Commentaires bibliques

Genesis 8:13. 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.

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Genesis 8:16. 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 the Lord for his great deliverance.

Not a day is he confined more than is needful for him. When the ground is fit for his abode, God sends to deliver him from his confinement. They are sure always of being in the right who do nothing without the divine warrant. And now the earth is renewed, the blessing is renewed also. They that serve the Lord shall want no manner of thing which is good.

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Genesis 8:20. 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 prove, as plainly as possible, the use of sacrifice before the deluge; as we read of no new revelation respecting that matter to Noah, and as it is plain his offerings were acceptable to God from the following verse.

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Genesis 9:1. God blessed Noah, &c.— The primitive benediction upon Adam is here renewed, Be fruitful, &c. as well as the dominion conferred over all creatures; while a larger grant is given to Noah than to the former, namely, of animal food. For (according to our interpretation, see ch. Genesis 1:29.) it was not allowed before the deluge. In this grant, the eating of the blood is forbidden; a restraint which, I conceive, has never been taken off. See Acts 15:20; Acts 15:41.

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Genesis 9:5. And surely your blood of your lives, &c.— The reason given in the 4th verse for the prohibition of blood is, that "the blood is the life;" and, accordingly, they are used for each other, not only in sacred but profane writers*. And, upon this declaration, the Lord goes on to prohibit murder: "blood is the life;" and certainly I will require your blood for your lives; לנפשׁתיכם lenapshotikem; i.e.. I will make solemn inquest, in order to punish and exact blood for blood, life for life, at the hand of every beast, see Exo 21:28 and at the hand of every man will I require it: at the hand of every man's brother (a name used to shew our common relationship, and to give us the greater abhorrence of murder) will I require the life of man. And, to make this prohibition the more clear, and at the same time the more forcible, it is added, Exodus 21:6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man: whence, as Philo observes, homicide becomes the most heinous sacrilege; because, of all things in the world, nothing is more sacred, nothing stamped with more lively characters of the Divinity, than man: murder therefore is not only the most inhuman, foul, and monstrous of crimes, but it is an act of high treason against the Divine Majesty, whom man represents in this lower world.

• Virgil says, AEn. 9. v. 349.—Purpuream vomit ille animam; ——Pours forth his purple life.

REFLECTIONS.—We have here God's gracious dealings with Noah, and the great gifts bestowed on him.

1. He blessed him. This is worth all the rest, and what makes every gift truly valuable: for the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich. They should increase and multiply. There were few men left, but in virtue of this, one shall quickly become a thousand. Children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord.

2. He bestows the property of, and gives them dominion over, the creatures. If the ox and horse serve us with their strength, we must remember who put them under our feet. If the wild beasts, when unprovoked, rather fly from, than pursue us, it is because God hath put the dread of us upon them. Were God only to let loose the brute creation upon us, we should quickly be destroyed.

3. He permits us flesh for our sustenance. Before we partake of the mercy at our tables daily, let us not forget to acknowledge the gift, and to adore the gracious Giver.

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Genesis 9:9. And I, behold, I establish my covenant, &c.— Before Noah entered the ark, ch. Genesis 6:18. we read, that the Almighty declared his purpose of "establishing his covenant with him;" which he here fulfils, and takes into it Noah's seed after him, as well as all living creatures. Now, that the covenant certainly implies the promise of the future preservation of the earth from destruction by a deluge, is plain from Genesis 6:11. See also Isaiah 54:9. And that the rainbow was appointed a sign or token of this part of the covenant, is equally certain, from Isaiah 54:13-16. But the question is, whether more, much more than this, is not comprehended in this covenant established by God with Noah and his seed after him? To which it may justly be replied, that as Noah was not only the restorer of the human race, but one of the progenitors of the promised seed, it may well be conceived, that this covenant refers to that original promise and seed; a covenant which afterwards was renewed with Abraham, in whose seed, that is, Christ, all nations of the earth were to be blessed: and, as that covenant contained a temporal as well as a spiritual part, the former referring to the possession of the land of Canaan, the latter to the Messiah; so here we may observe, the covenant is two-fold; 1st, regarding the earth and all its inhabitants, which the Lord promises to bless; and 2nd, referring to that promised seed, which was to descend from Noah, and to bless all mankind: and the rainbow (which we find round about the throne of the promised Redeemer, Revelation 4:3.) may well be understood as a sign or token of both parts of the covenant. And thus we may fully understand the passage: 1st, The term covenant need not be received in the sense of a mutual contract or agreement, but only of a promise, a gracious and voluntary promise, necessary for Noah in his state, and comfortable to all mankind: but 2nd, This covenant may well comprehend the general promise relating to the seed of the woman, which God remembered, and for that purpose preserved Noah, through whom that seed was to descend.

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Genesis 9:13. I do set my bow in the cloud— If the covenant, as we suppose, had a two-fold reference, the bow was also a two-fold sign; and its temporal or natural respect must then, and ought now, to remind us of its much more important spiritual and gracious design. God hath always been pleased to appoint some outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace conferred by his covenants with man: thus, circumcision was appointed to Abraham, &c.

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Genesis 9:14. When I bring a cloud—the bow shall be seen in the cloud— It is not meant here, that the bow shall be always seen, but at certain times, often enough to put men in mind of the promise, and to stir up their belief of it. And when it is said, Genesis 9:16. I will look upon it, that I may remember, it is easy to observe, that this is spoken only after the manner of men: He, who cannot forget, needs no token or sign to put him in mind of his promise. This sign was for the comfort of man, not for the admonition of God: the meaning therefore is, that men might consider this bow as a signification that God had obliged himself to this promise, and would certainly fulfil it. The opinions of expositors have been much divided, respecting the original of this sign. Bishop Warburton, whose opinion in this instance I conceive to be just, observes, "The bow was not then first set in the clouds, but then FIRST set as a token." In the case before us, the most novel, or most supernatural, appearance could add nothing to their assurance arising from the evidence of God's veracity. As, on the contrary, had the children of Noah been ignorant of that attribute of the Deity, such a phaenomenon could have given no assurance at all. For what then served the rainbow? For the wise purpose so well expressed by the sacred writer, for the token of the covenant; that is, for a memorial or remembrance of it throughout all generations.

The heathens, I doubt not, borrowed many of their fables from this sacred record concerning the rainbow. Homer says, Il. Genesis 11:28. that Jupiter established the rainbow, τερας μεροπων ανθρωπων, "a sign to man amidst the skies." And very probably, from some tradition of this original covenant, the ancient poets feigned Iris, or the rainbow, to be the daughter of Wonder, θαυμαντος, and the messenger of Jupiter and Juno, the heaven, or air and clouds.

REFLECTIONS.—The covenant is now signed and sealed by a visible token, the rainbow; a glorious object, and a constant assurance of God's remembrance of us, and of our security from the descending waters. Observe, 1. As we are apt to be affected with visible objects; God therefore, not only in the covenant of nature, but of grace, hath instituted visible signs for our greater comfort and confidence. 2. The cause of the bow in the clouds, is the refraction of the beams of the sun. Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, sits with the rainbow round about his throne, and therefore his people are safe from fear of evil. 3. The sign of our security in the cloud, should ever awaken our thankfulness, and lead up our minds from temporal promises thus fulfilled, to conclude the certainty of the eternal promises, which are yet in hope.

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