Комментарии к Библии

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

When men began to multiply. — Not good men only, but bad men too; who therefore took them more wives than one, that they might multiply amain. A numerous offspring is no sure sign of God’s special favour. It is well observed, that when God promised children as a blessing, he said, “The wife should be as the vine, and the children as olive plants”; - two Psalms 128:3 of the best fruits, the one for cheering the heart, the other for clearing the face; Psalms 104:15 Judges 9:9 ; Judges 9:13 the one for sweetness, the other for fatness. “Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such, as are the arrows of a strong man.” Psalms 127:4-5 Hence it follows, that they must have more in them than nature; for arrows are not arrows by growth, but by art: so they must be such children, the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed, and made smooth by grace. This workmanship of God in the hearts and lives of children, is like the engraving of a king’s “palace,” or the “polished corners” of the temple. Psalms 144:12 This preserves “Jacob from confusion, and his face from waxing pale”: - this makes religious parents to “sanctify God’s name,” even to “sanctify the Holy One,” and with singular encouragement from “the God of Israel.” Isaiah 29:22-23 It never goes well with the Church, but when the son marries the mother. Isaiah 62:5

return to '

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

That the sons of God saw the daughters. — Sons of God; such as had called themselves by his name, Genesis 4:26 his peculiar professant people, called sons of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 14:1 yea, his firstborn, and so higher than the kings of the earth. Psalms 89:27 Hence, after mention made of the four monarchies, a greater than them all succeeds; and that is the "kingdom of the saints of the Most High"; Daniel 7:17-18 saints at large he means; all "that have made a covenant with him by sacrifice". Psalms 50:5 Now we read of sacrificing Sodomites; Isaiah 1:10 "sinners in Sion"; Isaiah 33:14 profligate professors; Matthew 7:23 who, though called "Israel," yet are to God "as Ethiopians". Amos 9:7 Such were these sons of God.

Saw the daughters of men that they were fair. — Beauty is a dangerous bait, and lust is sharpsighted. It is not safe gazing on a fair woman. How many have died of the wound in the eye! No one means has so enriched hell as beautiful faces. Take heed our eyes are not windows of wickedness and loopholes of lust. Make "a covenant with them" as Job; Job 31:1 pray against the abuse of them with David; Psalms 119:37 and curb them from forbidden objects, as Nazianzen, who had learned τους σφθαλμους σωφρονιζειν , to nurture his eyes, as himself tells us. See note on " Genesis 3:6 "

They took them wives. — Of their own heads, without God’s licence, or parents’ consent; as Esau did; and of all which they chose, that is, that they liked and loved. Thus, as some marry by their ears, upon mere hearsay; others, by their fingers’ ends, for money; so these gallants married by their eyes. They were led by the "lust of their hearts, and sight of their eyes," Proverbs 31:30 as Solomon’s young nobleman; not considering that "favour is deceitful, beauty vanity"; and that many a woman is like Helen without, but Hecuba within, or an earthen "potsherd covered with silver dross". Proverbs 26:23 Amor formae rationis est oblivio, insaniae proximus, turbat consilia, altos et generosos spiritus frangit. - Jerom.

return to '

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

My Spirit shall not always strive, — that is, I’ll consult no longer, but resolve to ruin them, as some gloss it; or, I’ll pull the sword out of the sheath, the soul out of the body, as others gather out of the Hebrew word Sunt qui deductum volunt a Nadan , Vagina. here used. But they do best, in my mind, that sense it thus: My Spirit - whereby I hitherto "went and preached," by Noah and other patriarchs, to those "spirits" (once in pleasure, now) "in prison," Ecclesiastes 11:9 1 Peter 3:18-19 but prevailed not - shall not always strive with perverse men by preaching, disputing, convincing, in the mouths of my servants, whom I have sent unto them; nor in their own minds and consciences, by inward checks and motions, which they have made no good use of. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei . Grieve it once, and you may drive it away for ever. It "bloweth where it listeth," and will not be at your whistle.

For that he also is flesh. — He is therefore the worse, because he ought to be better, Ideo deteriores sumus, quia meliores esse debemus - . Salv. God expects singular things from his people, and takes it ill when they are "carnal and walk as men". 1 Corinthians 3:3 They should be higher than others by head and shoulders, as Saul was; and all that is in them, or comes from them, should be as the fruit of the trees in Paradise, fair to the eye, and sweet to the taste.

Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. — It shall be so long ere I destroy. This longsuffering of God is celebrated by St Peter, 1 Peter 3:19-20 2 Peter 2:5 and well it may; for had he not been God, and not man, he could never have held his hands so long. Neither indeed did he; for so extreme was the provocation, that he cut them off twenty years of this promised count: that all the earth might "know" to their woe his "breach of promise". Numbers 14:34

return to '

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men of renown.

There were giants. — Gigantes, quasi Gηγενεις , earth-sprung. They were "of the earth, they spake of the earth," John 3:31 and the earth heard them; heard them, I say, and fell before them; as the beasts of the field do before the roaring lion. Hence they are called in Hebrew, Nephilim ; such as being fallen from God, fell upon men, Job 1:15 and by fear and force, made others fall before them. Thus they sought to renown and raise themselves, by depressing others, and doing violence. But this was not the way; for now they lie shrouded in the sheet of shame. To "do worthily in Ephrata," is to "be famous in Bethlehem". Ruth 4:11 To be patiently perseverant "in well-doing," is to "seek for glory and honour"; yea, to attain "immortality and eternal life" Romans 2:7

return to '

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.

The wickedness of man was great in the earth. — Which was now grown so foul, that God saw it but time to wash it with a flood; as he shall shortly do again with streams of fire. He destroyed the world then with water, for the heat of lust; he shall destroy it with fire, for the coldness of love, as saith Ludolfu. De Vita Christ ., lib. ii., cap. 7.

And that every imagination of the thoughts. — Omne figmentum cogitationum :The whole fiction or "every creature of the heart," as the apostle has it, Hebrews 4:13 speaking there of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a general disorderliness; the whole frame is out of frame. All the thoughts extensively are intensively only evil, and protensively continually. The understanding dark as hell, and yet proud as the devil. The will cross and overthwart. The memory slippery and waterish to receive and retain good impressions; but of a marble firmness to hold fast that which is evil. The affections crooked and preposterous. The very tongue a world of wickedness, what then the heart? Si trabes in oculo, strues in corde . The operations thereof are evil, only evil; "every day evil," saith this text; and assigneth it for the source of the old world’s wickedness. David also resolves his adultery and murder into this pravity of his nature, as the principle of it; Psalms 51:5 so doth Job; Job 40:4 Paul; Romans 7:24 Isaiah Isaiah 6:5 The whole Church Isaiah 64:6 cries out, "Unclean, unclean," Leviticus 13:45 and, "All we like sheep have gone astray". Isaiah 53:6 Now, as no creature is more apt to wander, so none less able to return, than a sheep. "The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master’s crib"; Isaiah 1:3 the very swine accustomed to the trough, if he go abroad, yet at night will find the way home again: not so the sheep. Lo! such is man. Quintilian, therefore, was quite out when he said, "It is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man." But he erred, not knowing the Scripture. For "do ye think," saith St James, alluding to this text, "that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" James 4:5 The civil man’s nature is as bad as the worst, - not changed, but chained up. Truly said Cicero, Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur . We are no sooner born than buried in a bog of wickedness.

return to '

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

And it repented the Lord, …, and it grieved him. — These things are spoken of God ανθρωποπαθως , after the manner of men; but must be taken and understood θεοσπρεπως , as it beseemeth God. When repentance is attributed to God, saith Mr Perkins, it noteth only the alteration of things and actions done by him, and no change of his purpose and secret decree, which is immutable. God’s repentance, saith another learned divine, Mr Gataker. is not a change of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man is the changing of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change. Mutatio rei, non Dei; effectus, non affectus; facti, non confilii .

return to '

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

I will destroy man. — See here the venemous and mischievous nature of sin. It causeth God to make a world, and again to unmake it: it sets him against man his masterpiece, and makes him, though he be φιλανθρωπος , not only to devise, but to delight in the destruction of his own creature, to "mock at," and make merry in his "calamity," Proverbs 1:26 to deliver "the beloved of his soul into the hands of the destroyer". Jeremiah 12:7 Time was, when Christ, being by at the creation, "rejoiced in this habitable part of God’s earth, and his delights were with the sons of men". Proverbs 8:31 But since the fall, it is far otherwise; for he is "of more pure eyes than to behold sin" Habakkuk 1:13 with patience. He hates it worse than he hates the devil: for he hates the devil for sin’s sake, and not sin for the devil’s sake. Now the natural and next effect of hatred is revenge. Hence he resolves, "I will destroy man."

Both man and beast, the creeping thing, … — Why, "what have those poor sheep done?" 2 Samuel 24:17 They are all undone by man’s sin, and are, for his punishment, to perish with him, as they were created for him. This is a piece of that bondage they are still subject to; and grievously groan under, waiting deliverance. Romans 8:21-22

return to '

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

But Noah found grace. — Because in covenant with God; who of himself was a child of wrath, and saved by grace only, though "just and perfect in his generation." The mercy seat was no larger than the ark; to show that the grace of God extends no further than the covenant. As all out of the ark were drowned, so all out of the covenant are damned.

return to '