Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 7

1. AND the LORD said unto Noah, come thou and all thy House into the Ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this Generation .

When the Ark was finished and furnished, and the time of Gods patience expired, Gen. 6. 3.

(i. e.) Prepare to enter.

(i. e.) Thy Family; which consisted only of eight persons, 1 Pet. 3. 20. To wit▪ Noah and his three Sons, and their four Wives, Gen. 6. 18. Whereby it appears that each had but one wife, and consequently it is more than probable that Polygamy as it began in the posterity of wicked Cain, Gen. 4. 19. So it was confined to them, and had not as yet got footing amongst the Sons of God. For if ever Polygamy had been allowable it must have been now▪ for the repeopling of the perishing World.

With the Righteousness of Faith, as it is explained Heb. 11. 7. evidenced by all the fruits of Righteousness and true Holiness.

Not only before men and seemingly, but really, and to my all-seeing eye.

Of which expression see notes on Gen. 6. 9.

Marginal references: Matth. 24. 33. Luke 17. 26. 2 Pet. 2. 5.; Cap. 6. 9.

2. Of every clean Beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens , the Male and his Female: and of Beasts that are not clean, by two, the Male and his Female.

Obj. The distinction of clean and unclean Beasts was not before the Law. Answ. Some legal things were prescribed and used before the Law, as abstinence from the eating of Blood, Gen. 9. 4. and among other things, Sacrifices, as Learned men have sufficiently proved; and consequently the distinction of Beasts to be Sacrificed was then in some measure understood, which afterwards was expressed, Levit. 1. &c. Nor is this a good argument, This was not written before, therefore it was not commanded and practised before, especially concerning a time when no commands of God were written, but only delivered by tradition.

Either 1. Seven single, as most think. Or rather 2. Seven couples, as may be gathered 1. From the duplication of the word in Hebrew. If it be said, seven seven signifies only seven of every kind, then it would have been said concerning the unclean Beasts, two two, (i. e.) two of each sort: Whereas now there is an apparent difference, there it is said only by two, but here, by sevens, or seven seven, which difference of the phrase suggests a difference in the things. 2. By the following words, the Male and his Female, which being indifferently applied to the clean and unclean, plainly shews that none of them entred into the Ark single, and therefore there was no odd seventh among them, but all went in by couples, which was most convenient in all for the propagation of their kind, and in the clean for other uses also, as for Sacrifices to God, if not for the sustentation of Men in the Ark, and after they came out of it. Which gives us the reason why God would have more of the clean than of the unclean put into the Ark, because they were more serviceable both to God and Men.

Marginal references: Heb. seven seven.; Heb. the Man and his Wife.

3. Of Fowls also of the Air by sevens , the Male and the Female, to keep Seed alive upon the face of all the Earth.

(i. e.) Of clean Fowls: Which he leaves to be understood out of the foregoing verse.

And of the unclean by two; as before of the beasts.

(i. e.) The issue, or breed of them.

Marginal references: Isa. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 6[illegible: 1+ letters]. 9▪

4. For yet seven days , and I will cause it to Rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights: And every living substance that I have made, will I destroy from off the face of the Earth.

Or, After seven days, the Hebrew Lamed being put for after, a[illegible: 1+ letters] it i[illegible: 1+ letters] Exod. 16. 1. Psal. 19. 3. Ier. 41. 4. Or, within seven days, which time God allowed to the World as a further space of Repentance, whereof, therefore it is probable, Noah gave them notice: And it is not unlikely that many of them who slighted the threatning, when it was at 120 years distance, now hearing a second threatning, and considering the nearness of their danger, might be more affected and brought to true Repentance: Who though destroyed in their bodies by the Flood for their former and long impenitency, which God would not so far pardon, yet might be saved in their Spirits. See 1 Pet. 4. 6. And as some preserved in the Ark were damned, so others drowned in the deluge might be eternally saved.

All that hath in it the breath of Life, as was said ch. 6. 17.

Marginal references: Heb. blot out▪

5. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him .

Which was said chap. 6. 22. and is here repeated, because this was an eminent instance of his Faith and Obedience.

7. And Noah went in, and his Sons, and his Wife, and his Sons Wives with him into the Ark, because of the Waters of the Flood.

Or, For fear of: For fear is ascribed to and commended in Noah, Heb. 11. 7. Or, from the face of.

9. There went in two and two unto Noah into the Ark, the Male and the Female, as God had commanded Noah.

By the secret impulse of their great Creator and Governour. See Gen. 2. 19. and 6. 20.

Of which see above ver. 2.

11. In the six hundredth year of Noahs Life , in the second moneth , the seventeenth day of the moneth, the same day were all the Fountains of the great deep broken up , and the Windows of Heaven were opened.

Either compleat: Or rather current or begun; otherwise he had lived three hundred fifty one years after the Flood, not three hundred fifty onely, as it is written, Gen. 9. last.

Either 1. Of that year of Noahs Life. Or, 2. of the year. Now as the year among the Hebrews was two-fold, the one sacred, for the celebration of Feasts, beginning in March, of which see Exod. 12. 2. The other Civil for the better ordering of mens Political or Civil Affairs, which began in September. Accordingly this second moneth is thought by some to be part of April, and part of May, the most pleasant part of the year, when the Flood was least expected or feared: By others part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered the Fruits of the Earth and laid them up in the Ark. So the Flood came in with Winter, and was by degree[illegible: 1+ letters] dried up by the heat of the following Summer: And this opinion seems the more probable, because the most antient and first beginning of the year was in September, and the other beginning of the year in March, was but a latter institution among the Jews with respect to their Feasts and Sacred Affairs only, which are not at all concerned here.

(i. e.) Of the Sea, called the deep, Iob 38. 16, 30. and 41. 31. Psal. 106. 9. and also of that great abyss or Sea of Waters, which is contained in the Bowels of the Earth. For that there are vast quantities of Waters there, is implied both here and in other Scriptures, as Psal. 33. 7. 2 Pet. 3. 5. and is affirmed by Plato in his Phaedrus, and by Seneca in his natural questions, 3. 19. and is evident from Springs and Rivers which have their rise from thence, and some of them have no other place into which they issue themselves, as appears from the Caspian Sea, into which divers Rivers do empty themselves, and especially that great River Volga, in such abundance, that it would certainly drown all those parts of the Earth, if there were not a vent for them under ground, for other vent above ground out of that great Lake or Sea they have none. Out of this deep therefore, and out of the Sea, together, it was very easie for God to bring such a quantity of Waters as might overwhelm the Earth, without any production of new Waters, which yet he with one word could have created. So vain are the cavils of Atheistical Anti-Scripturists in this.

The Fountains are said to be broken up here, also Psal. 74. 15. by a Metonymy, because the Earth and other obstructions were broken up, and so a passage opened for the Fountains: As Bread is said to be bruised, Isa. 28. 28. and Meal to be ground, Isa. 47. 2. Because the Corn, of which the Meal and Bread were made, was bruised and ground.

Which some understand of the Waters which, from Gen. 1. 7. they suppose were placed by God above the visible Heavens, and reserved and kept as it were in prison for this very purpose, and now the Prison doors were opened, and they let loose and sent down for the destruction of the World: But others more fitly understand it of the Clouds, which are called the windows of Heaven, Mal. 3. 10. So 2 Kings 7. 2. 19. Psal. 78. 23. Isa. 24. 18. Which then grew thicker and bigger with Waters; nor is there any inconvenience in it, if we say that God created a great quantity of Waters, for this end, which afterwards he annihilated.

Marginal references: Or, Flood-gates

12. And the Rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights .

God by this gradual proceeding both awakened to Repentance, and gave them space for it.

13. In the self same day entred Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Iapheth, the Sons of Noah, and Noahs Wife, and the three Wives of his Sons with them, into the Ark.

On which the Flood began by that terrible shower. Heb. In the Body, or Essence, or Strength of the Day, as Gen. 17. 26. Levit. 23. 14. Ios. 10. 27. q. d. Not in the dark or twilight, like one ashamed of his action, or afraid of the People, but when it was clear day, or about noon-tide, in the publick view of the World.

Marginal references: Job 21. 25.

14. They, and every Beast after his kind, and all the Cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind, and every Fowl after his kind, every Bird of every sort .

The first word signifies the greater, the second the less sort of Birds, as appears from Gen. 15. 9, 10. Levit. 14. 4. Psal.. 104.. 17.

Heb. Of every kind of Wing, whether Feathered, as it is in most Birds, or skinny and grisly as in Bats.

Marginal references: Heb. wing.

15. And they went in unto Noah into the Ark, two and two of all Flesh wherein is the breath of Life .

See on ver. 9.

(i. e.) All living Creatures.

16. And they that went in, went in Male and Female of all Flesh, as God had commanded him: And the LORD shut him in .

Or, shut the door after him, or upon him, or for him, i. e. his good and safety against the fury either of the Waters, or of the people. This God did in some extraordinary manner.

17. And the Flood was forty days upon the Earth: And the Waters encreased , and bare up the Ark, and it was lift up above the Earth.

Or, that Flood of Waters which was poured down in that shower mentioned ver. 12. otherwise the Flood was one hundred and fifty days upon the Earth, ver. 24.

By the accession of more Waters from above and beneath.

18. And the Waters prevailed, and were encreased greatly upon the Earth; and the Ark went upon the face of the Waters.

Overthrowing Men, and Houses, and Trees, where possibly they did or thought to secure themselves.

19. And the Waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth, and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered .

Profane Wi[illegible: 1+ letters]s pretend this to be impossible because of the vast height of divers Mountains. But 1. This cannot be thought impossible by any man that believeth a God; to whom it was as easie to bring forth a sufficiency of water for this end as to speak a word. And if we acknowledge a miracle of the Divine Power and Providence here, it is no more than even Heathens have confessed in other cases. 2. Peradventure this Flood might not be simply universal over the whole Earth, but only over all the habitable World where either Men or Beasts lived, which was as much as either the meritorious cause of the Flood, mens sins, o[illegible: 1+ letters] the end of it, the destruction of all Men and Beasts, required. And the or that whole Heaven may be understood of that which was over all the habitable parts of it. And whereas our modern Heathens that mis-cal themselves Christians laugh at the History of this Flood upon this and the like occasions as if it were an idle Romance, they may please to note that their Predecessors the antient and wiser Heathens have diverse of them acknowledged the Truth of it, though they also mixed it with their Fables, which was neither strange, nor unusual for them to do. Lactantius appeals to the Heathens of his age concerning it. Nay there is not onely mention of the Flood in general, but also of the Dove sent out of the Ark, in Plutarch, and Berosus, and Abydenus. And the memory of this general Flood is preserved to this day among the poor ignorant Indians, who asked the Christians who invaded their Land, whether they ever heard of such a thing, and whether another Flood was to be expected. And the Chinese Writers relate that but one person, whom they call Pumcu[illegible: 1+ letters]s, with his Family were saved in the Flood, and all the rest perished.

20. Fifteen Cubits upwards did the Waters prevail ; and the Mountains were covered.

Which was sufficient for the destruction of the highest men or other Creatures, though placed upon the highest Mountains.

21. And all Flesh died that moved upon the Earth, both of Fowl, and of Cattle, and of Beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth, and every man.

(i. e.) Lived, for motion is a sign of Life.

22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of Life , of all that was in the dry Land, died .

Of which phrase see the note on Gen. 2. 7.

Whether Men or Beasts, &c. all that breathed the same Air with Man, all that lived in the same Element, which man by his sins had infected: whereby the Fishes are excepted, as living in another Element.

Marginal references: Heb. the breath of the spirit of Life, 2 Sam. 22. 16.

23. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both Man and Cattle, and the creeping things, and the Fowl of the Heaven, and they were destroyed from the Earth : And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark.

This is so often repeated that it may be more deeply ingrafted into the dull minds and hard hearts of men, to teach men that they ought again and again to consider this dreadful instance, of Gods justice against sin and incorrigible sinners.

Marginal references: 2 Per. 2. [illegible: 1+ letters].

24. And the Waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days .

(i. e.) Either grew higher and higher, or rather continued to prevail, and did not decrease.

In all, whereof one part was the forty days mentioned, ver. 17. as appears from chap. 8. 4.