_THE WATERS DECREASE: THE ARK RESTETH ON MOUNT ARARAT. NOAH SENDS FORTH A RAVEN; AND AFTERWARDS A DOVE; AND THEN DEPARTS HIMSELF FROM THE ARK. HE BUILDS AN ALTAR, AND SACRIFICES TO THE LORD, WHO PROMISES HIM NOT TO DESTROY THE EARTH ANY MORE IN THIS MANNER FOR MAN'S INIQUITY._... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD REMEMBERED NOAH—AND MADE A WIND TO PASS, &C.— God had compassion upon Noah in his melancholy confinement: and this stupendous end of his providence being answered by the destruction of the iniquitous generation, which brought on this _dissolution_ of the earth, he was pleased to make use of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ARK RESTED IN THE SEVENTH MONTH.— Of the year; that is, not of the flood, as appears from Genesis 8:13. as well as from Genesis 8:11 of the former chapter: on the tenth month of the year the tops of the mountains were seen, Genesis 8:5. After tossing on the billows, at last the ark rests on Arar... [ Continue Reading ]
TOPS OF THE MOUNTAINS SEEN— This is no contradiction to the former verse, in which it is said, that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat; for it is very easy to conceive, that a vessel of so heavy burden as the ark was, might rest upon the earth when there were several feet of water still preva... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THE END OF FORTY DAYS— i.e.. Forty days after the first day of the tenth month, when the tops of the mountains began to appear, then Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; _and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro; which going forth and returning,_ as the Hebrew has it... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO HE SENT FORTH A DOVE, &C.— From Genesis 8:10 it appears, that there was seven days' interval between the sending forth the raven and the dove. The dove was sent forth, probably, because it is a bird of strong wing, flies long and far, and feeds upon the seeds which are cast or fall upon the gro... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE SIX HUNDREDTH AND FIRST YEAR— i.e.. Of Noah's life: _in the first month and first day of the month_ of the year, the waters were dried up; so that, as the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the former year, it lasted, upon the whole, a complete solar year.... [ Continue Reading ]
GO FORTH, &C.— "After he had been three hundred and sixty-five days in the ark," says Mr. Locke, "God commands him to go forth, that he might leave the ark by the same authority which ordered him to enter it:" and he testified his obedience, as well as thankfulness, by offering burnt-offerings to th... [ Continue Reading ]
NOAH BUILDED AN ALTAR, &C.— Offerings and sacrifices necessarily imply the whole apparatus required; Cain and Abel could not have sacrificed without an altar. But that original one being destroyed, Noah erected a new one, on which to offer his sacrifice of clean beasts and clean birds. This seems to... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SMELLED A SWEET SAVOUR— Heb. _a savour of rest,_ or cessation from anger. This is a phrase accommodated to our conceptions, which implies not any actual smelling, but only that this sacrifice of Noah's arose as acceptable to God, as sweet odours are to us. See Leviticus 26:31. And how it ca... [ Continue Reading ]