References (47)
And he named him Noah (Hebr. Noach), saying:
"This one will lighten (Hebr. nacham) us from our work, yes, from the toil of our hands (laborious pain – Hebr. itsavon) with the ground [when we cultivate the earth] that the Lord (Yahweh) has cursed."
[Here the pattern is broken; instead of directly stating the name, the naming is described in more detail. The Hebrew name Noach is associated with the Hebrew verb (to rest), and is used when the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Here, Lamech uses the word nacham, which means to lighten the burden. These Hebrew words have a common root that describes exhaling, resting, and lying down.]
And Lamech lived 595 years [5 and 90 years and 500 years] after he became the father of Noah.
And he became the father of sons and daughters.
And Noah was 500 years old.
And Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
[For the first time, the Hebr. word ben appears before the age. The phrase literally becomes: 'Noah, a son of 500 years', see also ; ; . Noah's name is also repeated here, which is unique; in previous generations, "he" is used. Here, Noah's formula is interrupted. The end is found only at the end of Noah's continued story in .]
But Noah (Hebr. Noach) had found favor (undeserved love; favor – chen) in the eyes of the Lord (Yahweh).
[This is the first occurrence of the Hebrew word chen. Its meaning is grace, undeserved love, and favor. The word also appears in the forms chanan and chanon. The word chanan means the same thing with the addition of extraordinary kindness, while chanon essentially means grace and favor. Chanon appears only 13 times in the Old Testament, while chen and chanan appear 67 and 72 times, respectively. In addition to grace, the special emphasis on these words is that they refer to undeserved love. No action can in any way make us worthy of this kind of grace. This verse also contains the name Noah (Hebr. Noach), the same two letters as grace, but mirror-inverted.]
[Here comes a new "toledot unit" (the fourth in Genesis). The Hebrew word is used eleven times in Genesis, see ; ; ; ; , ; , ; , ; . The use of numbers and figures is special and ties this unit together. The word "earth" is used 40 times. The number seven and multiples of seven are also common. The Lord (Yahweh) is mentioned seven times. God (Elohim) is mentioned 14 times (7 x 2). God speaks seven times to Noah, there are seven "do" in connection with the instructions. The verb to destroy (found at the beginning and end) is used seven times. In the conclusion, the word "covenant" is used seven times. The number seven is used on seven occasions (twice it is doubled so that it says "seven-seven"; in total, the word is used 9 times). Water is mentioned 21 times (3 x 7) and meat is mentioned 14 times (2 x 7).]
This is the continuing story of Noah (Hebr. Noach) (his genealogy/family tree – Hebr. ). Noah was a righteous man and perfect among his contemporaries. Noah walked [in constant communion] with God (Elohim).
[This is the first time the word righteous (Hebr. tsadik) is used. A related word from the same root is tsedaqah, which is often translated as a voluntary gift to the poor and needy. The Bible specifically mentions widows, orphans/fatherless children, and strangers within your gates. Giving tsedaqah is something that virtually all religious Jews do in some form. Righteousness and being righteous or living a righteous life are therefore closely linked to ensuring that those in need in my vicinity, through my voluntary gifts, have what they need.]
Noah became the father of three sons:
Shem,
Cham (Ham), and
Japheth.
Then God (Elohim) said to Noah:
"I have decided to put an end to all living things [literally 'the end of all flesh is here'], for because of them the earth is filled with lawlessness (violence, terror – Hebr. chamas). Consider (Hebr. hen), now I will destroy [judge] them along with the earth.
Noah did everything God commanded him to do; he did all these things. [The repetition emphasizes Noah's obedience.]
[The 120 years of grace were over (), and now it was time to enter the ark, as the flood would come in a week. Since Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (), he was 480 years old when God set the limit at 120 years. This happens 20 years before he has his first son (whom he has at the age of 500, see ). In the command to build the ark given to Noah, his three sons and their wives are mentioned (, ). This means that Noah is around 510-550 years old and it takes 50-90 years to build the ark. The Lord (Yahweh) said to Noah (Hebr. Noach): "Go into the ark, you and your whole family. I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.]
And Noah did everything that God commanded him to do.
And Noah was 600 years old when the flood came upon the earth.
Noah entered the ark with his sons, his wife, and his daughters-in-law, to escape the waters of the flood. [There were eight people in total, see .]
a pair of each kind came to Noah in the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
In the year that Noah was 600 years old, in the second month, on the seventeenth day,
on this day the fountains of the great deep (Hebr. tehom) [] burst open (split, cracked)
and the floodgates of the sky (sluices)
were opened.
[The water flows both from below and from above, see . As usual, the time is based on Noah's age, but this is a new variation, cf. . The second month can be either a spring or autumn month. The religious Jewish year begins in the spring with the month of Aviv () and the second month is Iyar, which falls in May/April. If the civil Jewish year (which was also used by neighboring nations) is meant, it begins in the fall, and then the second month is Cheshvan, which falls in October/November.]
On this very day (literally: on the leg/power of the day) [in the middle of the day, completely open for all to see], Noah (Hebr. Noach) and his [three] sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and his three daughters-in-law had entered the ark.
[They had begun boarding seven days earlier, and now on the seventh day, when the waters began to rise, they went on board. Both animals and humans are mentioned in pairs (man/woman and male/female, see ; ; ). Polygamy existed in society, but is described in negative terms, see Lamech in .]
Yes, they came to Noah, to the ark, two by two (pair by pair) of all flesh that had the breath of life (spirit of life).
The Lord wiped out everything that was on the earth, humans and four-footed animals, creeping things and birds of the sky: everything was wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained.
Then God (Elohim) remembered [thought of; fulfilled his covenant with] Noah (Hebr. Noach) and all the wild and tame animals that were with him in the ark. He caused a wind to blow over the earth, and the waters began to recede.
After another forty days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark,
And the dove came back to him toward evening [just before dusk]. And behold [Hebr. – change of perspective, we see through Noah's eyes]: a fresh olive leaf in her beak! Then Noah understood (realized): the water had indeed [finally] receded from the earth.
And it came to pass, in the 601st year [1 + 600 years; of Noah's life], in the first month, on the first [day], that the water had dried up from the earth. Noah removed the roof from the ark, and saw, and behold [Hebr. – change of perspective, we now see through Noah's eyes]: The ground had dried up!
Then God spoke to Noah, saying:
Then Noah went out with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives [after being in the ark for a year and ten days].
Noah built an altar to the Lord (Yahweh). He took four-footed animals and birds of all clean species and sacrificed them as burnt offerings on the altar.
God (Elohim) blessed Noah (Hebr. Noach) and his sons and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
And God (Elohim) said to Noah and his sons:
God (Elohim) said to Noah, "This is the sign [the rainbow, which was probably visible to Noah just as God spoke these words] of the covenant that I establish between me and all life on earth."
[The rainbow has seven main colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors appear when white sunlight is refracted by water droplets, which act as tiny prisms. Red (which has the longest wavelength) is always on the outside, and violet (which has the shortest wavelength) is always on the inside. The number seven represents perfection and completeness, see also ; .]
Noah's sons who left the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan [who was born later].
These three were Noah's sons, and from them all the peoples of the earth spread out. [See the family tree in .]
And Noah, a man of the earth, began to plant a vineyard.
Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
[These two concluding verses have the same structure as , and nicely frame this section about Noah.]
Noah lived 350 years [300 years and 50 years] after the flood.
And all the days of Noah were 950 years [900 years and 50 years].
Then he died.
[There are numerous flood stories throughout the world, testifying to a common distant memory of such a worldwide catastrophe. However, the Bible's flood story is unique in its total absence of mythology, its precise specification of the ark's dimensions, and how long the flood lasted.]
[Here comes a new "toledot unit" (the fifth of twelve in Gen.). The Hebrew word is used eleven times in Gen., see ; ; ; ; , ; , ; , ; . The chapter provides a genealogy of all the peoples of the earth. The division is not only genealogical but also geographical, linguistic, and historical, see verses 5, 20, and 31.]
This is the continued story of Noah's (Hebr. Noach) sons (their genealogy/family tree – Hebr. ),
Shem,
Ham,
and Japheth.
Sons were born to them [Noah's three sons] after the flood.
[Noah's three sons were:
Japheth – probably the eldest son, see . He was born when Noah was 500 years old, see . Shem (Sem) – probably the middle son. He was 100 years old two years after the flood, see . Since the flood came when Noah was 600 years old, he must have been born when Noah was 502 years old, and is thus two years younger than Japheth. The reason he is mentioned first in all lists, here in and in ; ; ; , is that his family tree leads to Abraham and ultimately to the Messiah, see ! Ham – the youngest son, see . How much younger he is is not stated, but he was born before the flood. In , the order was Shem, Ham, and Japheth. When their genealogy is described below in verses 2-32, the order is reversed with Japheth first (), then Ham (), and finally Shem (). This is a typical chiastic pattern in several parts, which means that the story of the Tower of Babel, see , is framed by Shem's family tree, which continues in .]
This [verses 1-30] is the families of Noah's sons, according to their generations (Hebr. ) [plural] in their peoples. And from these are the peoples that spread out on the earth after the flood.
[This verse frames the entire chapter about Noah's sons. The phrase and the concluding refrain "according to their languages in their territories and in their nations" recur in verses 5, 20, and 31.]
Noah (Hebr. Noach) [his sons were] –
Shem,
Ham, and
Japheth.
For me, this is like Noah's flood [ – this time can be likened to Noah's days],
when I promised that Noah's flood would never again cover the earth [].
In the same way, I now promise never to be angry with you again
or to rebuke you (clearly show you what you have done wrong and correct you).
even if these three fragile men (Hebr. enósh) were there [in the land]—Noah, Daniel, and Job—they would only be able to save their own lives (souls—Hebr. nefesh) through their righteousness, declares (says, proclaims) the Lord of lords (Adonai Yahweh).
[Jeremiah has already said "even if Moses and Samuel stood before me," see . Noah and Job lived long before Ezekiel became a prophet. The two were examples of men who only managed to save those closest to them. When the flood came, the whole earth was affected, but Noah and his family were saved. Job prayed for his children, but they were struck by misfortune; however, Job and his wife survived. Daniel may be the contemporary biblical Daniel who was taken captive to Babylon, or the legend of a Daniel in the Ugaritic saga of Aqhat (1300 BC). In that case, three non-Jews from history are mentioned. A Daniel is also mentioned in .]
even if these three fragile men—Noah, Daniel, and Job []—were in it (the land), as surely as I live, declares (says, proclaims) the Lord of lords (Adonai Yahweh), they would not be able to save sons and not daughters, they would only save their own souls with their righteousness.
As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the return of the Son of Man.
In the days before the flood, people lived as usual [busy with their lives], eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.
son to Kenan,
son of Arphaxad,
son of Shem,
son of Noah (Noach),
son of Lamech,
In the days of the Son of Man [when he returns to reign fully here on earth]:
Then it will be like in the days of Noah. []
People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
[Eating, drinking, and marrying are not wrong in themselves – the sin was that people lived only for these things and ignored God.]
[The following example is about water and how Noah's family is saved from judgment. The passage is balanced with the story of how the Israelites cross the Red Sea and are saved, see .]By faith
Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, built an ark to save his family, and by this he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Through this faith, he condemned the world
[for its unbelief] and himself partook of
(inherited) the righteousness that comes from faith
(being faithful).
It was for those who did not obey (refused to believe) long ago in Noah's day [that the message was preached], when God patiently waited while the ark was being built. A few, to be exact: eight people, were saved in the ark through water.
[The subject in verses 19-21 shifts from Jesus' death to Noah's time and then back to baptism in water in Peter's time. The text can be interpreted in different ways. The comments here assume that it was Noah who preached salvation to the people who lived at that time, not that Jesus preached to dead spirits. In that case, there would be a second chance to accept Jesus, which is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.]
He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others [Noah's wife, their three sons, and their wives] when he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly. []
