Genesis 9
PATthankfulness was as grateful to God as sweet odours are to us. And the Lord said in his heart. IIo determined, or resolved in himself. The Vulgar understands this, as if the Lord spake comfortably to Noah, (which in the Hebrew phrase is, " speaking to one’s heart’*) and said, J will not again curse the ground any more.] i, e. After this manner, with a deluge. For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.] Such a proclivity there is in men to evil, that if I should scourge them thus, as often as they deserve, there would be no end of deluges. But the words may have a quite different sense, being connected with what went before in this manner; " I will not curse the ground any more for man’s sake, though he be so very evilly disposed," &c. Those words, " from his youth," signify a long radicated corruption, as appears from many places; Isa. xlvii. 12. 15, Jcrem. iii. 25. Ezek. xxiii. 8, &c. Sol Jarchi extends it so far as to signify, " from his mother’s womb." ■ For, first, such owners as were not careful to prevent such mischiefs were hereby punished: and, secondly, others were admonished by their example to be cautious: and, thirdly, God hereby instructed them that murder was a most grievous crime, whose punishment extended even to beasts: and, lastly, the lives of men were hereby much secured by the killing such beasts, as might otherwise have done the like mischief hereafter. See Bochart in his Hierozoic, par. i. lib.i. cap. 40. At the hand of every man’s brother; &c] And therefore much more will I require it at the hand of every man. Whom he calls brother, to shew that murder is the more heinous upon this account; because we are all brethren. Or the meaning may be~(as some will have it), that though he be as nearly related as a brother he shall not go unpunished. Vcr 1G. I will look upon it that I may remember, &c] This is spoken after the manner of men; the more to confirm their belief that God would not go back with his word. to do what he would with them. Solomon also made all the remainders of the people of Canaan subject to servile labours, when all the Israelites were free, as is plainly signified, 2 Chron. viii. 7, 8, 9. And see Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2. Thus, as the blessing promised to Abraham was not fulfilled in his own person/ but in his posterity, many generations after his death; so this curse upon Cham did not take place till the same time: the execution of God’s curse upon the one being his conferring of a blessing upon the other.
Genesis 9:1
JjLND God blessed Noah and his sons, &c. The Divine Majesty appeared now to Noah and his sons; to assure them of his favour and protection, and to renew the blessing bestowed upon Adam (as after a new creation), saying, “Increase and multiply.”
Genesis 9:2
The fear of you, &c. He seems also to confirm to them the dominion which God gave to Adam, at first, over all creatures, (i. 26.)
Genesis 9:3
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, &c. Here the first grant made to mankind concerning food is enlarged, as St. Basil observes, y npiorr) vopoSeoia rwv Kapiztav dirukavotv cwExwpqorf, The first legislation granted to them the use of fruits; but now of all living creatures; which they are as freely permitted to eat of, as formerly of all the fruits of the garden. For God seeing men to be d(peih"tQ f contumacious, as Greg. Nyss. expresses it, torn. i. p. 157. t7ri navrQv rifV dnoXavaiv ovvExvprjaE, he conceded to them the enjoyments of all things. This is the general sense of the Jews, and of the Christian fathers, and of the first reformers of religion. They that would have this only a renewal of such an old charter, are of later standing; and can shew us no charter, but are led by some reasonings of their own, not by the Scriptures: unless we will admit such a criticism upon Gen. i. 30. as seems to me very forced. And they would have this also understood only of clean creatures: but I do not find any ground for the distinction of clean and unclean creatures with respect to food, but only to sacrifice, as was said before. The reason why God now granted the liberty to eat flesh, Abarbinel thinks, was because otherwise there would not have been food enough for Noah and his sons: the fruits of the earth, which before were abundant, being all destroyed; so that for the present there was not suflieient for their sustenance. Others think the reason of it was, because the fruits of the earth were not now so nutritive as they had been, before the salt water of the sea very much spoiled the soil.
Genesis 9:4
But flesh with the life thereof &c. Here is ono exception to the foregoing large grant, that the blood of beasts should not be eaten: just as, at the first, one fruit in the midst of the garden was excepted, when all the rest were allowed. The Hebrew doctors generally understand this to be a prohibition to cut off any limb of a living creature, and to eat it while the life, that is, the blood, was in it: Dum adJiuc vivit, et palpitat, sen tremit, as a modern interpreter truly represents their sense: which is followed by many Christians. See Mercer,.Museulus, especially Mr. Sclden, lib. vii. cap. 1. de Jure N. et G.: who thinks, as Maimonides doth, that there were some people in the old world so fierce and barbarous, that they eat raw flesh, while it was yet warm from the beast out of whose body it was cut: and he makes this to have been a part of their idolatrous worship. (See More Nevochim, par. iii. cap. 48.) But, supposing this to be true, there were so few of theso people, we may well think (for he himself saith, it was the custom of the gentile kings to do thus), that there needed not to have been a precept given to all mankind to avoid that, unto which human nature is of itself averse. St. Chrysostom there expounds this, of not eating “things strangled:” and L. de Dieu, of not eating " that which died of itself:" fox nepheshin Scripture signifies, sometimes, a dead carcass. But it is manifest it was not lawful for. all people to eat such things; for God himself orders the Israelites to give that which died of itself to a stranger, or to sell it to an alien. (Dcut. xiv. 21.) And therefore the simplest sense seems to be, that they should not eat the blood of any creature: which was a positive precept, like that of not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the reason of it, perhaps, was, that God, intending in aftertimes to reserve the blood for the expiation of sin, required this early abstinence from it, that they might be the better prepared to submit to that law, and understand the reason of it: which, was, that it was the life of the beast which God accepted instead of their life, when they had forfeited it by their sins. And there is another plain reason given of this prohibition immediately after it; that they might be the more fearful of shedding the blood one of another, when it was not lawful so much as to taste the blood of a beast.
Genesis 9:5
And surely. Or rather for surely, as the LXX. the Vulgar Latin, and a great number of learned men expound the particle van as a causal, not as a copulative, in this place. So that the sense is this: Therefore I command you to abstain from the blood of living creatures, that you may be the farther off from shedding the blood of men: lor that is so precious in my account, that I will take care he be severely punished, by whom it is shed; yea, the very beast shall die that kills a man. So it follows: At the hand of every beast will I require it.] Not as if beasts were to blame if they killed a man (for they aro capable neither of vice nor viitue); but this was ordained with respect to men, for whose use beasts were created.
Genesis 9:6
Whoso sheds mans blood. He repeats it over again, to enact this law more strongly. Or, as the Hebrews understand it, he spake before of the punishment he would inflict himself upon the murderer; and now of the care we should take to punish it. By manshall his blood be shed.] That is, by the magistrate or judges. For God had kept the punishment of murder in his own hand till now; as we may gather from the story of Cain, whom he banished, but suffered nobody to kill him: but here gives authority to judges to. call every body to an account for it, and put them to death. They that would see more of the sense of the Jews about these and the foregoing words, may read Mr. Sclden, de Jure N. et G. lib. i. cap. 5. and lib. iv. cap. 1. and de Syncdriis, lib. i. cap. 5. I willonly add, that they rightly conclude, that as courts of judicature were hereby authorized; so what was thus ordained against murder, by a parity of reason, was to be executed upon other great offenders; there being some things which are no less dear to us than life; as virginal chastity, and matrimonial fidelity, &c. For in the image of God made he man.] Notwithstanding the sin of man, there remained so much of the image of God in him as entitled him to his peculiar protection.
Genesis 9:7
And ye, be ye fruitful, &c. You need doubt therefore of the blessing 1 now bestowed upon you, (ver. 1.) for you see what care I take of the preservation as well as the propagation of mankind.
Genesis 9:9
I will establish my covenant with you. Because beasts cannot covenant, most understand by that word simply a promise, as Jcr. xxxiii. 25. But there is no need of this explication; the covenant being made directly with Noah, including all other creatures who were to have the benefit of it
Genesis 9:10
From all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. That is, it shall extend not only to those which now go out of the ark, but to all their breed in future ages.
Genesis 9:11
And I will establish my covenant with you, &c. Doubt not of it; for I tell you again, 1 will faithfully keep this solemn promise. Any more be a flood to destroy the earth.] That is, the whole earth; for particular inundations there have been often.
Genesis 9:12
And tlve Lord said, This is the token of the covenant, &c. I do not only give you my word; but a token or sign that I will keep it.
Genesis 9:14
WhenI bring a cloud over the earth. A^e. When there are great signs of rain, which come out of the clouds. That the bow shall be seen in the cloud.] Not always, but at certain times; often enough to put men in mind of this promise, and stir up their belief of it. For it doth, as it were, say, I will not drown the earth again, though the clouds have thickened as if they threatened it. Common philosophy teaches us, that the rainbow is a natural sign there willnot be much rain after it appears; but that the clouds begin to disperse: for it is never made in a thick cloud, but in a thin: so that if it appear after showers, which come from thick clouds, it is a token that now they grow thin. But the God of nature chose this to be a sign, that he would never let them thicken again to such a degree to bring a deluge upon the earth. And, indeed, the admirable form or composition of this " glorious circle (as the son of Sirach calls it, Ecclus. xliii. 1 2.) bent by the hands of the Most High," doth naturally excite one to look beyond the material and efficient cause of it to the final, as the forenamed author speaks. And uow that we have Moses’s commentary upon it, we may see, in the mixed colours of the rainbow, these two things; the destruction of the old world by water, and the future consumption of the present world by fire; whose flaming brightness is predominant in the waterish humour..
Genesis 9:15
And I will remember my covenant, &c. Look upon it as a token of my faithfulness to my word.
Genesis 9:17
And God said, Tliis is the token, &c. As the promise is repeated twice, to express its certainty, (ver. 9. 11.) so is the token of it as oft repeated, for the same reason, (ver. 12. and here vcr. 17.) •
Genesis 9:18
J do set my bow in the clouds, &c. Most think this doth not signify there never had been a rainbow before the flood; for since there was both sun and clouds, it ft Jikely, say they", there was a rainbow also: only now it was appointed for a sign, which it was not before. But as this opinion hath nothing in Scripture to enforce it, so grounds in nature there are none to warrant it; unless we will assert this manifest untruth, that everydisposition of the air, or every cloud, is fitly disposed to produce a rainbow. They are the words of that great divine, Dr. Jackson, (book i. upon the Creed, chap. 16.) who adds, that if other natural causes, wiih their motions and dispositions, depend upon the final (as Scripture philosophy teaches us), they, who acknowledge the Scripture, have no reason to think that either the clouds or the air had that peculiar disposition before the flood, which is required to the production of the rainbow: when this wonderful effect had no such use or end, as it hath had ever since, for it was appointed by God, to be a witness of his covenant with the new world; a messenger to secure mankind from destruction by deluges. Now, if it had appeared before the flood, the sight of it after the flood would have been but a poor comfort to Noah and his timorous posterity: whose fear, lest the like inundation might happen again, was greater than could betaken away by a common or usual sign. The ancient poets had a better philosophy (though they knew not the original of it), when they feigned Iris to be the daughter, or (as we would now speak) the mother of wonderment (Oatyavroe Uyovov), the messenger of the great god Jupiter, and his goddess Juno: whom Homer (as he observes) represents as sent with a peremptory command to Neptune not to aid the Grecians; by the swelling, we may suppose, of waters, which much annoyed the Trojans. My bow.] It is called his, not only because he is the Author of all things, which have natural causes, as there are of this: but because he appointed it to a special end, as a signification and assurance of his mercy to mankind. And the sons of Noah, &c] They are here again named, with respect to what follows: but not in their order, as shall be proved in its proper place, (x. 21.) for Japhct was the eldest. And Ham is the father of Canaan.’] This son of Ham is here alone mentioned, because ho was concerned in the following wicked fact of his father: and his posterity were those wicked people, whose country God gave to the Israelites.
Genesis 9:19
And of them was the whole earth overspread. By this it appears, that, though Noah lived above three hundred years after he came out of the ark, yet he begat no more children; or, if he did, none of them lived to have any posterity.
Genesis 9:20
Began to be an husbandman. To improve the art of husbandry, which was understood before, but he much advanced it: there being nothing, in old time, which the jgreatest men thought more worthy their study; as we sec by the Romans themselves, till they were corrupted by the luxury which their conquests brought in among them. - And he planted a vineyard.] There were vines here and there before the flood; but Noah seems to have been the first that made a vineyard, and put them in order: and the first, perhaps, that invented wine-presses, to press out the juice of the grapes, and make wine. If he was not the inventor of these two (planting of vineyards and making wine), yet we may well allow him to be the improver of them, as he was of husbandry.
Genesis 9:21
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken. Being unacquainted with the strength of the liquor (as several of the fathers, as well as of the Jewish doctors think), or else being old and unable to bear its strength, as Epiphanius understands it: (see Hreres. lxiii. n. 3.) For it is manifest from what follows, that this happened a great while after the flood; Ham having a son, nay, more than one, for Canaan was not his first-born. And he was uncovered in his tent.] The heat of the weather, or of the wine, perhaps, made him throw off the clothes: or he was negligent, being not himself.
Genesis 9:22
While the earth remaineth. While men shall inhabit the earth. Seedtime and harvest, &c] There shall not be such a year as this last has been: in which there was neither sowing nor reaping, nor any distinctions of seasons, till the rain was done. Day and night, shall not cease.] One would think, by this expression, that the day did not much differ from night, while the heavens were covered with thick clouds, which fell in dismal floods of rain. And Ham, the father of Canaan, &c.] There are some circumstances, which follow, that make the opinion of the Hebrew doctors not improbable; that Canaan first saw Noah in this indecent posture, and made sport with it to his father: who was so far from reproving him, as he ought to have done, that he also did the same. And told his two brethren without.] In the street, publicly before the people, he proclaimed his father’s shame, and mocked at it. For it is hard to think that God cursed him merely for his irreverence, but there was something of derision joined with it, and perhaps of profaneness and irreligion; in laughing (we may conceive) at the promise of the Messiah, which, it is likely, he heard his father often speak of, but now thought him incapable to beget. For Ham is generally thought to have been an impious man; and some take him to have been the first inventor of idols after the flood; nay, o# magic, which he learned of the wicked Cainitcs before the flood. Thus Gaspar Schottus, lib. i. de Magia, cap. 3. prolcgom. Where he endeavours to shew he was the same with him whom the Persians call Zoroaster.
Genesis 9:23
And Shem and Japhct took a garment, &c. A great argument of their piety and dutiful affection to their father; which God, therefore, greatly rewarded.
Genesis 9:24
And knew what his younger son had done. Finding himself covered with clothes that were not his own, he inquired, it is likely, how it came about: and was informed how ho had been abused by one of his sons,and honoured by the other. His younger son.] Some make this an argument that Canaan was the first that made himself merry with his grandfather: and is here called his younger, or little son (nothing being more common than to call those the sons of another who were his grandchildren, as cousin-germans are called brothers), for Ham was neither little, nor his younger son;, but the middle-most, as he is always placed. Nor doth it seem at all pertinent to the matter to mention the order of his birth; but very fit, if he spake of his grandson, to distinguish him from the rest. And what follows is a farther proof of it.
Genesis 9:25
Cursed be Canaan, &c. If what I said before, (ver. 22. 24.) be allowed, it makes it easy to give an account why Canaan is cursed rather than Ham; becauso he was first guilty. Ham, indeed, was punished in him: but he had other sons, on whom the punishment did not fall, but only on this. For which I can find no reason so probable as that beforenamed. Which, if it be not allowed, we must have recourse to a harsh interpretation; and, by Canaan, understand Canaan’s father, as some do. A servant of servants.] That is, the basest and vilest of servants. See the next verse.
Genesis 9:26
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. The Lord was the God of Shem, after a peculiar manner, just as he was the God of Abraham, because of the gracious covenant made with him: for God settled his church in the family of Shem; and Christ was born of his posterity; and he himself, in all likelihood, kept up the worship of the true God, and opposed idolatry. In short, to be the God of Shem, was to bestow all manner of blessings upon him; which Noah here prophecies to him, by blessing the Lord for them: whom he acknowledges to be the Author of them, out of his special grace and favour towards him. For he was the younger brother of Japhet, as I. shall shew, x. 21. Thus Jacob interprets this phrase, xxix. And Canaan shall be his servant.] This was fulfilled eight hundred years after, when the Israelites (who were descended from Shem) took possession of the land of Canaan; subduing thirty of their kings; killing most of their inhabitants; laying heavy tributes upon the remainder; and using the Gidconites (who saved themselves by a wile), though not as servants to them, yet as mere drudges for the service of the tabernacle. Whose name David is thought to have changed into Nethinim (Ezra viii. 20.); people who had voluntarily surrendered themselves (as they did to Joshua when he had discovered their fraud)^
Genesis 9:27
God shall enlarge Japheth. i. e. His habitation; for God gave him, for his possession, all the isles of the sea westward, and those countries near to them, as Spain, Italy, Greece, Asia the Less, &c. as Bochart hath observed in his Phaleg. lib. i. cap. i. Who further notes, that, in the Hebrew word for enlarge, there is a plain allusion to Japheth’s name; as there are to many others in Scripture; Noah, (ver. 29.) Judah, Dan, Gad, &c. (xlix. 8.16.19.) They that translate this word persuade (as it is in the margin), did not consider, that it is commonly taken in a bad sense, when it is so used, for deceiving and seducing; and that it governs, as grammarians speak, an accusative case, and not a dative (as it doth here), when it signifies to allure or persuade. In short, this is a promise of a very large portion to Japheth’s posterity in the division of the earth: which was but necessary; for that part of the world which bends to the north being assigned to him, vast regions w r ere requisite for such a numerous offspring as were likely to come from him: the fruitfulness of people being wonderfully great in cold climates. And, accordingly, besides all Europe, and the Lesser Asia, there fell to the share of his posterity, Media, part of-Armenia, Iberia, Albania, and the vast regions towards the north, which anciently the Scythians, now the Tartars, inhabit: from whom the people of the New World (as we call it) seem to be derived; the Scythians going thither by the Streights of Anian. Of which more upon x. 32. Moses hath not told us, what were the names of any of their wives; but the Greeks have given to Japetus’s wife the name of KXv/irjwj (as Hesiod calls her), because she was the mother of so many famous nations. So Vossius, lib. i. De Orig. ldolol. cap. 18. And Campanclla’s observation in this verse is, That all empires descended from the sons of Japheth, (L. dc Monarchia Hispan. cap. 4 ) Which may be true of the great empires, but the Egyptians seem to have been the first considerable princes, and Nimrod was of the race of Ham. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.’] i. e. His territories shall be so dilated, that, in future times, he shall possess some of his brother’s countries: which is also prophesied of, Numb. xxiv. 24. where it is said, they of Cittim " shall atflict the children of Assur and Eber;" L e. afflict the Assyrians and the Hebrews, who were of the posterity of Shem. And so both the Greeks and the Romans did, who invaded and conquered that part of Asia which belonged to Shem. The Chaldce paraphrast gives a spiritual interpretation of this passage, which is very apt, That the gentiles should come into the church, which was in the family of Shcui. And it is very remarkable, (which is observed by our Mr. Medc, book i. discourse 48.) that all the offsprings of Japheth arc at this day Christians, Magog only excepted (». e. the Turks), whom God seems to have reserved, as he vol. 1. did some of the Canaanites in the land of Israel, to prove and punish us. withal. Our learned N. Fuller gives a quite different interpretation from all these, making God the subject of this speech; not Japheth; and thus translates it; " God shall dwell in the tents of Shem;" among them shall be the Schechinah, or Divine Majesty. But this doth not agree with what follows. And Canaan shall be his servant.] The Greeks and Romans, descended from Japheht, conquered Canaan: and whatsoever relics there were of them any where,([‘or instance, at Tyre, built by the Sidonians; at Thebes, by Cadmus; at Carthage, by Dido;) they were all cut off by the Greeks or Romans. It is observed by Campanella, that " none are descended from Cham, but slaves, and tyrants, who are indeed slaves;" (cap. 4. De Mon. Hispan.) But Mr. Mede’s observation is more pertinent: (in the forenamed discourse, p. 358.) There hath never yet been a son of Cham, that hath shaken a sceptre over the head of Japheth. Shem hath subdued Japheth, and Japheth subdued Shem: but Cham never subdued either. Which made Hannibal, a child of Canaan, cry out with amazement of soul, " Agnosco fatum Carthaginis," T acknowledge the fate of Carthage. (Livy, lib. xxvii. in fine.)
Genesis 9:28
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.) Which was of great advantage for the certain propagation of the" knowledge of those things before related, and of those that follow in the next chapter: for he died hot above two-and-thirty years before Abraham was born.