The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 186

niflee tho en Lire plan and course of lifo in ell eternity may be reasoned (pro and con) from its eLhic11! rind religious napccts ns designed other Scriptures, but cannot be determiMd for mnn by God (cf, Ps. cxix. 0 ; end con- from this pince, which refers solely to tho trnst "tho wny of Cain," Jnclo 11; "the extinction of their bodily lives. With the w11y of Balaam," 2 Pet. ii. 15)-upon the earth. Not from the earth (Samariwn), or earth. on the earth (Syriae, Rosenmuller), or even Ver. 13.-And God said unto Noah, The the earth, "thus identifying the earth with end. Yi?. (from Hophal of r-:m, to cut oll): its inhabitants" (Bush), but, together with that which is cut olT, the encl of a Lime (Gen. the earth (Kalisch, Keil, Alford; cf. eh. ix. iv, 3) or of a space (Isa. xxxvii. 24); specially 11 ; Kai T~v yijv, LXX. ). The nniversalitv tho end or destruction of a people (Ezek. vii. of representation which characterises thi's 2; Amos viii. 2), in which sense it is to be section (vcrs. 9-13) is regarded by Davidson, ]1ero understood (Gesenius, Rosenmuller). Colenso, and others as contradictory of eh. 'l'he rendering which regards ketz as, like vi. 5, which depicts the coITUption as only TiXoi;= the completion, consummation, ful- ness of a thing (here of human fleshlincss or human, and limits the destruction to the race of man. But as the two accounts belong wickedness), and the following clause as to different subdivisions of the book, they cpexegetic of the present (Bush), though cannot properly be viewed as contradictory admissible in respect of Scriptural usage (cf. 'Quarry on Genesis,' pp. 370, 371). (cf. Jor. Ii. 13; Eccles. xii. 13; Rom. x. 4) Ver.14.-lllake thee an ark. n ➔ l:), constr. and contextual harmony, i~ scarcely so of il~l:), etymology unknown (Gesenius); of obvious ; while a third, that the end spoken Shemitic origin, from il~J;l, to be hollow of is the issue to which the moral corruption of the world was inevitably tending (Keil, (Fiirst); of Egyptian derivation, a boat being Lango), does not materially differ from the called tept (Keil, Kalisch, Knobel) ; from tho first. Of all flesh. I. e. of the human race, Sanscrit pota, a pot or boat (Bohlen) ; "a of course with the exception of Noah and his peculiar archaic term for a very unusual family, which "teaches us to beware of thing, like ,~::i~, the term for the Tiood appl:iring an inflexible literality to such terms itself" (T. Lewis) ; translated r1/3wTo~, 9i/311 as all, when used in the sense of ordinary (LXX.), area (Vulgate), Xapva; (Nicolas conversation " (Murphy). Is come before me. Damascenus), 11'Aoiov (Berosus) ; not a ship Literally, b~fore my face. Not "a me con- in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but stitutus est" (Gesenius), "is decreed before a box or chest (cf. Exod. ii 3) capable of my throne" (Kalisch) ; but, '' is in the con- floating on the waters. " Similar vessels, templation of my mind as an event soon to generally, however, drawn by horses or men, be realised" (Murphy), with perhaps a glance were aU<.l are still used in some parts of nt the circumstance that man's ruin had not Europe anu. Asia" (Kalisch). Of gopher been sought by God, but, as it were, had wood. Literally, woods of gopher (i~j : thrust itself upon his notice as a thing that li1ral; X,y., the root of which, like i::l::l, seems coultl no longer be delayed. If \i~? Ni1 = to signify to cover (Kalisch) ; ligna bitu- the similar expression ~~ Ni1, which, when minata (Vulgate); pitch trees, resinous tree~, applied to rumours, signifies to reach the car such os are useu. in ship-building (Gescnius); (cf. eh. xviii. 21; Exod. iii. 9 ; 1 Kings ii. most likely cypress, ,cv1r,ip1e1e1oi,; (Bochart, 28 ; Esther ix. 11), it may likewise indicate Celsius, Keil), which wns uscu. " in some the closeness or near approach of the im- parts of Asill exclusively as the material for pending calamity. For the earth is :fllled ships, in Athens for coffins, llnd in Egypt with violence through them. More correctly, for mummy cases" (Kalisch). "It is saiu "from their faces;" "a facie eorum" (Vul- too that the gates of St. Peter's Clrnrch at l,'ate). 'l'hnt is, "the flood of wickedness Rome (made of this wood), which lasted which comes up before God's face goes out from the time of Constantine to that of from their face " in the sense of being perpe- Eugene IV., i. e. 1100 years, h,i,l in that trated openly (Lange), and "by their con- period suffered no decay" (Bush). Rooms- scious agency" (Alford). And, behold, I will kinnim, nests, applied metaphoricnlly to the destroy them. Literally, and behold me chambers of the ark-ahalt thou make in the destroying them. The verb is the same as ark, and ahalt pitch it within and without is translated "corrupt" in ver. 12, q. v., ns with pitch. i~:al~ ~7~~1: literally, shale if to convoy the idea of fitting retribution CO'IJeT' it with a covering. The substance (cf. 1 Cor. iii. 17: dT,, Tov vaov roii 9eoii to be emJ!loyed was probably bitumen or ,edpu, ,eEpEi roiirov o 9,6,; Rev. xi. 18 : asphalt (aa,aXroc, LXX. ; bitumen, Vul- ,cai 8,a,9Eipm Tov~ oaa,9,ipovTai; n)v yijv). gate). The root (cf. English, cover) signifies Whether this destruction which was threat- also to pardon sin, i. e. to cover them from ened against the nntodiluvilm sinners ex- God's sight (Ps. !xv. 3; lxxviii. 38; 2 Chron. tended to the loss of their souls throughout xxx. 18), and to make u:.':\iion for sin, i. e.  110 THE nooK OF GENESIS. [CH. VI. 9-22