CHAPTER IX _God blesses Noah and his sons_, 1. _The brute creation to be subject to them through fear_, 2. _The first grant of animal food_, 3. _Eating of blood forbidden_, 4. _Cruelty to animals forbidden_, 5. _A man-slayer to forfeit his life_, 6. _The covenant of God established between hi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:2. _THE FEAR OF YOU AND THE DREAD, C._] Prior to the fall, man ruled the inferior animals by _love_ and _kindness_, for then _gentleness_ and _docility_ were _their_ principal characteristics. After the fall, untractableness, with savage ferocity, prevailed among almost all orders o... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:3. _EVERY MOVING THING - SHALL BE MEAT_] There is no positive evidence that _animal_ food was ever used _before_ the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind, and it has been continued to all his posterity ever since. It is not likely that this grant would have been now made if... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:4. _BUT FLESH WITH THE LIFE THEREOF_, WHICH IS _THE BLOOD_] Though animal food was granted, yet the _blood_ was most solemnly forbidden, because it was the _life of the beast_, and this _life_ was to be offered to God as an atonement for sin. Hence the blood was ever held sacred, bec... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:5. _SURELY YOUR BLOOD - WILL I REQUIRE; AT THE HAND OF EVERY_ _BEAST_] This is very obscure, but if taken literally it seems to be an awful warning against _cruelty_ to the brute creation; and from it we may conclude that _horse-racers_, _hare-hunters,_ _bull-baiters_, and _cock-figh... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:6. _WHOSO SHEDDETH MAN'S BLOOD, BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD_] Hence it appears that whoever kills a man, unless _unwittingly_, as the Scripture expresses it, shall forfeit his own life. A man is accused of the crime of murder; of this crime he is guilty or he is not: if he be guilty of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:13. _I DO SET MY BOW IN THE CLOUD_] On the origin and nature of the rainbow there had been a great variety of conjectures, till _Anthony de Dominis_, bishop of Spalatro, in a treatise of his published by _Bartholus_ in 1611, partly suggested the true cause of this phenomenon, which w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:17. _THIS IS THE TOKEN_] אות _oth_, The Divine sign or portent: _The bow shall be in the cloud_. For the reasons above specified it _must_ be there, when the circumstances already mentioned occur; if therefore it cannot fail because of the reasons before assigned, no more shall my pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:20. _NOAH BEGAN TO BE A HUSBANDMAN_] איש האדמה _ish haadamah,_ A man of the ground, a farmer; by his _beginning_ to be a husbandman we are to understand his recommencing his agricultural operations, which undoubtedly he had carried on for six hundred years before, but this had been i... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:21. _HE DRANK OF THE WINE, C._] It is very probable that this was the first time the wine was cultivated and it is as probable that the strength or intoxicating power of the expressed juice was never before known. Noah, therefore, might have drunk it at this time without the least b... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 22. - 24. _AND HAM, THE FATHER OF CANAAN, C._] There is no occasion to enter into any detail here the sacred text is circumstantial enough. Ham, and very probably his son Canaan, had treated their father on this occasion with contempt or reprehensible levity. Had Noah not been innocent, as my... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:23. See Clarke on Ge 9:22... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:24. See Clarke on Ge 9:22... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:25. _CURSED BE CANAAN_] See on the preceding verses. In the Genesis 9:25, Genesis 9:26, and Genesis 9:27 verses, instead of _Canaan_ simply, the Arabic version has _Ham the father of Canaan_; but this is acknowledged by none of the other versions, and seems to be merely a gloss.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 9:29. _THE DAYS OF NOAH WERE NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS_] The oldest patriarch on record, except Methuselah and Jared. This, according to the common reckoning, was A. M. 2006, but according to Dr. Hales, 3505. "HAM," says Dr. Hales, "signifies _burnt_ or _black_, and this name was p... [ Continue Reading ]