Genesis 9:20 Ulasan

Both the world and the church were now again reduced to a family, the family of Noah, of the affairs of which this chapter gives us an account, of which we are the more concerned to take cognizance because from this family we are all descendants. Here is, I. The covenant of providence settled with Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1-11). In this covenant, 1. God promises them to take care of their lives, so that, (1.) They should replenish the earth (Gen 9:1, Gen 9:7). (2.) They should be safe from the insults of the brute-creatures, which should stand in awe of them (Gen 9:2). (3.) They should be allowed to eat flesh for the support of their lives; only they must not eat blood (Gen 9:3, Gen 9:4). (4.) The world should never be drowned again (Gen 9:8-11). 2. God requires of them to take care of one another's lives, and of their own (Gen 9:5, Gen 9:6). II. The seal of that covenant, namely, the rainbow (Gen 9:12-17). III. A particular passage of story concerning Noah and his sons, which occasioned some prophecies that related to after-times, 1. Noah's sin and shame (Gen 9:20, Gen 9:21). 2. Ham's impudence and impiety (Gen 9:22). 3. The pious modesty of Shem and Japheth (Gen 9:23). 4. The curse of Canaan, and the blessing of Shem and Japheth (Gen 9:21-27). IV. The age and death of Noah (Gen 9:28, Gen 9:29).

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 9 In this chapter we have an account of God's blessing Noah and his sons, being just come out of the ark, with a renewal of the blessing of propagating their species, and replenishing the earth, the dominion over the creatures, and a freedom from the fear of them; with liberty to eat flesh, only it must not be eaten with blood; with a providential care and preservation of their lives from men and beasts, by making a law that that man or beast should die that shed man's blood, Gen 9:1 and after repeating the blessing of procreation, Gen 9:7 mention is made of a covenant God made with Noah, his sons, and all the creatures, that he would drown the world no more, the token of which should be the rainbow in the cloud, Gen 9:8 the names of the sons of Noah are observed, by whom the earth was repeopled, Gen 9:18 and seem to be observed for the sake of an event after recorded; Noah having planted a vineyard, and drank too freely of the wine of it, lay down uncovered in his tent, which Ham seeing, told his two brothers of it, who in a very modest manner covered him, Gen 9:20 of all which Noah being sensible when he awoke, cursed Canaan the son of Ham, and blessed Shem and Japheth, Gen 9:24 and the chapter is concluded with the age and death of Noah, Gen 9:28.

And Noah began to be an husbandman,.... Or "a man of the earth" (c), not lord of it, as Jarchi, though he was, but a tiller of the earth, as he had been before the flood, and now began to be again; he returned to his old employment, and which perhaps he improved, having invented, as the Jews (d) say, instruments of husbandry; it may be, the use of the plough, which made the tillage of the ground more easy; he was expert in husbandry, as Aben Ezra observes, and which, as he remarks, is great wisdom; and though he was so great a man, yet he employed himself in this way: and he planted a vineyard; not vines, but a vineyard; there were vines before scattered up and down, here one and there another, but he planted a number of them together, and set them in order, as the Jewish writers say (e); and some of them (f) will have it that he found a vine which the flood brought out of the garden of Eden, and planted it; but this is mere fable: where this plantation was cannot be said with certainty; the Armenians have a tradition that Noah, after quitting the ark, went and settled at Erivan, about twelve leagues from Ararat, a city full of vineyards; and that it was there he planted the vineyard, in a place where they still make excellent wine, and that their vines are of the same sort he planted there (g); which contradicts what Strabo (h) says of the country of Armenia, its hills and plains, that a vine will not easily grow there. (c) "vir terrie", Montanus. (d) Zohar, apud Hottinger, Smegma Oriental. p. 253. (e) Ben Melech in loc. so Abarbinel & Bechai, apud Muis, in loc. (f) Targum Jon. in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. (g) See Tournefort's Voyage to the Levant, vol. 3. p. 178. Universal History, vol. 1. p. 261. (h) Geograph. l. 11. p. 363.

Now the three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom again the race was multiplied: for these were the beginning of mankind after the flood. Now of these one fell under a curse, and the two (others) inherited a blessing by reason of their works. For the younger of them, who was called Ham, having mocked his father, and having been condemned of the sin of impiety because of his outrage and unrighteousness against his father, received a curse; and all the posterity that came of him he involved in the curse; whence it came about that his whole race after him were accursed, and in sins they increased and multiplied. But Shem and Japheth, his brothers, because of their piety towards their father obtained a blessing. Now the curse of Ham, wherewith his father Noah cursed him, is this: Cursed be Ham the child; a servant shall he be unto his brethren. This having come upon his race, he begat many descendants upon the earth, (even) for fourteen generations, growing up in a wild condition; and then his race was cut off by God, being delivered up to judgment. For the Canaanites and Hittites and Peresites and Hivites and Amorites and Jebusites and Gergasites and Sodomites, the Arabians also and the dwellers in Phœnicia, all the Egyptians and the Libyans, are of the posterity of Ham, who have fallen under the curse; for the curse is of long duration over the ungodly.

When Christ says, “I am the true vine,” the blood of Christ is assuredly not water but wine. We are redeemed and made alive by his blood. But in the cup it is not wine as such that redeems but his blood. This is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find this even in Genesis also, in respect of the sacrament prefigured in Noah. That he drank wine was to them a precursor and figure of the Lord’s passion. Noah was made drunk by this wine, was made naked in his household, was lying down with his thighs naked and exposed, and the nakedness of the father was observed by his second son and was told abroad but was covered by two, the eldest and the youngest, and other matters which it is not necessary to follow out. It is enough for us simply to embrace the understanding that Noah set forth a type of the future truth. Noah did not drink water but wine and thus expressed in advance the figure of the passion of the Lord.

Noah’s drunkenness was not from an excess of wine but because it had been a long time since he had drunk any wine. In the ark he had drunk no wine. Although all flesh was going to perish, Noah was not permitted to bring any wine onto the ark. During the year after the flood Noah did not drink any wine. In that first year after he left the ark, he did not plant a vineyard, for he came out of the ark on the twenty-seventh of Iyor, the time when the fruit should be starting to mature and not the time for planting a vineyard. Therefore, seeing that it was in the third year that he planted the vineyard from the grape stones that he brought with him on the ark and that it was three or even four years before they would have become a productive vineyard, there were then at least six years during which the just one had not tasted any wine.

Perhaps, on the other hand, someone might say, “Why was vine dressing, source of such terrible wickedness, introduced into life?” Do not idly blurt out what comes into your head, O man: vine dressing is not wicked nor is wine evil—rather, it is use of them in excess. You see, dreadful sins arise not from wine as such but from intemperate attitudes of human depravity that undermine the benefit that should naturally come from it. The reason that now after the deluge he shows you the use of wine is that you may learn that before using wine the human race had to come to grief from it. Before wine had even appeared, human history gave evidence of the extremity of sinfulness and unbridled licentiousness. This was intended to teach you that when you see the way wine is used, you will not attribute it all to wine as such but to depraved human intention bent on evil. Consider especially where wine has proved useful, and tremble, O man. For wine is used in good things by which our salvation is made real. Those who have an insight into spiritual realities understand this saying.

Why was Noah not blamed for falling into drunkenness? His falling was not due to intemperance but inexperience. For he was the first man to press the fruit of the vine and was ignorant not only of the power of the drink but also of the kind of change it had undergone. Because it ought to be mixed first before being drunk, he suffered drowsiness. There was nothing new about the fact that he was naked. For even now some people sleep naked, sleep having taken away their consciousness. The drunkenness, added to sleep, makes easier a defense of his nakedness.

Noah, a man of the earth, began to cultivate the ground and planted a vineyard, etc. It is often pleasing to repeat the word of the Lord, which he said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). For even in this reading where Moses, weaving history, writes of Noah and his sons, he figuratively announces the passion of the Lord and the devotion of the peoples believing in him, as well as the infidelity of those contradicting the faith. Indeed, Noah cultivating the ground planted a vineyard, because the Lord, caring for the human race, established the Synagogue among the Jewish people; of which vineyard the Psalmist also remembers saying: "You transplanted a vine from Egypt" (Psalm 80:8); and the Lord, speaking in the Gospel to the Jews, says: "A man planted a vineyard and surrounded it with a fence" (Luke 20:9), and the rest to the end of the parable, where he says: "What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to those tenants? They said: He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants."

God blesses Noah and his sons, Gen 9:1. The brute creation to be subject to them through fear, Gen 9:2. The first grant of animal food, Gen 9:3. Eating of blood forbidden, Gen 9:4. Cruelty to animals forbidden, Gen 9:5. A man-slayer to forfeit his life, Gen 9:6. The covenant of God established between him and Noah and the whole brute creation, Gen 9:8-11. The rainbow given as the sign and pledge of this covenant, Gen 9:12-17. The three sons of Noah people the whole earth, Gen 9:18, Gen 9:19. Noah plants a vineyard, drinks of the wine, is intoxicated, and lies exposed in his tent, Gen 9:20, Gen 9:21. The reprehensible conduct of Ham, Gen 9:22. The laudable carriage of Shem and Japheth, Gen 9:23. Noah prophetically declares the servitude of the posterity of Ham, Gen 9:24, Gen 9:25; and the dignity and increase of Shem and Japheth, Gen 9:26, Gen 9:27. The age and death of Noah, Gen 9:28, Gen 9:29.

Noah began to be a husbandman - איש האדמה ish haadamah, A man of the ground, a farmer; by his beginning to be a husbandman we are to understand his recommencing his agricultural operations, which undoubtedly he had carried on for six hundred years before, but this had been interrupted by the flood. And the transaction here mentioned might have occurred many years posterior to the deluge, even after Canaan was born and grown up, for the date of it is not fixed in the text. The word husband first occurs here, and scarcely appears proper, because it is always applied to man in his married state, as wife is to the woman. The etymology of the term will at once show its propriety when applied to the head of a family. Husband, is Anglo-Saxon, and simply signifies the bond of the house or family; as by him the family is formed, united, and bound together, which, on his death, is disunited and scattered. It is on this etymology of the word that we can account for the farmers and petty landholders being called so early as the twelfth century, husbandi, as appears in a statute of David II., king of Scotland: we may therefore safely derive the word from hus, a house, and bond from binben, to bind or tie; and this etymology appears plainer in the orthography which prevailed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which I have often found the word written house-bond; so it is in a MS. Bible before me, written in the fourteenth century. Junius disputes this etymology, but I think on no just ground.

COVENANT. (Gen 9:1-7) And God blessed Noah--Here is republished the law of nature that was announced to Adam, consisting as it originally did of several parts. Be fruitful, &c.--The first part relates to the transmission of life, the original blessing being reannounced in the very same words in which it had been promised at first [Gen 1:28].

And Noah . . . planted a vineyard--Noah had been probably bred to the culture of the soil, and resumed that employment on leaving the ark.

These divine purposes of peace, which were communicated to Noah while sacrificing, were solemnly confirmed by the renewal of the blessing pronounced at the creation and the establishment of a covenant through a visible sign, which would be a pledge for all time that there should never be a flood again. In the words by which the first blessing was transferred to Noah and his sons (Gen 9:2), the supremacy granted to man over the animal world was expressed still more forcibly than in Gen 1:26 and Gen 1:28; because, inasmuch as sin with its consequences had loosened the bond of voluntary subjection on the part of the animals to the will of man-man, on the one hand, having lost the power of the spirit over nature, and nature, on the other hand, having become estranged from man, or rather having rebelled against him, through the curse pronounced upon the earth-henceforth it was only by force that he could rule over it, by that "fear and dread" which God instilled into the animal creation. Whilst the animals were thus placed in the hand (power) of man, permission was also given to him to slaughter them for food, the eating of the blood being the only thing forbidden.