_And the Lord_ The command of Jehovah. See Genesis 6:13, "And God said unto Noah." _and all thy house_ A more brief description of Noah's family than in Genesis 6:18. We should observe here the first mention of a man's "house," in the sense of a household, or family. The identification of a man wit... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 7:1-5 The account, from J, of the command to enter the ark. The chief difference, between the J and P versions, lies in the number of the animals which Noah is to take into the ark. According to J, Noah is to take seven pairs of every clean animal and two pairs of the unclean; according to... [ Continue Reading ]
_Of every clean beast_ The distinction is here made between the clean and the unclean animals. Categories of both kinds, according to the Levitical Law, are found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-20. In the account given by P (Genesis 6:19) no allusion is made to this distinction. According to P... [ Continue Reading ]
_the fowl_ Apparently, according to the Hebrew text, all the birds were regarded as clean. Possibly, however, the omission of the distinction between clean and unclean birds is due to the condensed form of the narrative. LXX reads "of fowl also of the air that are clean, seven and seven, male and fe... [ Continue Reading ]
_seven days_ Note the period of seven days, the same interval as occurs again, in the J narrative, in Genesis 8:10; Genesis 8:12. _forty days and forty nights_ The duration of the Flood is here announced. Cf. Genesis 7:12 and Genesis 8:6. In the Babylonian version the rain lasts for six days. _ever... [ Continue Reading ]
A description of the entrance into the ark, with evident editorial adaptations to harmonize Genesis 6:19 and Genesis 7:2; Genesis 7:15. 6 (P). _six hundred years old_ P gives Noah's age at the time of the Flood. In Genesis 7:22 he was said to be 500 years old before "he begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth... [ Continue Reading ]
_and of fowls_ There is no mention of a distinction between clean and not clean in the birds and the creeping things, see note on Genesis 7:3. The mention of a distinction between "clean" and "unclean" beasts (_behêmah_, "cattle" or "domestic animals" of Genesis 6:20) is certainly a later insertion... [ Continue Reading ]
_two and two_ Apparently these words are introduced in order to harmonize the account in this verse with the command in Genesis 6:19, and with the description in Genesis 7:15. There is no mention of the admission of seven, or of seven pairs, of "clean" animals. _male and female_ The same phrase as i... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 7:10 to Genesis 8:14. The Account of the Flood, compiled from J and P 10. _after the seven days_ The seven days mentioned in Genesis 7:4, the period during which Noah and his family were in the ark, before the commencement of the Flood. The arrangements necessary for the inmates of the ark... [ Continue Reading ]
_the second month, on the seventeenth day_ P gives, according to its fondness for statistics, the exact date in years, months, and days. Cf. Exodus 12:41 (P). The months and days apparently are reckoned on the assumption that Noah was born on the first day of the year, 600 years previously. LXX here... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the selfsame day_ Observe that P represents the Flood as ommencing on the same day (cf. Genesis 7:11) that Noah entered the ark. There is no account taken here of the interval of seven days, mentioned by J in Genesis 7:4_; Genesis 7:10_, preceding the catastrophe. For the expression "selfsame da... [ Continue Reading ]
(P). The Entrance into the Ark, according to P The repetition of what has already been narrated in Genesis 7:7 can hardly fail to strike the reader; and, without our recognition of the composite elements which are here interwoven, it would be unintelligible.... [ Continue Reading ]
_kind_ See note on Genesis 1:12 and Genesis 6:20. _of every sort_ Heb. _wing_. Literally, "every bird, every wing," i.e. all sorts of birds. The clause is wanting in the LXX. Some scholars prefer the rendering, "every bird, every winged thing," so that the phrase should include all winged animals,... [ Continue Reading ]
_all flesh … breath of life_ See note on Genesis 6:17. _two and two_ See note on Genesis 6:19-20. LXX adds "male and female." 16 (P). _as God commanded him_ This is evidently P's account: notice the use of _Elohim_, and the phrase itself, cf. Genesis 6:22; Genesis 7:5; Genesis 7:9. (J) _and the L... [ Continue Reading ]
_all the high mountains_ The account, given by P, describes the covering of the mountains of the whole earth by the waters of the Deluge. It is this hyperbolical description which has naturally seized upon the imagination of readers. It is not necessary to enlarge upon the physical impossibility of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fifteen cubits_ P describes a depth of water of 15 cubits (22 feet) above the mountains. Why should 15 cubits be mentioned? Very possibly, because the height of the ark was 30 cubits (Genesis 6:15), and the ark was considered to be submerged for half its depth. It would thus just touch the top of ... [ Continue Reading ]