Genesis 7:11

Genesis 7:11 . In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, second month, the seventeenth day — It must be observed here, that the year among the Hebrews was two-fold: the one sacred, for the celebration of feasts, beginning in March, Exodus 12:12 ; the other civil, for men’s political or civil affairs, beginning in September. Accordingly this second month has been thought by some to have been part of April and part of May, the most pleasant time of the year, when a flood was least expected or feared; by others, part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered in the fruits of the earth and laid them up in the ark: so that the flood came in with the winter, and was, by degrees, dried up by the heat of the following summer. And this latter opinion seems more probable, because the most ancient and first beginning of the year was in September; and the other beginning of it in March, a later institution, which took place among the Jews, with respect to their feasts and religious affairs only, which are not concerned here. The fountains of the great deep were broken up — There needed no new creation of waters; God has laid up the deep in storehouses, Psalm 33:7 ; and now he broke up those stores.

God had, in the creation, set bars and doors to the waters of the sea, that they might not return to cover the earth, Psalm 104:9 ; Job 38:9-11 ; and now he only removed these ancient mounds and fences, and the waters returned to cover the earth, as they had done at first, chap. Genesis 1:9 . And the windows of heaven were opened — And the waters which were above the firmament were poured out upon the world; those treasures which God, has reserved against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war, Job 38:22-23 . The rain, which ordinarily descends in drops, then came down in streams. We read, Job 26:8 , that God binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them; but now the bond was loosed, the cloud was rent, and such rains descended as were never known before or since.

(11) In the second month. —That is, of the civil year, which commenced in Tisri, at the autumnal equinox. The flood thus began towards the end of October, and lasted till the spring. The ecclesiastical year began in Abib, or April; but it was instituted in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt ( Exodus 12:2 ; Exodus 23:15 ), and can have no place here. The year was evidently the lunar year of 360 days, for the waters prevail for 150 days ( Genesis 7:24 ), and then abate for 150 days ( Genesis 8:3 ). Now, as the end of the first period of 150 days is described in Genesis 8:4 as the seventeenth day of the seventh month, whereas the flood began on the seventeenth of the second month, it is plain that the 150 days form five months of thirty days each. But see farther proof on Genesis 8:14 . The fountains of the great deep broken up (Heb., cloven), and the windows (lattices) of heaven were opened.—This is. usually taken by commentators as a description of extraordinary torrents of rain, related in language in accordance with the popular ideas of the time and of the narrator himself. The rains poured down as though the flood-gates which usually shut in the upper waters were thrown open, while from the abysses of the earth the subterranean ocean burst its way upwards. But the words at least suggest the idea of a great cosmic catastrophe, by which some vast body of water was set loose.

Without some such natural convulsion it is very difficult to understand how the ark, a vessel incapable of sailing, could have gone against the current up to the water-shed of Ararat. As the annual evaporation of the earth is also a comparatively fixed quantity, the concentrated downpour of it for forty days and nights would scarcely have produced a flood so vast as the deluge of Noah evidently was. It is thus probable that there was, besides the rains, some vast displacement of water which helped in producing these terrific effects. We shall have occasion subsequently to notice the exactness of the dates (Genesis 8:14). Tradition might for a short time hand them down correctly, but they must soon have been committed to writing, or confusion would inevitably have crept in.

11 . the second month, on the seventeenth day ] P gives, according to its fondness for statistics, the exact date in years, months, and days. Cf. Exodus 12:41 (P). The months and days apparently are reckoned on the assumption that Noah was born on the first day of the year, 600 years previously. LXX here, and in Genesis 8:4 , reads “twenty-seventh day,” because of Genesis 8:14 . the second month ] According to Josephus ( Ant . i. 3, 3), this second month was Marchesvan, equivalent to our November, the beginning of the season of rain in Palestine. The account is, therefore, well adapted to Israelite presuppositions. But, on the supposition that Abib, or April, was reckoned as the first month, the Flood would have begun in May, the month in which the Tigris and the Euphrates are liable to be flooded through the melting of the snows in the mountains. It is doubtful whether Tisri (= October) or Abib is here regarded as the first month of the year. the fountains of the great deep ] The origin of the Flood, according to P, was not merely rain. The Israelites believed that beneath the surface of the earth were accumulated enormous reservoirs of water, to supply, through channels or fissures, the seas, lakes, and rivers. This accumulation of water is poetically described as “the deep that coucheth beneath” ( Genesis 49:25 ), and “the great deep” ( Psalm 36:6 ; Isaiah 51:10 ; Amos 7:4 ).

Here it is supposed that the channels, or, as the account calls them, “the fountains of the great deep,” were violently rent asunder, “broken up,” whereupon the subterranean waters swept out in portentous volume and violence over the surface of the earth. the great deep ] On the “deep” ( tehom ), here called “great,” see note on Genesis 1:2 . the windows of heaven ] The other source of the Deluge is here given. Above the solid firmament (see note on Genesis 1:6 ) were stored the masses of water which supplied the rainfall of the earth. Now “the sluices of heaven” (cf. 2 Kings 7:2 ; 2 Kings 7:19 ; Malachi 3:10 ) and “the windows on high” (cf. Isaiah 24:18 ) are thrown open, and the water descends in unrestrained mass. For this description of the waters above and below, cf. Proverbs 8:27-29 ; Job 38:16 . LXX οἱ καταῤῥάκται τοῦ οὐρανοῦ , Lat. cataractae coeli . Aquila and Symmachus αἱ θυρίδες . 12 (J). the rain ] In this verse the cause of the Flood and its duration are given by J. Its cause, torrents of rain, the Heb. word denoting something much stronger than ordinary rain. Its duration, forty days and forty nights, as in Genesis 7:4 .

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the {e} fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (e) Both the waters in the earth overflowed and also the clouds poured down.

In the six hundredth year; either complete, or rather current or begun; otherwise he had lived three hundred and fifty one years after the flood, not three hundred and fifty only, as it is written, Genesis 9:29 . In the second month; either, 1. Of that year of Noah’s life; or, 2. Of the year. Now as the year among the Hebrews was twofold; the one sacred, for the celebration of feasts, beginning in March, of which see Exodus 12:2 ; the other civil, for the better ordering of men’s political or civil affairs, which began in September. Accordingly this second month is thought, by some, to be part of April and part of May, the most pleasant part of the year, when the flood was least expected or feared; by others, part of October and part of November, a little after Noah had gathered the fruits of the earth, and laid them up in the ark. So the flood came in with the winter, and was by degrees dried up by the heat of the following summer. And this opinion seems the more probable, because the most ancient and first beginning of the year was in September; and the other beginning of the year in March was but a later institution among the Jews, with respect to their feasts and sacred affairs only, which are not at all concerned here. The fountains of the great deep, i.e. of the sea, called the deep, Job 38:16, Job 38:30, Job 41:31, Psalm 106:9 ; and also of that great abyss, or sea of waters, which is contained in the bowels of the earth.

For that there are vast quantities of waters there, is implied both here and in other scriptures, as Psalm 33:7 2 Peter 3:5 ; and is affirmed by Plato in his Phaedrus, and by Seneca in his Natural Questions, 3.19, and is evident from springs and rivers which have their rise from thence; and some of them have no other place into which they issue themselves, as appears from the Caspian Sea, into which divers rivers do empty themselves, and especially that great river Volga, in such abundance, that it would certainly drown all those parts of the earth, if there were not a vent for them under ground; for other vent above ground out of that great lake or sea they have none. Out of this deep therefore, and out of the sea together, it was very easy for God to bring such a quantity of waters, as might overwhelm the earth without any production of new waters, which yet he with one word could have created. So vain are the cavils of atheistical antiscripturists in this. The fountains are said to be broken up here, also Psalm 74:15 , by a metonymy, because the earth and other obstructions were broken up, and so a passage opened for the fountains; as bread is said to be bruised, Isaiah 28:28 , and meal to be ground, Isaiah 47:2 , because the corn, of which the meal and bread were made, was bruised and ground.

9. There went in two and two—Doubtless they were led by a divine impulse. The number would not be so large as at first sight one is apt to imagine. It has been calculated that there are not more than three hundred distinct species of beasts and birds, the immense varieties in regard to form, size, and color being traceable to the influence of climate and other circumstances.

Verses 11, 12. - In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month. Not (1) of Noah's 600th year. (Knobel); but either (2) of the theocratic year, which began With Nisan or Abib ( Exodus 12:2 ; Exodus 13:4 ; Exodus 23:15 ; Exodus 34:18 ; Deuteronomy 16:1 ; Nehemiah 2:1 ), either in March or April (Rabbi Joshua, Ambrose, Luther, Calvin, Mercerus, Havernick, Kalisch, Alford, Wordsworth); or (3) of the civil year, which commenced with the autumnal equinox in the month Tisri, "called of old the first month, but now the seventh" (Chaldee Paraphrase; Exodus 32:16 ; Exodus 34:22 ), corresponding to September or October (Josephus, Rabbi Jonathan; Kimchi, Rosenmüller, Keil, Murphy, Bush, Ainsworth, 'Speaker s Commentary ). In support of the former maybe alleged the usual Biblical mode of reckoning the sacred year by numbers, and in defense of the latter that the ecclesiastical year did not begin till the time of the Exodus. In the seventeenth day of the month . " The careful statement of the chronology, which marks with such exactness day and month in the course of this occurence, puts all suspicion of the history to shame" (Havernick).