Genesis 7 Discussion

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1 And the LORD said to Noah, “Come you and all your house into the ark; for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.”

2 “Of every clean beast you shall take seven male and seven female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female:”

3 “of the birds also of the heavens, seven male and seven female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.”

4 “For in seven days I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”

5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Of the clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that moves upon the earth,

9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the that day were all the fountains of the great deep opened up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On that day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every moving thing that moves upon the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

15 And they went into the ark with Noah, two by two, of all flesh wherein is the breath of life.

16 And they that went in[a], went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.

17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased and supported the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.

18 And the waters rose and covered the earth; but the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered.

21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth: all the birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every moving thing that moved upon the earth, and every man:

22 all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life; all that was on dry land died.

23 And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only was left, and they that were with him in[a] the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

[16] again here and in multiple other places, referencing those animals that came to the ark but were not allowed to go inside because they did not come male and female according to their kind (for all flesh had become corrupted; see 6:12)

[23] This can be used to dispel the notion that anyone could have clung to the outside of the ark, or made any other boat, or found any other way to survive during the flood.

How did Noah know which animals were clean and unclean? Verse 3 seems to insinuate that Noah was familiar with Leviticus 11. Well as it turns out, Noah did in fact “walk with God” and God surely would have at least told Noah which animals were clean and unclean in order for him to fulfill this commandment.

Incidentally, this knowledge does not mean that Noah later was commanded only to eat clean animals (or not to eat unclean animals, ex. pork). At the same time, we do not see Noah or Abraham (etc.) eating pork. So while it is not a commandment to Noahides per-se, it is their choice.

As Noachides (or anyone) we mayay not say they follow “biblical kosher” because it denies the oral law. We may not say we keep kosher “as a Jew does,” for multiple reasons; ex. because for them it is a commandment and an inheritance – for us it is a choice, or was not commanded (ex. Noah and Abraham apparently did not eat pork). Also see: Psalm 147:19-20

Selected commentary.

h.ראיתי צדיק [THEE] HAVE I SEEN RIGHTEOUS — It does not say “righteous and wholehearted” (as it does at the beginning of the Sedrah); hence we may infer that only a part of a man’s good qualities should be enumerated in his presence (since here God is speaking to Noah and calls him only “righteous”), but that in his absence the whole of his good qualities may be told (since when the Torah speaks about him in the earlier passage it calls him “righteous and wholehearted”) (Eruvin [18]b).

h.הטהורה CLEAN—It means those cattle which will in future be permitted to Israel as clean; we thus learn that Noah studied the Torah.

h.שבעה שבעה SEVEN AND SEVEN — so many, in order that he might offer some of them as a sacrifice when leaving the Ark (Genesis Rabbah 34:9).

h.‘גס מעוף השמים וגו OF FOWLS ALSO OF THE AIR — Scripture here means “clean” birds just as the animals in verse 2 are stated to be clean, for what is not explicitly stated may be learned by analogy from what is explicitly stated.

h.כי לימים עוד שבעה FOR YET SEVEN DAYS — These are the seven days of mourning for the righteous man Methuselah for whose honour the Holy One, blessed be He. had regard, and therefore postponed punishment. Go and calculate the years of Methuselah and you will find that they came to an end (i. e. he died) in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life (which coincided with the date of the Flood) (Sanhedrin 108b).

h.כי לימים עוד FOR YET [SEVEN] DAYS — What is meant by עוד “yet”, “more”? A further period of time: this period (seven days) additional to the 120 years of respite that was promised (Sanhedrin 108b).

h.ארבעים יום FORTY DAYS — corresponding to the period of a child’s formation, for by their sinning they had troubled their Creator to form embryos of illegitimate children (Genesis Rabbah 32:5).

h.ויעש נח AND NOAH DID — This refers to his coming to the Ark.

h.נח ובניו NOAH AND HIS SONS — The men separately and the women separately, because they were forbidden to live together as man and wife since the world was living in a state of distress.

h.מפני מי המבול BECAUSE OF THE WATERS OF THE FLOOD — (מפני properly means ‘‘from before”) — Noah, also, was of those people who are wanting in faith: he believed and he did not believe that the Flood would come, and he would not enter the Ark until the waters forced him to do so (Genesis Rabbah 32:6).

h.שנים שנים TWO AND TWO —In this number they were all equal — the least number was two.

h.באו אל נח THEY CAME TO NOAH — of their own accord (Genesis Rabbah 32).

h.בחדש השני IN THE SECOND MONTH — Rabbi Eliezer said, “This is the month Marcheshvan”; Rabbi Joshua said, “This is the month Eyar (Rosh Hashanah 11b).

h.נבקעו WERE BROKEN UP — so that they might give forth their waters.

h.תהום רבה THE GREAT DEEP — Measure for measure: they had sinned with רבה רעת האדם “great was the evil of man” (i. e. their sin is described by the word רבה “great”) and they were therefore punished by תהום רבה “the great deep” (i.e. the expression “great’’ is used of the instrument by which they were punished for their great sin) (Sanhedrin 108a).

h.ויהי הגשם על הארץ AND THE RAIN WAS UPON THE EARTH — But later on (v. [17]) it says. “And the Flood was upon the earth”! But the explanation is this: when He poured down the water at first He made it fall in mercy (gently), in order that if the people would repent, it might prove a rain of blessing; but when they did not repent it became a destructive flood (Genesis Rabbah 31:12).

h.‘ארבעים יום וגו FORTY DAYS AND [FORTY NIGHTS] — The first day is not included in this number, because its night (i.e. the night that preceded it, since according to Jewish reckoning a “day” comprises night-time and the following day-time) was not included with it — for it is written (v. 11) “On the same day (i. e. day-time) were all the fountains of the great deep broken up”. (Consequently the forty days ended, according to R. Eliezer, on the 28th day of Kislev (Rosh Hashanah 11b). as the months are counted as regular months, one full (of 30 days) and the next defective (of 29 days), so we have, 12 days of Marcheshvan and 28 days of Kislev.

h.בעצם היום הזה IN THE SELFSAME DAY — Scripture teaches you that the people of his generation said: “If we see him enter the Ark we will smash it up and kill him”. The Holy One, blessed be He, thereupon said, ‘‘I will let him enter before the eyes of everyone and we shall see whose word prevails” (Genesis Rabbah 32:8).

h.צפור כל כנף [EVERY] BIRD OF EVERY KIND — The word צפור is in the construct state, viz.. birds of every kind of wing, thus including locusts (Chullin 139b). The word כנף means “wingfeather”, as (Leviticus 1:17) “He shall rend it by the wings thereof”, for even its feathers were offered as a sacrifice. Also here, the meaning is, birds with any kind of semblance of wing.

• conflict with clean birds earlier

h.ויסגור ה' בעדו AND THE LORD SHUT HIM IN — He protected him so that they could not smash up the Ark (cf. 5:13): He surrounded the Ark (thus enclosing it סגר) with bears and lions which killed some of them (Genesis Rabbah 32:8). But the literal meaning of the text is: He shut the door in front of him against the waters. Similarly, wherever בעד occurs in the Scriptures it means כנגד in front of. E. g., (20:18) “The lord had made a closure in front of (בעד) every womb”; (2 Kings 4:4) “Close the door in front of thyself (בעדך) and in front of (ובעד) thy sons”; (Job 2:4) ‘‘skin in front of (as a protection for) (בעד) skin”; (Psalms 3:4) “a shield in front of me ובעדי”: (1 Samuel 12:19) “Pray (בעד) thy servants” which means כנגד in front of (i. e. on behalf of, as a protection for) thy servants.

h.ותרם מעל הארץ AND IT WAS LIFTED UP ABOVE THE EARTH — It was eleven cubits deep in the water like a laden ship that has part of it sunk in the waters (Genesis Rabbah 32:9); the following verses prove that this is the meaning.

h.ויגברו [AND THE WATERS] PREVAILED — by themselves (without any external aid).

h.חמש עשרה אמה מלמעלה FIFTEEN CUBITS ABOVE —above the summits of all the mountains when once the waters reached the level of the mountains (Yoma 76a).

h.נשמת רוח חיים means the breathing of the breath of life.

h.אשר בחרבה WHATSOEVER WAS IN THE DRY LAND [DIED] — and not the fish in the sea (Sanhedrin 108a).

h.וימח AND HE BLOTTED OUT — The word וימח is a Kal form and not a Niphal, and it is of the same grammatical form as ויפן and ויבן. Every verb whose last root letter is ה, such as בנה, מחה, קנה when י and ו are perfixed, has Chireq as its vowel beneath the yod.

h.אך נח means NOAH ONLY. This is its real meaning. But the Midrashic explanation is (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 9) that he was coughing and spitting blood because of the trouble he had with the cattle and beasts (אך is taken as a מיעוט limitation, meaning to say that something is defective); others say, that he was once late in bringing food to a lion, so it struck him. Regarding him may the words be applied (Proverbs 11:31), “Behold, even the righteous is paid (for his evil deeds) in this world’’.