throo pairs with ono ovor, or seven pairs, yekum; literally, standing thin 9, omn~ r11wJ, should bo preserved. The m&le &nd his aubsi&tit, i. e. "whatever is capa.ole by a prin- fttmale. This eooms to be most in favour of ciple of life of maintaining a.n erect posture" the first intcrprctntion, that pairs, nnd not (Bush) ; ava'1T1/JJ,a (LXX. ; cf. Dent. xi. 6 ; individuals, nro meant. And of be&sts th&t Job xxii. 20)-that I have made will I &re not clean by two, the male and his destroy-literally, blot out (cf. eh. vi. 7)- female. lah veishto; Cf. eh. ii. 25, whore from off the face of the earth. And Noah the phroso denotes the ethical personality of did according to all that the Lord (.Jehovah human beings, to which there is hero an the God of salvation, who now interpose,! for approximation, 11s the preserved animals were tho patriarch's safety; in eh. vi. 22, where designed to bo the parcn ts of su bseq uen t God is exhibited in his relations to ;ill flesh, races. Tho usual phrase for male nnd female, it is Elohim) had commanded him. which is emrloyed in eh. i. 28 (a so-called Ver. 6.-And Noah was six hundred years Elohistic) nnd eh. vii. 3 (n so-called Jeho- old. Literally, a son of six hundred yea;"o~, vistic section), refers to the physical distinc- i. e. in his 600th year (cf. ver. 11 ). The tion of sex in human beings. number six " is generally a Scriptural sym- • Ver. 3.-0l fowls&lso of the &irby sevens, bol of suffering. Christ suffered on the sixth the male and the female. I. e. of clean day. In the Apocalypse tho sixth seal, the fowls,- "which ho leaves to be understood sixth trumpet, the sixth vial introtlnce out of the foregoing verse" (Poole). The critical periods of aflliction" (Words,rnrth}. Samaritan, Syriac, and LXX. (not so Vul- When the flood of waters was upon the gate, Onkelos, .Arabic) insert tho word e&rth. "clean" unnecessarily, and also add, "1<ai Ver. 7.-And Noah went in. I. e. Legan cbrO 1r&vrwv rWv ,rErHvWv rWv µT} JCa6apWv to go in a full week before the waters cnme ouo ova ap,,,v tcal 0rjX11," manifestly to make (vide vcr. 10). "A proof of faith and a tho verse resemble the preceding. To keep warning to the worlil.." And his sons, and seed &live upon the face of all the e&rth. his wife, and his sons' wives with him. In Vers. 4, 5.-Foryet seven days. Literally, all eight persons (1 Pet. iii. 20) ; whence it foi· to days yet seven-after seven days ; is obvious that "each had but one wife, an,: thus giving Noah time to complete his pre- that polygamy, as it began among the Cain, p.ni·ations, and the worlil one more oppor- ites, wns most probably confined to thelll" tunity to. repep.t, which ~oole thin,ks many (Poole). Into the ark, because of the waters may, have dQne, though their bodies were of -the tlood. Litcrally,f,·oin the face of the dro,mcd for their former impenitcncy. And waters, being movetl with fear and impelled I will cause it to rain-literally, I causin'] by faith (Hcb. xi. 7). it, the participle indicating tho certainty Vers. 8, 9. -Of cle&n beasts, &nd of beasts of the future action (cf. eh, vi. 17 ; Prov. th&t are not clean, and of fowls,, and of every xxv. 22; cf. Ewald's 'Heb. Synt.,' § 306)- thing that creepeth upon the earth, thero upon the e&rth forty days &nd forty nights. went in two nnd two into the IU'k, the male 'l'he importance assigned in subsequent and the female. In obedience to a Divine Scripture to the number forty, probably from impulse. Nothing short of Divine power the circumstance here recoriled, is too obvious could have effected such a timely and orderly to be overlooked. Isrnel wandered forty cntmnce of the creatures into the huge vc,scl years in thewildcmess (Num. xiv. 33). The. (cf. their mode of exit, eh. viii 18). The scouts remained forty days in Cannan (N um. seeming inconsistency of this verse with ver. xiii. 26 ). Moses was, forty days in the 2, which says tho,t the clean animals entered mount (Exod. xxiv. 18). . Elij11h fasted forty thoark by sevens, will be at onco remo;-ed by days 11nd forty nights in the wilderness· of connecting vcrs. 7 and 8 instead of 8 and 9, Beersheba (1 Kings xix. 8). .A respite of and commencing a· new sentence with vcr"o 9. forty days was given to the Ninevites (Jonah It favours this, that "of" is ttwanting befom iii. 4 ). . Christ fasted forty days before the "everything that crcepcth," and that the temptation .(Matt. iv. 2), and sojourned LXX. begin ver. 8 with "l\nd" (cf. Quan·y, forty d11ys on earth after his resurrection p. 373). As God h&d comm&nded Noah. (.Acts i. 3). It thus 11ppoo:rs to have been Ver. 10.-And it c&me to pass &fter seven regarded as symbolical of a period of trial, days (literally, at the seventh of the days), ending in victory to the good and in 1·uin to that the waters of the flood were npon the the evil. And every living substance- earth.
HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-9.-The al'k entered. I. Tlll!: INVITATION OF J1moVAll. "Come thou nnd nll thy house into the nrk." 'l'his invitation wae-1. Timely. It was n·iven ou the fini~liing of the ark, und thcrefuro not too soon; also seven days before tl~e Flood, I 2 116 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [err. VII. 1-10.