Genesis 9

Notes on the verses

Chap. IX. Ver. 1—7. God blessed Noah and his sons.—The dominion of man over the animal creation is thought to have been forfeited by sin, as, indeed, his own life was; but it does not appear that it ever was withdrawn. Had the larger animals rebelled against man, when he rebelled against his Creator, he must have been an easy prey to them; but the providence of God ordered otherwise, and in the grant now made to Noah, man’s authority seems considerably extended. We have supposed, in analogy with subsequent institutions, that, from the first offering of animal sacrifices, a part of them were eaten, and animal food thus gradually introduced before the deluge. Now, however, it received the open and public sanction of the Creator and Lord of all; and though depriving sheep and cattle of life may have the appearance of cruelty, this receives a counterbalance in the care taken to provide food for the weaker animals, and to protect them from the wild and savage; but for which, the former might have been exterminated long ago, and certainly never would have been multiplied as we now see them; for who, but with a view to their flesh as meat, and to their skins as clothing, would have followed the profession of a shepherd or a grazier.

It is remarkable, that this grant is made indiscriminately; though, from the directions given to Noah as to the beasts he was to preserve, clean and unclean, it is evident that the distinction was at that time well known. The grant, however, had two express limitations, which, as prior to the Jewish economy, refer equally to us Gentiles as to the Jews. 1. Every Some brutes there have been in our own country, and in our metropolis, (London,) who have eaten living animals for a wager, even in modern times. Which is the life thereof.—That the life of all animals is in the blood, was asserted by Dr. Harvey in the seventeenth century, (who is generally considered as the discoverer of its circulation,) and was also maintained by Dr.

Woodward, who was an eminent naturalist and medical professor, of Gresham College, in the early part of the eighteenth century. Woodward’s Natural History, by Halloway. This doctrine was, however, much disputed and fallen into disrepute, till it was revived again in the latter part of the same century by John Hunter, the celebrated anatomical professor; and it is still maintained, though controverted. See Ency. Brit. in Blood. The question of eating blood, as applicable to the Gentiles, occasioned a serious controversy in the first age of Christianity, and produced the apostolical decree in (Acts 15:29). Ver. 6. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood.—Wilfully and unwarrantably. For there are two exceptions to this law.

41. Casual or unintentional murder. (Deuteronomy 19:4). 2. Death by the hand of the magistrate for crimes. Image of God.—Though the moral image was lost in the fall, yet man remains as the representative of God, and it is considered a daring act of rebellion against God to destroy the life which he communicated. Ver. 9. My covenant.—On the original term—Berith, several learned volumes have been written, and some we have read. Those who wish to examine the controversy, may consult the Dissertations of Dr. Gregory Sharpe, Bedford, and Moody; Catcott’s Sermon on the Elohim; Calasio’s Concordance, by Romaine; and the Lexicons of Bate, Parkhurst, &c. &c. We are of opinion that there is no Hebrew root to which it is so legitimately allied as sar, to purify; whence the sacrifice which accompanied it was called a purifier, and the phrase to cut a covenant, meant to cut off, or cut in pieces an animal, as the purification sacrifice; which therefore signified the making a covenant.

(See Parkhurst’s (Leviticus 10)) Hence, also, the term is applied to him in whom the covenant was made, and who was to “purify the sons of Levi;” and is therefore compared to a refiner’s fire, and to fullers’ soap. (Malachi 3:2). Hence, also, the sun was worshipped as Baal Berith, the Lord the Purifier. (Judges 8:33). ix. 4. Ver. 13. A token.—The Hebrew oth, simply means a sign that something shall come to pass, or a memorial of a past event. (Exodus 3:11). (Judges 6:7). (1 Samuel 2:34). (2 Kings 19:29). (Jeremiah 44:29-30). Thus the sabbath was sign: (Exodus 31:13). Aaron’s rod: Numbers xvii. 10. Ezekiel himself: Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do; and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God.”

(Ezekiel 14:24). I do set my bow.—[{Or, rather, I have given or set; for as the rainbow is produced by the refraction of the sun’s rays falling on drops of rain, it must have appeared at different times from the time of the creation of the sun and atmosphere; and it cannot rationally be supposed that there was no rainbow before this time. Its appointment as a sign seems to intimate, that as surely as the rainbow is a necessary effect of sunshine in rain, and must continue such as long as the sun and atmosphere endure, so surely shall this earth be reserved from destruction by water; and its preservation shall be as necessary an effect of God’s promise, as the rainbow is of the shining of the sun in a shower of rain.—Token: Both the Greeks and Latins have ever considered the rainbow as a divine token or portent, and have even deified and made it a messenger of the gods.

Thus Homer, speaking of the figures on Agamemnon’s breast-plate, says there were three dragons, whose colours were “‘like the rainbow which Saturn (father of time) placed in the cloud as a SIGN to short-sighted men.” —Bagster. The Greeks gave to the rainbow the name of Iris, from eiro, to tell, announce; and Homer describes her as—“The various bow, Fixed by Saturnian Jove in show’ry clouds, A sign to mortal man.” —Cowper’s Homer. They made her (as residing in the heavens) a goddess, the messenger of Jupiter and Juno; and Servius, the grammarian, remarks, that though some of her errands were of a different character, her first mission was to declare peace between God and man. The Scandinavians compared the rainbow to a bridge, not only from its form, but ‘as a means of communication between God and man.”

She was worshipped, not by the Greeks and Romans only, but also by the Peruvians in South America. See Parkhurst’s Greek and English Lexicon, in Iris. Oriental Lit. Ver. 15. Dr. T. Burnet supposes that no rain fell before the flood, and Whiston, that there were no such heavy showers as are requisite to produce the phenomenon of the rainbow. Dr. Delany argues, that if the antediluvians had witnessed heavy rains and floods, the Apostle to the Hebrews ((Genesis 11:7).) could not have called these “things not seen as yet.” And what they had not seen, arguing as infidels, they would naturally consider as impossible. P Ver. 21. Noah was drunken.—Some of the fathers conceived the strange notion that Noah was spiritually drunk, and in a prophetic vision; which that ingenious but eccentric scholar, Hutchinson, revived, and some of his followers very zealously supported.

See Biblioth. Bib., Bate and Parkhurst’s Lexicons, and Capt. Tomlinson’s New Trans. Others have endeavoured to soften the matter by representing Noah as only merry, as secar is sometimes used; but the fact is, he was fast asleep, and insensible to all that befell him. On the other hand, infidel writers have represented him as a drunkard; but a man who is only once overcome by liquor, through inadvertence, is not a drunkard, which term implies a habit: and Dr. S. Clarke will not allow that Noah was in the least to blame. So various are the opinions of commentators. Ver. 24. His younger son.—The Hebrew reads, “his son, the little one;” and is applied to a younger son in the sense only of smaller, which is hardly applicable to Ham, now grown up; many commentators therefore suppose he erred here, as having been (as the Jews say) the first transgressor in this case; for, discovering the state of Noah, he went and told Ham, and Ham told his brethren.

I perceive there have been various senses on this difficult passage of Scripture, but none sufficient to warrant an alteration in the text, as the difficulty has been occasioned by the difficulty. i aageres © b Ver. 25. Cursed be Canaan.—{The devoted nations which God destroyed before Israel, were descended from Canaan: and so were the Phenicians, and others who were at length subjugated with dreadful destruction by the Greeks and Romans. The Africans, who have been bought and sold like beasts, were also so. “There never has been a son of Ham who has shaken a sceptre over the head of Japheth. Shem hath subdued Japheth, and Japheth subdued Shem; but Ham never subdued either.” —Mede. Ver. 27. Enlarge Japheth.—{Japheth denotes enlargement, and how wonderfully have his boundaries been enlarged!

For not only Europe, but Asia Minor, part of Armenia, Iberia, the whole of the vast regions of Asia north of Taurus, and probably America, fell to the share of his posterity. Dwell in the tents of Shem:—these words are ambiguous; for they may mean either that God or that Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem. In either sense the prophecy has been literally fulfilled. ]—Bagster.