EXPOSITION. Vera. 16-17.-And God spake ~nto Noah, modesty from allowing himself to enjoy the saying, Go forth of the ark. For which bounty of nature till he should hear lhe command doubtless tho patriarch waited, ns voice of God directing him to do so" (Cah-in). he had done for instructions to en tor in (eh. Thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, imd thy vii. 11), "being restrainccl by f\ lrnllowed sons' wives with thee. The onler is differ• K2 132 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [CH. VIII. lo-22,
ent in eh. vii. 7, whence Ambrose noteth, and adoring sentiments, tho prosent W1II "non commiscetur serus in introitu, sed one" (Bush). :Burnt offering•. 'oloth, commis('ctur in ingressu." :Bring forth with literally, things that ascend, from 'alah, thee-God having prese1Ted ali,·e the crea- to go up, alluding not to the elevation of the tures thnt a twolremonth before hnd been victims on the nlt.'tr, but to the ascension of taken into the ark, nnd were now to be the smoke of tho burnt offerings to heaven restored to their appropriate habitations on (cf. Judges xx. 40; Jer. xlviii. 16; .A.mos tho earth-every living thing that is with iv. 10). On the altar. thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, Ver. 21-And the Lord (Jehovah) smelled and of every creeping thin~ that creepeth --is is done by drawing the nir in and out upon the earth (cf. eh. vit. 21 ; ix. 10); through the nostrils ; from the root ruach, to that they may breed abundantly-shai·atz, broothe ; hi~h., to smell-a sweet savour, to crc~p or crawl, used of reptiles and small Reach hannichoach, litero.lly, an odour of sa- water animals (eh. i. 20; vii. 21); hence to tisfaction, acquiescence, or rest; from nuach swarm, or multiply (eh. ix. 7)-in the earth, to rest, with nn allusion to Noah's nam~ and be fruitful (eh. i. 22), alld multiply- (vi.de eh. v. 29) ; lu1µ:qv ,i,woiac (LXX.) ; iiterally, becom.e n1tmerous-upon the earth. (cf. Levit. ii. 12; x:xvi. 31 ; Num. xv. 3 ; Ycrs. 1S, 19.-And Noah went forth,-in Ezek. vi. 13). The meaning is that the obedience to the Divine command,-and his sacrifice of the pntrinl'Ch was o.s acceptable sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with to God as refreshing odours are to the senses him,-in obedience to Noah, to whom alone of a man; and that which rendered it the Dh-ine instructions were communicated; acceptable was (1) the feeling from which it -nn carl.v instance of filial ~-ubjection to sprang, whether gratitude or obedience ; (2) parents. Every beast, every creeping thing, tho truths which it expressed-it was tanta- and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth mount to an acknowledgment of personal upon the earth. I. e. the chayyah, the guilt, a devout recognition of the Divine rerncs, the 'oph, all crecpe:-s upon the mercy, an explicit declaration that he had ground (cf. eh. i. 26; ru. 8, 14), all of been saved or could only be saved throug:h which had pre~iously entered in. After the offering up of the life of another, and their kinds. Hebrew, families, tribes (eh. a cheerful consecration of his redeemed life :x. 18); i. e. not confusedly, but in an orderly to God ; (3) the great sacrifice of which it fashion, as they had come in, each one sort- was a type. Pau1, by using the language ing to its kind. Went forth out of the ark. of the LXX. (Ephes. v. 2), shows that he Ver. 20.-And Noah builded an altar. regarded the two as connected. And the M izbeach, a place for slaying sacrifices, from Lord said in his heart. I. e. resolved within zabach, to slaughter animo.ls (eh. x:xxi. 54), himself. It is not certain that this deter- to slay in sacrifice (Levit. ix. 4; I Sam. i. 4), mination on the part of Jehovah was at this as f!ur11ac1Tr,pt0v, from f!{mv, is the first altar time communicated to the patriarch (cf. eh. mentioned in lustory. The English term vi. 3, 7 for Divine inward resolves which (from altus, high) signifies a high place, were not at the moment made known), because the altar was commonly a raised unless the correct reading be to his (Noah's) structure or mound of earth or stones (Exod. heart, meaning the Lord comforted him xx. 24 ). Keil thinks that altars were not (cf. Judges xi.x. 3 ; Ruth ii. 13 ; Isa. xl. 2 ; required prior to the Flood, the Divine Hosea ii. 14), which is barely probable. presence being still visibly among men at I will not again curse the ground any more the gate of Eden, " so that they could turn for man's sake. Literally, I will not add their offerings and their hearts towards that to curse. Not a revocation of the curse of abode." Poole, Clarke, Bush, and Inglis Gen. iii. 17, nor a pledge that such curse hold that the antedilu,ian sacrifices pre- woulu not be duplicated. The language supposed an altar. Unto the Lord. Jehovah, refers solely to the visitation of the Deluge, the God of salvation. And took of every and promises not that God may not some- clean beast, and of every clean fowl Vide times visit particular localities with n flood, eh. vii. 2. " Seldom has there been a more but that another such world-wide catastrophe liberal offering in proportion to the meanR should never overtake the human race. of tbe giver. His whole stock of clean For the imagination of man's heart is evil animals, wherewith to fill the world, was from his youth. Oh. vi. 5 assigns this as seven pairs of each" (Inglis). And offered. the reason for man's destrnction ; a proof By Divine appointment, since his service of inconsistency between tho Elohistic author was accepted ; and "all religious services and his J ehovistic euitor (Bleek). ff Hie which arc not perfumed with the odour of inconstantiai videtur Deus accusari posse" faith are of an ill savour before God" (Luther). ff God seems to contradict him-' (Calvin); but "God is peculiarly well pleased self by having previously declared that the with froo-will offerings, and eurely if ever an world must be destroyed because its iniquity occa1;ion existed for the exe1 cise of grateful was desperate" (Calvin). Somo ende1wour on. vm. 15~22.J THE BOOK OF GEN'ESIS. 1/18