1-3, Expos,). And sent forth the dove. water (i(i).,1r1 ro ilJwp, LXX.); 0~; (ver. "Tho more wo oxamino these acts ,f Noah, 14), to be dry', denoting the desiccation of the moro it will strike us that they must . the ground (i(71pav0q;, yij, LXX.). Cf. Isn. have boon of o. rnligious nature. He did not xix. 5, where there is a ~imilar gradation : take such obsorvntions, and so send out the 0-1;1 :l'JP,!, iiJn, ancl the river shall be birds, Its mero arbitrary o.cts, prompted ;;imply by his curiosity or his impatience ; but as a wasted and dried up. man of faith and prayor he inquirecl of the Lord. What more likely then thnt such CHRONOLOGY OF THE FLOOD. inquiry should have its basis in solemn re- ligious exercises, not arbitrarily entered into1 (Reckoning from the first day of the year.) but on days held sacred for prayer anti mos. days day~ religious rest I" (T. Lewis). Which re- I. Beginning of the Flood 1 17 = 47 turned not again (literally, and it added Continuance of Rain = 40 not to return) unto him any more. Prevalence of Waters = 110 Ver. 13.-And it came to pass (literally, it was) in the six hundredth and firgt year II. The Ark touches Aiarat 6 17 = 197 '.of Noah's lifo; so LX.X.), in the firet month, III. The Mountains seen 9 = 2i0 - roii .,..pwrov µqvoi;, (LXX.) ; the word Raven sent after 40 days = 310 for mouth (expressed in vers. 4, 14) being Dove sent 7 II = 317 omitted in the Hebrew text for brevity,-the Dove sent 7 11 = 32-1 first dfly of the month, the waters were rlried up-the root signifies to burn up or Dove sent ,, 7 ,, = 331 become dry in consequence of heat (Fiirst) ; IV. The Waters driecl np 12 = 360 _" it merely denotes the absence of ,vater" (Gesenius)-from off the earth : and Noah V. The Earth dry 13 27 = 4li removed the covering of the ark---11iikseh, The data are insufficient to enable ns to from lcasah, to cover ; used of the covering of determine whether the N oachic year 1,:is the ark (Exod. xxvi; 14) and of the holy solar or lunar. It has been conjectured that vesl'-Jls _(Num. iv. 8, 12), and hence supposed to he made of skins (Kuobel, Bush) ; but the year consisted of twelve months of thirty '' the deck of an ark on which the rain-storms days, with five intercalated days at the en,l spent their force must surely have been of to make up the solar year of three hnndrecl as great stability as the ark itself (Lange)- and sixty-five days (Ewald); of seven months and looked, and, behold, the face of the of thirty days and five of thirty-one (Bohlen) ; ground was dry. Ver. 14.-And in the second month, on of fi1·e of thirty and seven of twenty-nine the seven and twentieth day of the month, (Knobel); but the circnmsta.nce that the was the earth dried. i'l~-1 ~- The three period from the commencement of the Deluge Hebrew verbs employed to depict the gradual to the touching of Ararat extended over five cessation of the floods express a regular gra- months e::ractly, and that the waters a.re said dation; ~2~ (ver. 11), io he lightened, sig- to have previously pr<rrailed for one hundred nifying their o.batcmcnt ar tlliuinution (1<E~o- and fifty days, naturally lea,ls to the conclu- 1rcm ro i'.•owp, LXX.); :r:ii;i (ver. 13), to be sion that the months of Noah's year were dried up, indicating the disa ppcaranc:e of the e<1ual periods of thirty days.
HOMILETICS. Vera. 4, 18.-Mount Ararat, or the landing of the ark. That disembarkment on the mountain heights of Ararnt was an emblem of another lo.nding which shall :yet take place, when the groat gospel ship of the Christian Church shall plant its living freight of redeemed souls upon the hills of heaven. Everything that Mount Ararat witnessed on that eventful day will yet be more conspicuously displayed in the sight of God's believing people who shall be counted worthy of eternal life. I. SIN PUNISHED. Mount Ararat was a solemn witness to the severity of God's judgments upon a guilty world. Never had the world looked on such a vindication of the insulted holiness and offended justice of Almighty God, nnd never will it look •upon another till the hour strikes when "the heavens, being on· firo, shall dissolve" (2 Pet. iii. 10), nnd "the Lord himself shall be revealed in flaming fire" (2 Thess. i. 7). II. GnACE REVEALED. ]fount Arai-at saw Divine (Trace displayed to sinful men.. Pre-eminently Noah and his family wero debtors to Dil"ino g-raro that ,lay when they 128 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ell, vm. 1-14