창세기 8:3 주석

In the close of the foregoing chapter we left the world in ruins and the church in straits; but in this chapter we have the repair of the one and the enlargement of the other. Now the scene alters, and another face of things begins to be presented to us, and the brighter side of that cloud which there appeared so black and dark; for, though God contend long, he will not contend for ever, nor be always wrath. We have here, I. The earth made anew, by the recess of the waters, and the appearing of the dry land, now a second time, and both gradual. 1. The increase of the waters is stayed (Gen 8:1, Gen 8:2). 2. They begin sensibly to abate (Gen 8:3). 3. After sixteen days' ebbing, the ark rests (Gen 8:4). 4. After sixty days' ebbing, the tops of the mountains appeared above water (Gen 8:5). 5. After forty days' ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah began to send out his spies, a raven and a dove, to gain intelligence (Gen 8:6-12). 6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains, the waters had gone, and the face of the earth was dry (Gen 8:13), though not dried so as to be fit for man till almost two months after (Gen 8:14). II. Man placed anew upon the earth, in which, 1. Noah's discharge and departure out of the ark (Gen 8:15-19). 2. His sacrifice of praise, which he offered to God upon his enlargement (Gen 8:20). 3. God's acceptance of his sacrifice, and the promise he made thereupon not to drown the world again (Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22). And thus, at length, mercy rejoices against judgment.

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 8 This chapter gives an account of the going off of the waters from the earth, and of the entire deliverance of Noah, and those with him in the ark, from the flood, when all the rest were destroyed: after an one hundred and fifty days a wind is sent over the earth, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven are stopped, the waters go off gradually, and the ark rests on Mount Ararat, Gen 8:1 two months and thirteen days after that the tops of the mountains were seen, Gen 8:5 and forty days after the appearance of them, Noah sent forth first a raven, and then a dove, and that a second time, to know more of the abatement of the waters, Gen 8:6. When Noah had been in the ark ten months and thirteen days, he uncovered it, and the earth was dry, yet not so dry as to be fit for him to go out upon, until near two months after, Gen 8:13 when he had an order from God to go out of the ark, with all that were with him, which was accordingly obeyed, Gen 8:15 upon which he offered sacrifice by way of thankfulness for his great deliverance, which was accepted by the Lord; who promised him not to curse the earth any more, nor to drown it, but that it should remain, and as long as it did there would be the constant revolutions of the seasons of the year, and of day and night, Gen 8:20.

And the waters returned from off the earth continually,.... Or "going and returning" (s); they went off from the earth, and returned to their proper places appointed for them; some were dried up by the wind, and exhaled by the sun into the air: and others returned to their channels and cavities in the earth, or soaked into it: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated; or began to abate, as Jarchi and the Vulgate Latin version; which days are to be reckoned from the beginning of the flood, including the forty days' rain; though Jarchi reckons them from the time of the ceasing of it; so that there were from the beginning of the flood one hundred and ninety days; six months, and ten days of the year of the flood now past; and in this he is followed by Dr. Lightfoot (t): but the former reckoning seems best, and agrees better with what follows. (s) , "eundo et redeundo", Pagninus, Montanus. (t) Works, vol. 1. p. 6.

The springs of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were open forty days and forty nights and “the ark was afloat for one hundred fifty days.” But after one hundred fifty days the waters began to subside and the ark came to rest on Mt. Qardu. In the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. In the second month, that is, Iyor, “on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.” Therefore Noah and those with him had been in the ark three hundred sixty-five days, for from the seventeenth of the second month, that is, Iyor, until the twenty-seventh of the same month the following year, according to the lunar reckoning, there were three hundred sixty-five days. Notice then that even the generation of the house of Noah employed this reckoning of three hundred sixty-five days in a year. Why then should you say that it was the Chaldeans and Egyptians who invented and developed it?

At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters begin to subside, Gen 8:1-3. The ark rests on Mount Ararat, Gen 8:4. On the first of the tenth month the tops of the hills appear, Gen 8:5. The window opened and the raven sent out, Gen 8:6, Gen 8:7. The dove sent forth, and returns, Gen 8:8, Gen 8:9. The dove sent forth a second time, and returns with an olive leaf, Gen 8:10, Gen 8:11. The dove sent out the third time, and returns no more, Gen 8:12. On the twentieth day of the second month the earth is completely dried, Gen 8:13, Gen 8:14. God orders Noah, his family, and all the creatures to come out of the ark, Gen 8:15-19. Noah builds an altar, and offers sacrifices to the Lord, Gen 8:20. They are accepted; and God promises that the earth shall not be cursed thus any more, notwithstanding the iniquity of man, Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22.

ASSUAGING OF THE WATERS. (Gen 8:1-14) And God remembered Noah--The divine purpose in this awful dispensation had been accomplished, and the world had undergone those changes necessary to fit it for becoming the residence of man under a new economy of Providence. and every living thing . . . in the ark--a beautiful illustration of Mat 10:29. and God made a wind to pass over the earth--Though the divine will could have dried up the liquid mass in an instant, the agency of a wind was employed (Psa 104:4) --probably a hot wind, which, by rapid evaporation, would again absorb one portion of the waters into the atmosphere; and by which, the other would be gradually drained off by outlets beneath.