elohim) ended his work whioh he had residence of God ; and Aaron a.nd his sons ma.de. To avc1t the po~sibility of imagining were sanctified, or consecrated to the priestly that any portion of the seventh de.y was office(Exod. x.xix.44); and the year ofJubilee consumed in working, which the English wns sanctified, or devoted to the purposes of version seems to favour, tho LXX., the religion (Levit.. :s:xv. 10), so here was th~ Samaritan, nncl Sy1inc versions insert the seventh dny sanctified, or instituted in the si:cth day in the text instead of the seventh. interests of holiness, and as such prochinied Calvin, Drusius, Lo Clerc, Rosenmiillcr, nnd to be a holy day. Because that iu it he had D2 !1.5 Tl:IE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ell, IJ. 1--3,