The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 214

CHAPTER IX. not intervened, in the course of time the boast would have become the master nnd Ver. 1.-And God-Ewhim, not bcrause man the slave. To prevent any such ap, belonging to the Elohistic document (Ble.ik, prchensions in ·the future, e.s there was to Tuch. Co1enso); but nither because through- be no second deluge, the relations of mnr1 out this section the Deity is exhibited in his and the lower creatures were to be placed on relations to his creatures-blessed--a repe- a ne'Y footing. Ultimately, in tho po.lili- tition of the primal blessing rendered neces- genes1a, they would be completely restored sary by the devastation of the Flood (cf. eh. (cf. Isa. xi. 6); in the mean time, till that i. 2S)-lioah and his sons,-as the new glorious consummation should a1Tive the heads of the race,-and se.id unto them,- otherwise inevitable encroachments of -.the audibly, in contrast to eh. viii. 21, 22, which creatures upon the hume.n family in its sin~ was not addressed to the patriarch, but cr~a~d weakness should be restrfLined by a spoken by God to himself in l1is heart, as if prmc1ple of fear. That was the first import: internally resolving on his subsequent course ant modification made· upon· the original of action,-lle fruitful, e.nd multiply. A .Adamic blessing. favourite expression of the Elohist (cf. eh. i. Yer. 2.-And the fear of you and the 28 ; viii. li; ix. 1, 7; nii. 20; xxvi..ii. 3; dread of you. Not simply of Noah a.nd his nxv. 11; xhii. 27; xlviii. 14), (Tuch); but (1) sons, but of man in general. Shall be. Not the apparently great number of passages melts for the first time, as it_ could not. fe.il to be away when we observe tho Yerbally exact evoked by the sin of me.n during _the p~ea reference of eh. viii 17 ; ix. 1, 7 to i. 28 ; vious generations, but, having already beei;i and of eh. xlviii. 4 to xxxv. 11 ; (2) the developed, it_ was henceforth to be turne£). Elohist does not always employ his" favourite back upon the creature rather thari directed ex-pression" where he might have done so, against man. Upon. The verb to be is ns, e. g., not in eh. i 22 ; xvii. 6 ; x:x:viii 14 ; (3) the J ehovist does not avoid it where first construed with ';,.ll, and afterwards with the course of thought necessarily calls for it .;l. The LXX. render both by l1r/, though (vide Lent. xxvi. 9), (Keil). And replenish perhaps the latter should be taken as equi- the ee.rth. The words, " i;.nd subdue it," valent to ;,,, in which case the three clauses which had a place in the .Adamic blessing, of the verse will express a gradation. The and which the LXX. insert here in the dread of man shall first overhang the. beasts; Koachic (1:ai 1:ararvpLEvuar, avni,), are then it shall enter into and take pos,session omitted for the obvious reason that the of them, ancl .finally Wlder its influence they world dominion originally assigned to man shall fall into man's harid.. Every beast of the in .Ad:i.m had been forfeited by sin, and could earth, e.nd upon every fowl of the e.ir, ',ipori only be restored through the ideal Man, the (literally, in; vide supra. Murphy trans- woman's seed, to whom it had been trans- lates with) all that moveth upon the earth, ferred at the fall Hence says Paul, speak- and upon (litere.Uy, in) e.ll the -flshe~.of the ing of Christ : " 1:a, 1ravra v1rfral;,v v1ro sea. This does not imply that the anime.ls roils 1rolar avroii (Ephes. i. 22) ; and the may not sometimes rise against man and writer to the Hebrews: viiv ol DV1rW opwµ,v destroy him (cf. Exod. viii. 6, I 7, 24 ; Levit. avr,j (i. e. man) rd ,ravra vr.onrayµiva, xxvi 22 ; 1 Kings xiii. 24; 25 ; xx. 86 ; 2 rov U f3pa')(" r, 'ZT'ap' 'ay-yD.ou, ,jXarrop.ivov Kings ii. 24 ; Ezck. xiv. 15 ; Adts xii. 23, f3X1,roµ,v •1,,uoii:v, l,d ri> 1rci0,,µa roii !lava• for instances in which the creatw·es were -rov, c,0!;71 1:a, nµp itrrnpavwµivov (i. e. the made ministers of Divine justice), but simply 'l\"or!J. dominion which David, Pa. viii. 6, that the normal condition of the lower crea- recognised as belonging to God's iJeal man) tures will be one of instinctive dread of man, 01rW!: xap,ri 9wv v1rip 1ravro, Y'""'lra, causing them rather to avoid than to seek his fiavarov (eh. ii 8, 9). The original relation- presence-a statement sufficiently con.firmed ship which God had established between by.the facts that wherever human civilisation man and the lower creatures having been penetrates, there the dominion of the ,beasts disturbed by sin, the inferior animals, as it retires ; that even ferocious animals, such o.s were, gradually l,roke loose from their con- lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, u1,1l,ess diti'on of subjection. .As corruption dcep- provoked, usu:.lly flee from man ·rather <oned. in the human race it was 011ly natural than assail him. Into your hand a.re 'thet to a1.ti!ipate that man's lordship over the delivered. Attested by (1) mo.n's actual animal ereation would become feel,ler anJ dominiou over such of the creatures as. 11'rp feebler. Nor, perh.apr:, iB it an altogether either immediately needful for or helpfuld:o violeut hypothesis t' 1at, had the Deluge him, such as the horse, the ox, the sheep, &c, ; OU. IX. 1-7.] THE BOOK OF GENESIB. 139