The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 181

2. Shall not be humble<l, i. e. Ly tlwellinr, on other~;" robbers, or tyrants (Arinila, in mon (Geseniu~, Tuch). 3. More probnbly, Roseurniillcr, Oescnius,Luther, Cal v:in, Kurtz, el111II not rule (De Wott.e, Delitzsch, Kalisch, Keil, Murphy, 'Speaker's Commentary'). Fiirst), or eht1Il not judge (oi, irpivu), e.s the That they were "monsters, prodigies" consequnnce of ruling (Symmachus, Rosen- (Tuch, Knobel), may be rejected, though it is mtillor, Keil), or shall not contend in judg- not unlikely they were men of large physical ment (arr,uei·e, reprehendere; ef. Eccles. stature, like the Anakim, Repbaim, an,l vi. 10), i. e. strive with a man by moral others (cf. Norn. xiiL 33). In the earth. force (Calvin, Michaelis, Dathe, 'Speo.ker's Not merely ou it, but largely occupying the Commentary,' Murphy, Bush). With m&n, populated region. In those days. Pre- for th&t he also-besM,(Jgam. Either be, viously referred to, i. e. of the mixed mar- shaggam, inf. of shagag, to wander, with riages. And also-i. e. in addition to these pron. suff. = "in their wan<lering" (Gese- nephilim-after that,-i. e. after their up- nius, Tuch, Keil)-the meaning being that rising-when the sons of God came in unto men by their straying had proved them- the daughters of men, and they bare children selves to be flesh, though a plural suffix to them, the same became mighty men. with a singular pronoun following is inad- Ha'gibborim, literally, the strong, impetu- missible in Hebrew (Kalisch) ; or be, sh ous, heroes (cf. eh. x. 8). "They were pro- (conti-acted from asher), and gam (also) bably more refined in manners and exalted = quoniam. Cf. Judges v. 7; vi. 17; in thought than the.ir predecessors of pure Song of Sol. i. 7 (A. V. ). Though an Cainite descent" (Murphy). Which were Aramaic particle, " it must never be for- of old. Not " of the world," as a note of gotten that Aramaisms arc to be expected character, taking olam as equivalent to aiwv, either in the most modern or in the most but a note of time, the narrator reporting ancient portions of Scriptui·e" (' Speaker's from his own standpoint. Men of renown. Commentary')-is flesh. Not "transitory Litel'!l.lly, men of the name; "the first beings·" (Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, Tuch), or nol.Jihty of the world, honourable robbers, corporeal beings (Kalisch), but sinful beings; who boasted of their wickedness" (Calvin) • bashai· being already employed in its ethical or gallants, whose names were often in men's significa,tion, like aap~ in the New Testa- mouths (Murphy). For contrary phrase, ment, to denote "man's materiality e.s "men of no name," see Job xxx. 8. remlcrcd ungodly by sin" (Keil). "The Ver. 6.-And God (Jehovah, which shouhl doctrine of the carnal mind (Rom, viii.) is have been rendered 'the LorJ. ') sa.w-indi- merely the outgrowth of the thought ex- cative of the long-continued patience (Calvin) pressed m this passage" (Murphy). Yet his of the Deity, under whose imme<liate cog- days-not the mdividual's (Kalisch), which nizance the great experiment of the primeva 1 were not immediately curtailed to the limit age of the world was wrought out- that mentioned, a.nd, even after the Flood, ex- the wickedness (ra'ath; from the root tended far beyond it (vide eh. xi.) ; but the 1·aa, to make a loud noise, to rnge, hence i-aces, which were only to be prolonged in to be wicked) of man (literally, of thr- gracious respite (Calvin)-shall be an hun- Adam: this was the first aggravation of dred and twenty years. Tuch, Colenso, aud the wickedness which God beheld ; it was others, suyposiug this to have been so.id by the tumultuous rebellion of the being whom Qod in Noah's 600th year, find a respite he had created in his own image) was great only of 100 years, instea<l of 120; but the (it was no slight iniquity, but a 'lride-sprcn,l, historian does not assert that it wo.J then firmly- rooted, and deeply- staining corrup- God either formed or aunow1ced this deter- tion, the second aggravation) in the e&rth. mination. This was the third aggravation; it ,ms in tha Ver. 4. - ihere were. Not became, or world which he had made, and not only in it, nrose, ns if the giants were the fruit of but pervading it so '' that integrity rossessed the previously-mentioned meselliances ; but no longer a single corner" (Calvin). And already existed contemporaneously with the that every im&gination-yetzer, a device, sons of God (cf. Keil, Havernick, and Lange). like pottery w11re, from yatza, to fashion as Gi&nta. Nephilirn, from naphal, to fall ; 11, potter (eh. ii. 7; viii. 19). Cf. yotzer, a hence s.upposed to describe the offspring of potter, used of God (Ps. xciv. 9, 20). Henco the daughters of men and the fallen nngels the fashioned purpose (iv9vµ.11a1,) as dis- (Hoffman, Delitzsch). Tho LXX. translate tinguishetl from the thought out of which hy yiyavrE~ ; whence the "giants" of the it springs-" a distinction not generally o: A. Y. and Vulgate, which Luther rejects ns constantly recognised by the mental phi!o. fabulous ; but Kalisch, on the strength of sopher, thou~h of essential importance in N um. xiii. 33, accepts ns tho cortaiu import the theory ol the mind" (?.Iurphy)-of thl' of the tenn. More probable is the interpret- thoughts - mahshe:voth ; from hashal, to 11tion which understands them ns men of think, to mcditato = l1,vo1cr; cf. Heb. ix. l:l violence, roving, hwless gnllnnts, "who fall (T. Lcwis)-of his he&rt-lev, the heart, tht1 104 TUE BOOK OF G ENESlS.