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THE ARK LEFT.—Gen. 8:15–22

Some Hebrew Vocabulary Before the Commentary

8:19. מִשְׁפָּחָה mishpachah. genus, kind, formally, family, i.e., a kind of animal distinct from another (Ge 8:19)

8:20. מִזְבֵּחַ mizbeach. altar, i.e., any construction of various designs, for the placing of gifts or sacrifices in a ritual to deity (Ge 8:20; Ex 38:1)

Genesis 8:15-19 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹⁵Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷Bring out with you all the living creatures^[76] that are with you of all flesh, flying creatures and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹Every beast, every creeping thing, and every flying creature, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

^[76] Lit creatures of all flesh

Genesis 8:15–19. The command to leave the ark is given and obeyed. As Noah did not enter, so neither does he leave the ark without divine direction. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every flying creature. Here, again, these three classes are specified under the general head of every living thing. They are again to multiply on the earth. 19. Every living thing. This evidently takes the place of the cattle mentioned before. By families. This word denotes their tribes. It is usually applied to families or clans.

Genesis 8:20-22 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²⁰Then Noah built an altar to Jehovah and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ Jehovah smelled the soothing aroma; and Jehovah said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. ²²While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Genesis 8:20–22. The offering of Noah accepted. The return to the dry land, through the special mercy of God to Noah and his house, is celebrated by an offering of thanksgiving and faith. Built an altar. This is the first mention of the altar or structure for the purpose of sacrifice. Jehovah is now on high, having swept away the garden and withdrawn his visible presence at the same time from the earth. The altar is therefore erected to point towards his dwelling place on high. Unto Jehovah. The personal name of God is peculiarly appropriate here (Jehovah means “he causes to become”), as he has proved himself a covenant keeper and a deliverer to Noah. Of every clean animal and some of every clean bird. The mention of clean birds renders it probable that these only were taken into the ark by seven pairs (Gen. 7:3). Every fit animal is included in this sacrifice, as it is expressive of thanksgiving for a complete deliverance. We have also here the first mention of the burnt offering (עֹלָה); the whole victim, except the skin, being burned on the altar. A sacrifice is an act in which the transgressor slays an animal and offers it in whole or in part as representative of the whole to God. In this act, he acknowledges his guilt, the claim of the offended law upon his life, and the mercy of Jehovah in accepting a substitute to satisfy this claim for the returning penitent. He at the same time, actually accepts the mercy of the Most High and comes forward to plead it in the appointed way of reconciliation. The burnt offering is the most perfect symbol of this substitution and most befitting the present occasion when life has been granted to the inmates of the ark amidst the universal death.

Burnt offering: (עֹלָה olah) A sacrifice that was clean and acceptable in which the entire animal (bull, ram, a male goat, turtledove, or young pigeon) was consumed on the altar, as a total offering to God. The worshiper kept no part of the sacrifice for himself. – Ex. 29:18; Lev. 6:9.

Genesis 8:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²¹ Jehovah smelled the soothing aroma; and Jehovah said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;^[77] and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

^[77] American Translation: “the bent of man’s mind may be evil from his very youth.” In other words, all imperfect humans are mentally bent toward evil.

Genesis 8:21. The effect of this plea is here described. Jehovah smelled the sweet savor. He accepted the typical substitute and, on account of the sacrifice, the offerers, the surviving ancestors of the post-diluvian race. Thus the reentrance of the remnant of mankind upon the joys and tasks of life is inaugurated by an articulate confession of sin, a well-understood foreshadowing of the coming victim for human guilt, and a gracious acceptance of this act of faith. Jehovah said in his heart. It is the inward resolve of his will. The purpose of mercy is then expressed in a definite form, suited to the present circumstances of the delivered family. I will never again curse the ground on account of man. This seems at first sight to imply a mitigation of the hardship and toil that man was to experience in cultivating the ground (Gen. 3:17). At all events, this very toil is turned into a blessing to him who returns from his sin and guilt, to accept the mercy, and live to the glory of his Maker and Savior. But the main reference of the passage is doubtless to the curse of a deluge such as that which was now past. This will not be renewed. Because the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. This is the reason for the past judgment, the curse upon the soil: not for the present promise of a respite for the future. Accordingly, it is to be taken in close connection with the cursing of the soil, of which it assigns the judicial cause. It is explanatory of the preceding phrase on account of man. The reason for the promise of escape from the fear of a deluge for the future is the sacrifice of Noah, the priest and representative of the race, with which Jehovah is well pleased. The closing sentence of this verse is a reiteration in a more explicit form of the same promise. And I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. There will be no repetition of the deluge that had just overswept the land and destroyed the inhabitants.

Genesis 8:22 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²²While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Genesis 8:22. While the earth remains. After these negative assurances come the positive blessings to be permanently enjoyed while the present constitution of the earth continues. These are summed up in the following terms:

Heat.

{

Sowing, beginning in October.

Reaping, ending in June.

Cold.

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Early fruit, in July.

Fruit harvest, ending in September.

The cold properly occupies the interval between sowing and reaping, or the months of January and February. From July to September is the period of heat. In Palestine, the seedtime began in October or November, when the wheat was sown. Barley was not generally sown till January. The grain harvest began early in May and continued in June. The early fruits, such as grapes and figs, made their appearance in July and August, the full ingathering in September and October. But the passage before us is not limited to the seasons of any particular country. Besides the seasons, it guarantees the continuance of the agreeable vicissitudes of day and night. Probably, even these could not be distinguished during part of the deluge of waters. At all events, they did not present any sensible change when darkness reigned over the primeval abyss.

The term of this continuance is here defined. It is to last as long as the order of things introduced by the six days’ creation endures. This order is not to be sempiternal. When the race of man has been filled up, it is here hinted that the present system of nature on the earth may be expected to give place to another and a higher order of things.

Here it is proper to observe the mode of Scripture in the promise of blessing. In the infancy of mankind, when the eye gazed on the present and did not penetrate into the future, Jehovah promised the immediate and the sensible blessings of life because these alone are as yet intelligible to the childlike race, and they are, at the same time, the immediate earnest of endless blessings. As the mind develops and the observable universe becomes more fully comprehended, these present and sensible sources of creature happiness correspondingly expand, and higher and more ethereal blessings begin to dawn upon the mind. When the prospect of death opens to the believer a new and hitherto unknown world of reality, then the temporal and corporeal give way to the eternal and spiritual. And as with the individual, so is it with the race. The present boon is the earnest in hand, fully satisfying the existing aspirations of the infantile desire. But it is soon found that the present is always the bud of the future; and as the volume of promise is unrolled, piece by piece, before the eye of the growing race, while the present and the sensible lose nothing of their intrinsic value, the opening glories of intellectual and spiritual enjoyment add an indescribable zest to the blessedness of a perpetuated life. Let not us, then, who flow in the full tide of the latter day, despise the rudiment of blessing in the first form in which it was conferred on Noah and his descendants, but rather remember that is not the whole content of the divine good-will, but only the present shape of an ever-expanding fortune, which is limited neither by time nor sense.

BIBLE DIFFICULTIES

GENESIS 8:21 OTBDC: God had promised never to destroy the world again. Did he change his mind?

Genesis 8:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²¹ Jehovah smelled the soothing aroma; and the Jehovah in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;^[1] and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

In 2 Peter 3:10, we are told: “the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” There are multiple things going on in 2 Peter 2:10, so let us take Genesis 8:21 first. There God was saying that he would never destroy the world in the same way again, in other words, by means of floodwaters. 2 Peter 3:10 is talking about fire, a whole other means.

According to 2 Peter 3:10 in the King James Version, “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” However, other modern translations read, “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed [or discovered].” This comes about because there is a textual problem, The Codex Sinaiticus and Vatican MS 1209, both of the 4th century C.E., and other manuscripts, read (huerethesetai) “be discovered.” Later manuscripts, the 5th-century Codex Alexandrinus and the 16th-century Clementine recension of the Vulgate, read (katakaesetai) “be burned up.”

Now looking to the context in 2 Peter, are we talking about the literal earth anyway. Verses 5 and 6 speak of the flood in Noah’s day, likening it to “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (3:7). First, what was destroyed by the floodwaters? It was not the earth itself that was to be destroyed; it was ungodly men. This is exactly what Peter is talking about as well. The planet earth is not going to be destroyed on judgment day. It will be ungodly men. What is to be “discovered” on the earth in those days after the judgment is righteousness.

GENESIS 8:21 OTBDC: God had promised never to destroy the world again. Did he change his mind?

Genesis 8:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²¹ Jehovah smelled the soothing aroma; and the Jehovah in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;^[2] and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

Now, looking at the context in 2 Peter, are we talking about the literal earth anyway. Verses 5 and 6 speak of the flood in Noah’s day, likening it to “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (3:7). First, what was destroyed by the floodwaters? It was not the earth itself that was to be destroyed; it was ungodly men. This is exactly what Peter is talking about as well. The planet earth is not going to be destroyed on judgment day. It will be ungodly men. What is to be “discovered” on the earth in those days after the judgment is righteousness.

Feel regret over: The Hebrew word (נִחוּם nichum or נִחֻם nichum) has the sense of feel regret over. It can be translated as “be sorry,” “grieved,” “repent,” “regret,” “be comforted, “compassion,” “comfort,” “reconsider,” and “change one’s mind.” It can pertain to a change of attitude or intention. God is perfect and therefore does not make mistakes in his dealings with his creation. However, he can have a change of attitude or intention regarding how humans react to his warnings. God can go from the Creator of humans to that of a destroyer of them because of their unrepentant wickedness and failure to heed his warnings. On the other hand, if they repent and turn from their wicked ways, the Father can be compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love. He will “reconsider” the calamity that he may have intended. (Genesis 6:6; Exodus 32:14; Joel 2:13) This is not really God changing his mind per se but rather his altering circumstances once persons with free will brought those altered circumstances about so God could carry out his will and purposes. Second, draw comfort in the fact that we can be sure that God will never change his standards of love and justice, regardless of what created beings do with their free will. Nevertheless, just as any of us might change our mind about someone who has altered the way they treat us, God does change in the way that he deals with humans to the evolving circumstances, situations, and conditions. Sometimes, God has changed his commands, laws, and instructions according to his people’s situation and needs. We should not be astonished by this because God has foreknowledge and is well aware of conditions that will come where he will have to change or alter circumstances. The English word “regret” means ‘to feel sorry and sad about something previously done or said that now appears wrong, mistaken, or hurtful to others.’ The Hebrew word (nacham here translated as “regretted” relates to a change of attitude or intention. The Hebrew could not be used to suggest that God felt that he had made a mistake in creating man. – See Malachi 3:6 as well.

Is God’s Foreknowledge Compatible with Free Will?

By James G. Murphy and Edward D. Andrews

[1] American Translation: “the bent of man’s mind may be evil from his very youth.” In other words, all imperfect humans are mentally bent toward evil.

[2] American Translation: “the bent of man’s mind may be evil from his very youth.” In other words, all imperfect humans are mentally bent toward evil.