Genesis 6:16

A window shalt thou make to the ark,.... Or a "light", such as is that at noon, for which the word in the dual number is used; and therefore Junius and Tremellius translate it a "clear light".

A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

A window, or a light; or lights, or windows; the singular number being put for the plural, which is most frequent: or it might be one great light or lantern, by which light might be derived and distributed into several rooms. Shalt thou finish it above, i.e. either, 1. The window, which was to be a cubit square. Or rather, 2. The ark; as appears, 1. From the gender of the Hebrew affix, which is feminine, and therefore agrees with the ark, which in the Hebrew is of the feminine gender, not with the window, which is masculine. 2. From the nature of the thing, the ark requiring a roof, and that sloping, that the rain might slide off from it, and not sink into it; for which end the roof in the middle was to be higher than the ark by a cubit. And as the other parts of the ark were made with exquisite contrivance, so doubtless this was not defective therein. The highest story was for men and birds; the second for provision for the brute creatures; the lowest for the beasts, under which was the sink of the ark, which most probably was made sloping at the bottom, as all ships and boats are, where serpents and such like creatures might be put, with their proper provisions.

Genesis 6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; [with] lower, second, and third [stories] shalt thou make it.Ver. 16. A window shalt thou make.] The ark had little outward light; so the Church, till she become triumphant. There could not but be much stench among all those creatures, though shut up in several rooms; so here, there is much annoyance to those that have their "senses exercised to discern good and evil". Compare the estate of Prince Charles in his queen-mother’ s womb with his condition at full age, in all the glory of his father’ s court; there is a broad difference. And it may fitly resemble, saith one, the difference of our present and future estate; while the Church doth here travail of us, we are pent up in dark cloisters, and annoyed with much stench of sin, both in ourselves and others; but when we come to heaven, we shall see and enjoy the light of life, our feet shall be as hinds’ feet, upon the everlasting mountains. Bain’ s Letter,

(16) A window.—Not the word so rendered in Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2, which means a lattice; nor that in. Genesis 8:6, which means an aperture; but “zohar,” light, brightness. In the dual, double-light, it is the usual word for “midday,” but it does not occur elsewhere in the singular. It was evidently a means, not merely of lighting the ark, but also of ventilating it; for as it was thickly covered within and without with bitumen—a point strongly insisted upon in the Chaldean Genesis—the two lower storeys would be so ill supplied with air as to be fit only for stores and. ballast, and the upper storey alone capable of being inhabited. If this zohar was an open space one cubit in height, running all round the ark, and formed by not boarding over the upright beams, it would have given a sufficient supply of air, and being protected by the overhanging eaves of the roof—for the ark had no deck—would not have admitted any serious amount. of rain. So in the Chaldean Genesis the ark has no deck, but a roof (p. 281). Above.—Or, upward. The word is one of those reduplicated forms by means of which the Hebrew language expresses so much within a little compass. Consisting of only six letters, it is nevertheless a compound of five particles, and signifies from to upward .· that is, thou shalt finish it (the ark, as is shown by the gender) from beneath, working upwards till the last cubit, which is not to be finished, but left open for ventilation and light. The door, on which also much stress is laid in the Chaldean account as being essential for the protection of the inmates (p. 281), was to be at the side, and probably extended throughout the three storeys, two-thirds of which, however, might be closed as soon as the lower storeys had received their freightage of provisions. Besides this door, there must also have been apertures to admit of cleaning the cells in which the animals were confined and removing their litter, but of such lower arrangements no mention is made. It is not necessary to suppose that Noah and his three sons built this vast vessel with their own hands. He was probably a powerful chieftain, and many of the Sethites may have given him aid. Implements of iron had been invented by the Cainites, and on the intermarriage of the two lines would be brought into general use. It is difficult, however, to understand now four men could feed, clean, and give water to a very large collection of animals for so many months. Without scrupulous attention to such matters, a murrain would have broken out, and as only two of many species were taken into the ark, the loss of any one of these animals would have been equivalent to the destruction of the race.

Verse 16. A window shalt thou make] What this was cannot be absolutely ascertained. The original word צהר tsohar signifies clear or bright; the Septuagint translate it by επωυναγων, "collecting, thou shalt make the ark," which plainly shows they did not understand the word as signifying any kind of window or light. Symmacbus translates it διαφανες, a transparency; and Aquila, μεσημβρινον, the noon. Jonathan ben Uzziel supposes that it was a precious luminous stone which Noah, by Divine command, brought from the river Pison. It is probably a word which should be taken in a collective sense, signifying apertures for air and light. In a cubit shalt thou finish it above] Probably meaning that the roof should be left a cubit broad at the apex or top, and that it should not terminate in a sharp ridge. But this place is variously understood.

16. Alight] Perhaps better than a roof. The word so rendered (ṣ ?τhar) only occurs here in the singular: in the dual it is the regular Heb. word for “noonday.” Accepting the rendering which connects it with “light,” we should probably be right in conjecturing that it means here “a window,” or “opening,” beneath the over-hanging eaves of the roof on both sides of the ark. So Latin, fenestram. In the Babylonian version, a window is mentioned. Others, connecting the word with an Arabic form, render it by roof, deeming that the roof, being of such importance to the inmates, could not have been omitted in the description. LXX ἐπισυνάγων is unintelligible, but possibly gives the idea of the converging sides of the covering. and to a cubit, &c.] This clause is very difficult. (a) The commonest opinion is that, if the reference be to a window, it was to be a cubit high, running round the ark. This, however, would have been a mere slit, and practically inadequate for purposes of light and air. Perhaps it may mean the distance of a cubit from the top of the window to the roof. (b) The idea that it represented a little square window in Noah’s own cell is fanciful. (c) If the word rendered “light” denoted the roof, the cubit “upward,” or “from above,” might indicate the amount of slope, which, however, would be extremely small. An allusion to the “window” is the most probable explanation. The opening would have run all round the ship, with the necessary intervals of beams and supports. The description must not be judged by modern standards either of ship-building or of hygiene. It is more or less imaginative. upward] The rendering of the margin, from above, gives a more intelligible meaning. Gunkel, who considers that the text is corrupt, makes the strange conjectural emendation, “and on a hinge shalt thou make it revolve.” the door] Cf. Genesis 7:16. stories] The Babylonian account is more elaborate: “Then I built 6 decks in it so that it was divided into 7 stories. The interior (of each storey) I divided into 9 compartments.”

16. A window — öäø. The Hebrew word here employed occurs nowhere else in the singular, but is frequently found in the dual, denoting the noontide.