The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 195

dq>rcssPd ront.ineut, nrcompaniccl with hcllvy Ver, 16.-And they that went in, wenl mid continnons rain, ns t.hc cause of the in mo.le o.nd femalo of all flesh, as- God Delng,, (<'ontrasl. with this the works of the (Elohim) had commanded him. This ovi- third nnd fourth creative days) ; yet "the ,lently closed an Elohistic passage, according exact statement of the natuml causes thnt to Colenso, as the ensuing clt\use ns· mani- concurred in the Deluge is a circumstance festly belongs to the .lehovistic intcrpolator.; \l.'hich certainly in no wiso removes the but the closo connection subsisting between miraculous nature of the 'l\·hole fact-who hns the tl'ro clauses forbids nny such dislc,cntion unveiled tl1e mysteries of nature I - but of tlio narrative as that suggested. "On tha which certainly shows how exact was the supposition of an independent J ehovistic attention paid to the exhirnal phenomena of naTTativc, Bishop Oolenso feels it necessary tho Deluge" (Hasrernick). to interpolate before the next statement the Yers. 13, 14.-In the selfsame day-liter- words, '·And Noah and all his house wont ally, in the bone, or st,·ength, or essence (eh. into the ark'" (Quarry, p. 379). And the ii. 23) ef that day-in that very day (cf. eh. Lord (Jehovah)shuthimin. Literally, shut x,ii. 23, 26); "about noonday, i. e. in the behincl hiin, i. o. closed up the door of the public ,icw of the worlJ." (Poole) ; "a phrase ark after him (fr}\Elo-E r~v ic,fjwrov [tw9w intended to convey the idea of the utmost uvrou, LXX.) ; doubtless miraculously, to precision of time" (Bush)-entered Noah, preserve him both from the violence of the and Shem, and Ham, and J'apheth, the sons waters and the ra,,<re of men. Tho contrast of Noo.h, and Noah's wife, and the wives of between the two names of the Deity is here his three sons with them, into the ark. most vividly presented. It is Elohim whc Not inconsistent with vers. 4, 5, which do commands him about tho beasts; it is Jeho• not necessarily imply that the actual entry vah, the covenant God, who insures his was made se,cn days before the Flood; but safety by closing the ark behind him. merely that Noah then bego.n to carry out Vers. 17-19.-And tha:6.ood was forty days the Di vine instructions. The threefold re- upon the earth. Referring to the forty days' cital of the entry-first in connection with and nights' rain of. ver. 4 (uaaapci1<ovra the inntation or command (ver. 5), and i,µipac ,cai TEO'O'Upai:ovra VvKra,, LXX.), again in the actual process dnring the seven during which the angmentation of tlie waters days (ver. 7), and finally on the day when is described in a threefold degree. And the the Flood began (ver. 15),-besides lending waters increased. Literally, grew great. emphasis to the narrative, heightens its The first degree of increase, marked by the dramatic effect. They, and every beast after floati711J of the ark. And bare up ~he ark, his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and it was lift up above the earth. L1!erall:)'.', and every creeping thing that creepeth npon it was h,i.gh, from up<>n the earth, 1. e. 1t the earth after his kind, and every fowl l rose above it. And the waters prevailed. after his kind, every bird of every sort (liter- Literally, were strong; from i~}, to bo ally, 'llling). The creatures here specined cor- strong ; whence the Gibborim of eh. vi 4. respond with the enumeration-viz., chay- And were increased greatly on the earth. yah, behemah, remes-in eh. i 25, q. v. The Literally, became g1•eat, greatly. The SifCond last clause, kol-cana:ph, Kalisch, following degree of increase, marked. by the goi711J of Clericus, translates, though, according to the ark, And the ark went-i. e_. floated Rosenmiiller, without satisfactory reasone, a.I.on"'• ,cal hn~•pEro, LXX. (Ps. c1v. 26)- '' every winged creature," and so makes" th~ee upo; 'the face of the waters. And the classes of winged beings-the eat.able _species waters prevailed exceedingly. Literally, (911'), the birds which people t~o air a~d and the watera became strong, exceedi711Jly.. enliven it by the sounds of their melodies The third degree of increase, marked by the (ii!:W), o.nd the endless swarms of insects submergence of the, monntains. And all the (l:\,H), the greatest part of which possess high hills, that were under the whole heaven were covered. A clear assertion of neither the utility of the former nor the the uni~ersality of the Flood (Keil, Kalisch, beauty of the latter." Geeenius, however, Alford Bush Wordsworth); but the la.n• traD.Blates it "birds of all kinds," and Knobel guage does not necessarily imply more th:i.n regards it as synonymous with "every bird." that all the high hills beneath the specta- The LXX. give the sense of the two clauses: tor's heaven were submergecl (cf. eh. xli. Eai 1rii.v Opvtov 1rEruvOv ,:aTli. -yivo, aVToll. 57 • Exod. ix. 25 ; x. 15 ; Deut. ii. 26 i 1 Ver. 15.-And they went in unto Noah Ki~gs x. 24 ; Acts ii. 6 ; Col. i. 25, for ID• into the ark (cf. eh. vi 20, which affirmed stances in which the universal terms all and they should come), two and two of all 11.esh, every must be taken with a limi~ed significa- wherein ia the breath of life. Cf. the three tion) • while it is o.lmost certain that, hau expressions for an animated crcature-l"I!"] the ;arrator even designed to record only ~~Vch. i. 30), o-,p~ (eh. vii 4), 01_1M m, the fact that all the heights within tli. , ,.:1-,~~- visible horizon had disappeared beneath t:t rm. VII, 11-24.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 119