But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall you not eat. This is the only exception to the eating of flesh; it was not to be eaten with the blood in it, which is said to be its life; not that the blood is of itself the life, but because it is a means of life, and that being exhausted, the creature must die, and because the...
And surely your blood of your lives will I require,.... Or "for surely your blood", c. (o) and so is a reason of the preceding law, to teach men not to shed human blood; or though, "surely your blood", as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; though God had given them liberty to slay the creatures, and shed their blood, and eat them, yet he did not allow them to...
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,.... That is, he that is guilty of wilful murder shall surely be put to death by the order of the civil magistrate; so the Targum of Jonathan, "by witnesses the judges shall condemn him to death,'' that is, the fact being clearly proved by witnesses, the judges shall condemn "him to...
And you, be ye fruitful and multiply,.... Instead of taking away the lives of men, the great concern should be to multiply them; and this indeed is one reason of the above law, to prevent the decrease and ruin of mankind; and which was peculiarly needful, when there were so few men in the world as only four, and therefore it is repeated in...
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him,.... Not only what is contained in the preceding verses, but in the subsequent ones: saying; as follows.
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, sayings, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. Happy fowls, and happy...
And [I], behold, [I] establish my covenant with you,.... Not the covenant of grace in Christ, but of the preservation of the creatures in common, a promise that they should not be destroyed any more by a flood; to which promise it seems an oath was annexed, as appears from Isaiah 54:9 which passage refers to this covenant, as Aben Ezra on the...
And with every living creature that is with you,.... This is a further proof that this was not the covenant of grace, but of conservation, since it is made with irrational as well as rational creatures: of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; the birds of the air, the tame cattle, and the wild beasts: from all that go...
And I will establish my covenant with you,.... This is repeated to denote the certainty of it, as well as to lead on to the particulars of it: neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither man nor beast, at least not all of them, and especially by water: neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth;...
And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the...
And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you,.... Meaning the bow in the cloud, and which might be formed in the cloud at this time, that Noah might see it, and know it when he saw it again, and seems to be pointed unto: "this is the token"; or sign of the covenant made between God and Noah, and his sons: and...
I do set my bow in the cloud,.... Or "I have given", or "have set it" (p); which seems as if it was at that instant set; this is the same we call the "rainbow": and so Horace (q) calls it "arcus pluvius": it is called a "bow", because of its form, being a semicircle, and a "rainbow", because it is seen in a day of rain, and is a sign of it, or of...
And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth,.... Or "cloud a cloud" (u), cause the clouds to gather thick in the heavens, and to hang over the earth ready to pour down great quantities of water; by reason of which the inhabitants might dread another flood coming upon them: wherefore, in order to dissipate such fears, it shall be...
And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh,.... See Genesis 9:11 and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh; this is repeated to remove those fears which would naturally arise, upon the gathering of the clouds in the heavens; but as God would remember his covenant,...
And the bow shall be in the cloud,.... Not whenever there is a cloud, but at some certain times, when that and the sun are in a proper position to form one, and when divine wisdom sees right there should be one; then it appears and continues for a time, and as the cloud becomes thinner and thinner, it disappears: and I will look upon it, that I...
That I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. So, when my eye of faith is dim, and I cannot see the covenant sign, I will remember that there is an eye which never can be dim, which always sees the covenant token; and so I shall still be secure notwithstanding the dimness of...
And God said to Noah, this is the token of the covenant,.... Which is repeated for the greater confirmation and certainty of it, since the fears of men would be apt to run very high, especially while the flood was fresh in memory; which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth: see Genesis 9:9, it is highly probable, that...
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Now let us read what the Lord says, through the prophet Isaiah, concerning this covenant. This exposition consisted of readings from Gen_8:20-22; Gen_9:8-17; and Isa_54:1-10.
And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth,.... These were born before the flood, and went into the ark with Noah, and came out with him; see Genesis 5:32 and Ham [is the] father of Canaan; this is observed for the sake of the following history, concerning the behaviour of the one to Noah, and of the curse of...
These are the three sons of Noah,.... And his only ones; and if he had any more, they left no posterity behind them, since it follows, and of them was the whole earth overspread, with inhabitants, by them and their posterity only: Berozus (z) indeed says, that Noah, after the flood, begat more sons, and giants; and his commentator, Annius, talks...