Introduction:
In this portion we see the “chaos and desolation” return to such an extent that YHWH again needs to all but destroy and recreate the earth. As the Garden of Eden seems to be the only remnant of the world before Adam, Noakh and all his ark could hold are the only carry-overs from the world Adam knew. Some of the commentary focuses on some plausible scientific theories about how all of this could occur, without minimalism of any sort in regard to YHWH’s role or the trustworthiness of the text. It comes down to recognizing that every detail counts, and none of it is superfluous. Even the “table of nations” in chapter 10, which may not seem very exciting on the surface, is the key to the origins of all the peoples mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, the connections between them, and thus an understanding of why YHWH’s attitude toward some of them might seem a little less than kind—because they were connected to the series of events that started the downward spiral of our current age (9:20-27).
In this portion we also see the seeds of the blessing and curse that lies in the power of unity, and how mankind’s progress had to be limited until we approach the Day when truth again takes its rightful place and unity can again find its proper context and it can again be safely expressed. Creation had to be subjected to the kind of futility that we see in Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), but it was put under those restrictions in hope of a better day when it could be set free again. (Romans 8:19-23) The goals expressed in a twisted way from the corrupted heart of man still bear the image of Elohim, though fallen, leading me once to write an “Ode to Babel’s Brighter Side”:
O Babel, monument you stand
Not merely mute to mock men’s throne
No, more—to call into his own
A broader wish of Yah.
For how, but by the tongue’s defeat,
Could words their full potential know?
All the languages that sprang from YHWH’s blessing-in-disguise gives us fresh angles to look at reality in ways we had never thought of before. Yet once the curse has served its ultimately-positive purpose (for YHWH knew every pitfall in advance and had a contingency plan designed before the foundation of the world to make each deviant course we take “right itself” if we but get back on the right terms with the Creator—“all things working together for good”)—once the beauties of YHWH’s patience, mercy, and power to restore (which might never have been noticed had we not caused the need for them) have reached their climax and run their full course—YHWH says He will restore to us “a pure lip”—the “one lip” seen here in 11:1, 6. That way we will be able to “all call on the Name of YHWH, to serve Him with one shoulder” (Tz’fanyah 3:9), and we will find that, in that original language still held all the nuances that right now we can only notice through division. The right universal will be seen to, after all, include all that we could only perceive through the particulars as they now stand, for it is we, not the “very good” creation, who have the “double eye”. Yet our Redeemer has given us a “taste of the age to come” when a single eye will be restored and we will again be able to see good unmixed with evil, and be unashamed when again exposed in “the cool (Hebrew, “spirit”) of the day”, for the second Adam has made it possible to stand where humanity once could only fall, having no knowledge of that spirit of knowledge and the fear of YHWH that keeps us back from the abuses of His good gifts. Hanokh showed us a taste of that potential by “walking with YHWH” until he “was no more”—being fully “taken” over by the One with whom that homing device He put within us calls us to unite, for only when we unite with Him and the Head of the new human race is it safe to truly unite with one another and have no fear of repeating the same mistakes.
And this portion ends with the narrowing down of the scope to a man that YHWH saw He could work with to ensure that this could all come about.
6:9. These are the chronicles of Noakh:
Noakh means "rest" or "quietness". (See 5:29 for the reason he was so named.) Somehow in his day and because of his actions, the curse on the ground (3:17-19) would be mitigated. With no rain, maybe the ground was harder to till, or with a greenhouse-like climate, weeds were probably able to outstrip the crops very quickly, even if the crops also grew well, thus making it a constant battle.
Noakh, a righteous man, was without blemish in his generations. Noakh walked with Elohim.
Noakh found favor (acceptance) with YHWH. (v. 8) This verse tells us why. Without blemish does not mean he was perfect, but that he was unimpaired, a person of integrity, or fully developed and mature. He walks as blamelessly as is possible for mortal men. But since it specifies “in his generations” (plural), in the context of verses 1-4, it may be focusing more on the fact that Noakh was one of only a few left who were completely human in pedigree, explaining why Elohim had to go to such an extreme measure to preserve the pure human stock. This would also preserve the promised “seed of the woman” (3:15). Elohim is the title that emphasizes His judging side, and most people resist being judged. Noakh did not.
10. And Noakh fathered three sons: Shem, Cham, and Yefeth.
Shem means "name" or "reputation"; he is the teacher. Cham means "hot", and his line proved to be motivated by their passions. (See chapter 9.) Yefeth means "open ", indicating his openness to either path. Noakh would give him a headstart in the right direction. (9:27)
11. But the [rest of] the earth had become corrupt before the Elohim, and the earth was filled with violence.
Corrupt: ruined, marred, spoiled, decaying. Violence: malice, cruelty, or injustice. The Hebrew word is familiar due to a terrorist group that bears the same name: hamas. Compare the land of Kanaan just before Israel came to put an end to its defilement. (Lev. 18:25)
12. And Elohim looked at the earth, and indeed it was decayed, for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
Elohim looked: Compare 1:4. How sad this must have made the One who had once been able to judge it all to be good. A Midrash says the problem was that men had invented much technology, as well as numerous forms of entertainment. Some of them waited hundreds of years to have children. Did they put off growing up and being tied down? They multiplied ways to stay amused instead of being fruitful.
13. And Elohim said to Noakh, "All flesh has reached its limit before Me, for through them the earth is filled with violence, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Literally, "The end of all flesh has come before Me". It had reached the point where it could no longer continue without intervention, and the saturation triggered a stench that penetrated all the heavenly realms, just as Hevel's blood, the outcry of S'dom and Ghamorah (ch. 18), and, on a more positive note, Cornelius' almsgiving (Acts/Envoys 10) did. Flesh: everything mortal. Rabbinic commentary points out that the phrase “Through them the earth is filled with violence” has the same numeric value in Hebrew as the term for incest (galuy drayoth), giving us another clue to what may have been going on in verse 4. Destroy: the same word as "corrupt" in the previous two verses. I.e., they had spoiled His earth, so He would ruin them. Compare Rev. 11:18.
14. "Make for yourself an ark of gofer wood. Make cages inside the ark, and cover it inside and out with a sealant.
Ark: a box or chest that can float. The only other place the term is used in Scripture is in reference to the box used to keep Moshe afloat on the Nile. (Ex. 2:3) Gofer wood: based on a word meaning "arched" like the human back, and for this reason the word for “body” shares the same root. This may refer to the “ribs” that have formed the “skeletons” for wooden ships throughout history. Cages: cells, rooms, stalls, or nesting places, suggesting that the animals settled in to hibernate so they would not be restless during the long voyage. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says there were 150 compartments on the left, 36 in its breadth, and 10 cabins in the middle in which food could be stored, with five reservoirs on the left and five on the right. Tarring the inside with pitch would keep animal urine from seeping into the wood, which would not only create a horrendous stench, but would also cause the wood to decay before the year-long rideout was over. "Cover" is the same as the word translated elsewhere as "atone", “redeem”, or “ransom”. (Ex. 21:30; 30:2; Num. 35:31; Prov. 21:18; Yeshayahu/Isa. 43:3) I.e., the price of a life, sometimes described in terms of YHWH sacrificing the wicked to preserve the righteous, which is exactly what He did here. This ark was insulated on both sides of the wood, suggesting that the influence of the righteous could no longer flow outward either, after YHWH shut the door.
15. "And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark will be 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
The dimensions are approximately 137x23x14 meters or 450x75x45 feet, which has been proven in simulated tests to be the most stable proportion possible, enabling the "ship" to right itself even if thrust upward perpendicular to the water by the massive tidal action that took place—or if capsized! Only in the past century or so have ocean liners exceeded this size. (See photo with comparison of its size to a Columbus- or Mayflower-type vessel and a railroad boxcar.) The Queen
Elizabeth II has a similar ratio, but is nearly
twice as big as the ark, which had no rudder
or oars. It was not designed to navigate, but
only to ride out the storm upon the currents
the deluge created. YHWH knew where and
how it needed to land, and Noakh had to
leave the results to Him.
16. "You shall make a skylight in the ark, then finish it within a cubit of the highest part, and the door of the ark in its side. Put lower, second, and third [stories] in it.
The "skylight" [tzohar] is usually the word for "noonday", and by extension means "brightness". A Jewish mystical book by the same title suggests that "prism" might be the best understanding, as its main theme is light reflected and refracted from an outside source. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan calls it a “gem from Pishon”. Elsewhere tzohar has been translated as a gleaming, splendid, self-illuminating, transparent crystal--which would indicate a very high level of technology before the Deluge. And why not, with long lives, no inclement weather to use up time and energy, and a common language? In the Septuagint, the second phrase reads, "narrow the ark in making it, and in a cubit above...finish it." Those who claim to have seen the ark on a mountain in Armenia identified as Ararat describe it as nearly rectangular, having a slightly-sloping roof with a separately-roofed row of windows several cubits wide extending a cubit above the peak, the entire length of the ark. This could have provided a source of light for the prism-like "lamp" to refract.
17. "And I—mark My words—I am causing a deluge of waters to come over the earth in order to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life from under Heaven. Everything which is on the earth shall expire.
Deluge: from the word for "to bear along" or "conduct", which it would do for the ark, while it destroyed everything outside. The events of the next judgment will bear up those who enter YHWH's "ark of shelter" and go with its flow, while those who resist it can only go down with the system that has to be removed.
18. "But I will establish my covenant with you. So come inside the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
"I will establish My covenant with you": the same phrase by which Elohim marks those whom He has selected to continue the line from which restoration would come--see 17:4, 21; Lev. 26:42; 2 Chron. 21:7. Note the similarity of the second sentence with Yeshayahu 26:20: "Come, My people, enter your chambers and shut the door around you; withdraw yourself for a short moment until the indignation has passed by." This is a reference to the "secret place of the Most High" (Psalm 91) that will be provided during "Yaaqov's trouble" (Yirmeyahu 30:7).
19. "And bring into the ark two each (that is, male and female) from every living thing of all [kinds of] flesh—
Thus, after the Deluge there could be a “new creation”.
20. "from the birds, according to their kind [species], from livestock according to their kind, from everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind—bring two of each into the ark to keep them alive.
Two cats or two dogs, etc., with all their potential for variation would have been all that was necessary as representatives. However, there was also plenty of room to hold young dinosaurs, a few of which survived for a while under the new climatic conditions after the flood. Crawls: The word has to do with speed rather than how close it is to the ground.
21. "And take for yourself every kind of food that is to be eaten, and assemble it for yourselves, and let it be for both you and for them to eat."
22. So Noakh did so, according to all that Elohim had commanded him.
What higher compliment could someone be given? In keeping all these animals, he may have had to do something he was unfamiliar with. Certainly building a ship so large was not a common thing in his day, when there was only one continent and rivers may have been the only water people had to navigate on. He would certainly be ridiculed if he did this in open view, though he was not trying to be a freak or fanatic, but only to obey YHWH.
CHAPTER 7
1. Then YHWH said
to Noakh, "Come into
the ark—you and all
your household—for
I have seen that you are righteous before Me among this generation.
I have seen: Now that he had fully obeyed (6:22), YHWH knew that he was righteous. Five years prior to this, Noakh’s father had died, and it seems that this is when the wickedness began to get out of hand. Despite all the rhetoric about grace being unmerited, it is still a gift from YHWH that He allows the merit of righteous people like Y’shua to reverberate for centuries after they are gone. The Torah commands you are keeping may be the very thing that is preserving the world right now. This generation: 2 Kefa/Peter 3:5 tells more about the pre-flood earth.
2. "So take with you, of every clean animal, seven each [of] the male and his female; and from the animals that are not clean, two, the male and his female.
Male and his female:in this verse alone, it actually reads "a man and his wife" or “each with its counterpart”. Noakh knew, long before the Torah codified the rules (possibly from Hevel’s example), which animals were appropriate at least for offering to YHWH (see Lev. 11:3), if not for eating. The Torah was given to teach us to distinguish between what is clean and unclean (Lev. 11:44ff). This includes not just foods, but also days, actions, and attitudes. There must be a difference between the natural course the nations take and the high road YHWH’s people exemplify. (2 Chron. 12:8) More of the clean animals would be needed to avoid the same type of defilement from spreading so quickly again, so He tipped the balance more in favor of the nonviolent creatures.
3. "And seven each of the birds of the heavens, in order to preserve seed alive on the face of the earth.
Birds would carry seeds of plants as well, especially if, as some think, the animals hibernated during the deluge. This also symbolizes that heavenly things should have a much higher representation in us than earthly. It also takes more of the clean things to keep enough of their offspring alive, for like Hevel, they are often consumed by the unclean.
4. "Because after seven more days, I will cause a downpour upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, and will wipe away from off the face of the earth every living substance which I have made."
As firstfruits offerings are allowed to live through one Sabbath before being offered, YHWH gave a fair warning period and time to prepare and, if necessary, repent. Seven days is a creation cycle, and after that interval He would in essence start again. Which I have made: YHWH therefore had the right to do anything He wanted with it, even destroy it. Anyone who was perceptive would be asking, based on his name, “WHAT will Methushalakh’s death send?” They should have been expecting something big enough to predict nearly a thousand years before; Yeshua holds us responsible to be watchful in a way Noakh’s contemporaries were not. (Mat. 24:37-39; compare 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 and 2 Kefa/Peter 3:3-12) While 2 Kefa 2:5 says Noakh did preach righteousness, we have no indication that he asked YHWH to relent, as Avraham and Moshe did. There was too much intimacy with evil for the world to survive; it needed to be washed clean. Because men did not fulfill their responsibility to be the guardians of the animals, they too had to die because of man’s failure. Yeshua said that the coming of the Ben Adam would be like in Noakh’s day—men would still go on having weddings and parties even as the “rain” begins to fall. (Mat. 24:37ff) Destruction has been prophesied again, but if men today will be like the men of Nin’veh in Yonah’s day, who knows? YHWH may relent. A little more righteousness may be all it takes; if nothing changes, judgment is guaranteed.
5. And Noakh did according to everything that YHWH had commanded him.
Noakh’s obedience made the transition into a less violent age possible. YHWH did not give him the timetable (v. 4) until he had completed the assignment he had already been given.
6. Noakh was 600 years old when the deluge
of waters came over the earth.
His sons were 98 years old at this time (11:10).
[Year 1656 /2344 BCE]
7. And Noakh, along with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, came into the ark because of the presence of the waters of the deluge.
Even the righteous apparently waited until it was already beginning to rain to enter the ark, just as Israel waited until Pharaoh drove us out before leaving Egypt. In both cases, though, they were prepared in advance to go immediately, and that made all the difference. We need to respond quickly and not take the margins YHWH gives us as excuses to delay and walk in at the last minute. We have already reached—and passed—the 6,000th year of earth’s history; the rabbis have already declared that we are in the time of Yaaqov’s trouble, and we are not organized for the Kingdom. We do not have the luxury of dragging our feet, for we are behind schedule, and the door will not be open forever. His command should be enough reason to move quickly.
8. And of [both] the clean animals and the animals which were not clean, and of the fowls and of everything that crawls on the earth,
9. they came inside the ark to Noakh, two by two, the male and the female [of each], as Elohim had commanded Noakh.
Animals often seem to have an instinctive sense that a natural disaster is coming; it may be due to a keener ability to sense seismic foreshocks related to the breaking up of the underground pockets of water (v. 10).
10. And so it was, that to the seven days, the deluge of waters came upon the earth.
11. In the 600th year of Noakh's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this particular day, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the sky were thrown open.
The 17th of the second month: in the late autumn, possibly on the day on which many cultures celebrate death even today. But it is just after the days of judgment on the Hebrew calendar, because the first month later became Israel’s seventh (Ex. 12:2), the month in which Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkoth occur. Judgment had come, but no one woke up. No one except Noakh asked for covering. (This would be right in the middle of the new festival of that King Yarav’am invented to speed the separatin between the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Yehudah, per 1 Kings 12:32ff–a time that did not please YHWH.) Windows of the sky: the ice shield 11 miles above the earth’s surface (see note on 1:7) was shattered and melted, probably dumping huge torrents of rain, far more than could fall from rainclouds as the earth is today. Joseph Dillow has presented a detailed scientific study of how so much water could have been stored above the atmosphere for about 1,600 years, using only the principles known to modern physics, in The Waters Above: Earth's Pre-Flood Vapor Canopy (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981).
12. And the rain continued on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
Thus the rain ended on the 27th day of the third month. Ordinary rain would not be nearly enough to inundate the whole earth, so some conclude that the flood must have only been localized. But well over 200 cultures worldwide, most with no Judeo-Christian history, like the Aztecs, preserved accounts of such a Deluge, so it seems to have affected the ancestry of everyone alive today. Add to the rain the subterranean pockets of water (Ex. 20:4, "reserved" for this need, 2 Keyfa/Peter 3:5-7) and the waters above, which were “lying in wait (in) the sky” provided much more water that may have been animated by the massive gravitational force of a passing comet that was thrown off its course by this near-brush with earth and became what is now the first planet from the sun. This would have caused not only massive tidal waves on the surface, causing the entire surface of the earth to be inundated at least once even if not under water the entire time, but also crustal tides of magma beneath the earth's surface which broke forth in unimaginable volcanic and seismic activity and allowed the formation of new mountains due to the gravitational pull of the passing body. According to Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer, two great intersecting arcs of mountain uplift suggest that there were two flybys, about 4½ months apart by biblical data. Mountains probably did not exceed 3,000 meters before that time, making it easier for all the mountains to be covered than they would be today. But with earth's crust weighing heavily on this cushion of water pockets, even a slight fissure in the delicate balance could also spread around what apparently was a single continent within two hours, shooting water high into the atmosphere with the force of 10,000 hydrogen bombs. This and/or a pole shift due to the passing body's gravity, would cause immediate climate change--an instant ice age--explaining the freezing of millions of Mammoths in Siberia and Alaska, found with skin and hair intact and undigested food in their stomachs. (Compare 8:22) Rapid erosion of the crust along the new fault would lay down wave upon wave of sediment, leaving many fossils. The gap created at the "seams" would allow magma to form the mid-oceanic ranges, and causing the newly-formed crustal plates to slide over the molten material beneath at up to 70 km. per hour until they collided, buckling upward to form higher mountain ranges and downward to form oceanic trenches that parallel them, allowing the water to run off. Continental drift, however, took place later (see 10:25), so some of this activity may have been caused by a later flyby of Mars, per the above-mentioned scientists.
13. At this same time Noakh and Shem and Cham and Yefeth, Noakh's sons, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons who were with them, entered the ark—
14. they, and every sort of animal according to its kind, that is, every herded beast after its kind, and every creeping thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every flying creature according to its kind, and every bird of every wing.
There is no mention of fish, which could have more easily survived despite the tidal waves that would have resulted. Fish are considered by the rabbis to be a picture of the righteous, because they have no eyelids and thus never close their eyes--symbolizing that they never go anywhere where there is anything they should not see. The abode of the fish was actually enlarged during the Flood.
15. And they came into the ark to Noakh, two by two of all [kinds of] flesh, in which is the breath of life,
16. and those that went in were male and female of all [kinds of] flesh, as Elohim had commanded him. And YHWH shut [the door] tightly at his heels.
He was thus separated from everything outside. This imagery relates to the later closing of the Temple gates on the Day of Atonement; both picture the end of the open door for deliverance in the latter days. While Noakh might have hesitated to shut the door, YHWH's grace period does have a limit. The Aramaic targums say YHWH protected the door before him. Was this to keep the evil men from entering—either to attack Noakh or simply to survive?
17. And the deluge continued upon the earth for 40 days, and the waters increased, and carried away the ark, and it was lifted up from its position on the land.
18. And the waters grew more forceful, and were greatly increased upon the earth, and the ark moved on the surface of the waters.
19. And the waters swelled on the earth, stronger and stronger, until all the high mountains which are under the whole heavens were concealed.
Concealed: overwhelmed, inundated, engulfed.
20. The waters rose up yet another 15 cubits, hiding the mountains.
There would thus be room for it to clear every obstacle, but there is more to this. If, as it will be in the "Time of the Restitution of All Things", the holy mountain which would be the site of the House of YHWH (and the only gateway back to Eden), was higher than all other hills (Yeshayahu 2:1ff; Micha 4:1), this and the other hills that surround it, would be worthy of additional mention. Will another crustal tide swell the ground under Yerushalayim and push it higher, or will all the other hills simply be lowered? (Yeshayahu 40:4) Yerushalayim may be where the ark was built, and Noach may have watched these particular mountains be covered. There were 15 steps from the Court of Women to the Court of Priests. But the entrance to the Temple was 14.5 cubits (29 steps, ½ cubit each) above the level of the Court of Women, meaning that even the floor of the Holy of Holies would also have been washed clean by this giant immersion. 15 songs of ascent (Psalms 120-134) were sung during pilgrimages to the Temple. One of them, Psalm 124, alludes directly to this deluge: "Had it not been for YHWH who was on our side, ...the waters would have engulfed us; the raging waters would have swept over our soul"; the level of the Temple itself was only covered by half a cubit (9 or 10 inches) of water--not an overwhelming inundation as in the rest of the earth. There are many additional allusions to the flood in these 15 psalms. Yeshayahu 43:2 reads, "Because you pass...through the waters, they will not overwhelm you." Yerushalayim will receive some strong chastening in the coming judgment; YHWH’s presence will be our only refuge, so return there for protection under the wings of the One carrying out the judgment.
21. And all flesh that moved about on the earth perished—everything among the fowl and the beasts and the living creatures and the swarming insects and all mankind.
Perished: Aramaic, melted away. Swarming insects: This massive "miqveh" or "baptism" would cleanse the earth of the bacteriological results of the "corruption of all flesh", and ritually purify it again for the blood shed since Qayin's day.
22. Everything on the dry land—in whose nostrils breathed the spirit of life—died.
23. And everything that lived on the surface of the earth was wiped out—from humankind to the beasts to the creeping things to the flying creatures of the sky—they were washed off the earth; nothing survived except Noakh and the ones who were with him in the ark.
Thus the direct line of Qayin was entirely snuffed out.
24. And the waters exerted themselves violently upon the earth for 150 days.
CHAPTER 8
1. But Elohim kept Noakh in mind, along with all the livestock and all the beasts that were with him in the ark. And Elohim caused a wind to pass over the land, and the waters subsided.
Kept in mind: or "remembered", but it is not that He had forgotten him; more basically it means “marked” (for special attention), much like a date marked on the calendar. He has a book of remembrance of those who think on His Name, so he can specially treasure them up. (Mal. 3:16-17) Likewise, He has marked certain things for us to remember—the Exodus, the Sabbath, etc. Though without a Temple we cannot fully observe either Passover or the Sabbath, we are to guard the remembrance of them so that when the time comes when we can again do so, we will know how. Wind to pass over: or "spirit to sweep across", recalling the wind or spirit that passed over the scene of an earlier destruction at the creation account in 1:2, since this was a re-creation of the dominion of Adam because Adam’s descendants had been ruled by creation rather than ruling over it. The earth had been rotting away (6:11), and it was man’s fault. They didn’t care for the created things, but expected those things to care for them. Again today, sea levels are rising, to remind us that this is taking place again. We must take dominion back and not bow down to things we should be ruling over—ourselves, fleshly priorities, animals, or just mundane demands. Most ceased to even want to repent, so YHWH cleansed the earth. This was beneficial to His creation, though nearly everything had to die in the process. But YHWH’s mercy outlasted His judgment. (Compare Yaaqov/James 2:13.) This is another form of justice—for the righteous. The wind (ruakh) was the first stage in the reconstitution after destruction in chapter 1, and here it is repeated.
2. And the fountains of the deep and the reserves of Heaven were stopped up, and the rain from the heavens was restrained,
Deep: or "abyss"--another correlation with chapter 1. The waters separated at creation had been brought back together again, creating another "chaos"; now they were separated again, though the vapor canopy was not re-established, so that human life would not last as long. Reserves: sluices, Greek Septuagint (LXX), "flood-gates". "Sky" and "heavens" are the same word in Hebrew as well. Restrained: or restricted—to certain times; now there would be seasons for rain.
3. and the waters retreated from upon the land, continually advancing and returning, and the waters had diminished by the end of 150 days.
They subsided or "emptied out", probably into newly-formed ocean trenches that could have been formed by a rapid collision of tectonic plates or by the folding of mountain ranges as Me’adim (Mars) came within 15,000 miles of the earth in its former orbit. Not until the fifth month did this take place, so some external gravitation force kept the processes churning for that long or aggravated them again just before this time. Patten's calculations suggest a second passby of an extraterrestrial body, possibly even Me’adim again. Its flybys all occurred in October and March, which would both fit the time frame described here. Advancing and returning: or receding with regular motion. (More on this at v. 22.) Prior to the change in earth’s orbital length at the time of Hizqiyahu’s sundial incident in 701 B.C.E. when Me’adim came so close that both planets were thrown into different orbits, a month was then exactly 30 days long (compare v. 4 and 7:11).
4. And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat,
Ararat: a range along the borders of Turkey, Armenia, and Iran; its name means "the curse reversed". In Aramaic, it is called the Kardu, Cordyene, or Quwrdum mountain range (related to the name of Kurdistan), “where the city of Armenia was built”. Some in the 19th and 20th centuries and also more recently claim to have found the ark on the mountain currently known as Ararat, partially under ice which would preserve it better, but this has not been satisfactorily corroborated even by sympathetic scientists. However, the “Urartu” range extends beyond this highest singular mountain, so this particular mountain may not be the only possible location if remains are extant. Ron Wyatt claimed to have found it and the Turkish government has agreed with him because ground-penetrating radar turned up patterns too regular for nature and correlating with supporting timbers at the right intervals, and it is the right length. The date is very significant, for it repeatedly relates to supernatural preservation, Elohim’s redemption, and new beginnings: on the same day of the year (Aviv 17), the Israelites emerged unscathed from Egypt and the Reed Sea; Haman and his sons were sentenced to be hung, ending the attempt at Semitic genocide; and the Messiah rose from the dead as the fulfillment of the feast of Firstfruits which that year also fell on this date, three days after Passover, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was considered the seventh month until the time of the Exodus, when YHWH changed it to the first month for Israel. (Ex. 12:2)
5. And the waters kept departing and going down until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.
6. Now what took place was that, after 40 more days, Noakh also opened a window which he had made in the ark,
This is the 10th of the 11th month (now the 4th month), the actual day the second Temple was burned after the walls were breached on the 9th. Amidst that destruction, a “window” was opened at that time for envoys to be sent out to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel so they could return home.
7. and he sent out a raven, and it went out, flying to and fro until the waters had dried up from upon the earth
He had only two ravens, yet was letting one go as a test. The raven could live off floating carcasses as a scavenger. (cf. Mat. 24:28) It was the only bird out there, so it could feast to its heart’s content.
8. He also sent forth from himself a dove, to see whether the waters had receded from off the earth's surface.
It does not say he sent the raven “from himself”. He identified with the clean animal rather than the unclean.
9. But the dove found no resting place for her foot, so she came back into the ark to him, because there was still water over the whole surface of the earth. So he stretched out his hand and received her, and brought her back into the ark to himself.
This clean animal would not alight on a corrupted surface. There would be no pagan grove of trees on the top of the holiest mountains, the only ones thus far uncovered, from which she could pluck any food. It was a test of what is fit for humans; if she found a resting place, there could be one for us as well. In English we miss the play on words: "resting place" in Hebrew is m'noakh, very similar to Noakh, which means "rest". The spirit of holiness rested visibly on Y’shua in the form of a dove, so the dove has come to symbolize that spirit. So YHWH’s “spirit” was again symbolically “fluttering over the deep” (as in 1:2).
10. And he waited anxiously yet another seven days, and once again he sent the dove forth from the ark.
Waited anxiously: different from the word for "waited" in v. 12. The root means to writhe, tremble, or be intent about something to the point of mental strain. It may denote a nervous pacing back and forth.
11. And the dove came back in to him at the set time in the evening, and lo and behold! There was a freshly-plucked olive branch in her mouth. So Noakh knew that the waters had receded from off the earth.
"Flood" is an idiom for the raging armies of the Gentile nations, often called the "sea", and the raven, an unclean bird, is a picture of the counterfeit Messiah, sent seven years before the spirit of holiness could find a suitable resting place. From this event, the dove and olive leaf have come to symbolize peace and hope in the midst of a situation where one might despair. Since the highest mountain prior to this had been the Temple Mount, did the dove find this branch on the nearby Mount of Olives? Birds usually pluck branches only to build nests. Plucking a green leaf would mean this tree was still alive after all the destruction. An olive tree does readily grow back after being cut down. (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 11:1; Iyov/Job 14:7)
12. And he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove again, and she did not return to him any more.
Seven days: Noakh was acting according to a cycle of sabbaths--times of completeness or satisfaction--also related to the waiting period required to verify that unclean bodies or items had been purified.
13. By the beginning of the 601st year, on the first of the month, the waters were drying up from off the earth. And Noakh stripped away the sealed covering of the ark and looked, and [lo and] behold! the surface of the ground had begun to dry up!
Dry land emerges from the waters just as at creation. (1:9) The first of the civil year is Yom Teruah, which completes a special month of repentance. All the major events of the deluge are connected to YHWH’s festival calendar even before they were codified for Israel. Noakh’s life was ordered by YHWH’s calendar because he was faithful in all of his other attributes.
14. By the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was completely dry.
Mt. Ararat is 17,000 feet high, which is one reason it took this much longer for the water to recede. This was 370 days after the flood began, or one year and ten days, at that time—the same length as the interval between one Feast of Trumpets until Yom Kippur the following year. This is why even just ten days earlier would have been too early for the earth to be dry. There is still business to attend to before we can proceed to the next festival. This may indicate the length of time the Messiah's bride is with him in the "inner chambers", hidden away until YHWH's indignation is past (Yeshayahu/Isa. 26:20). Since a bridegroom may not go to war for the first year of his marriage (Deut. 24:5), this time must last at least one year. Since Trumpets is the day of calling away and Yom Kippur the Day of Judgment, it makes sense that He would add this extra interval for repentance, as that is what is rehearsed each year during these festivals. This is over a month after Sukkoth, and very close to the beginning of winter. Imagine the shock this would be after entering the ark while the greenhouse-type atmosphere was still intact, not to mention the fact that they are on a mountain that is now perennially snow-capped. They would need to build shelters immediately afterward, foreshadowing Sukkoth, which comes right after these other two feasts.
15. And Elohim spoke to Noakh, saying,
16. "Go out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons, and their wives who are with you.
This is a different order than they entered the ark, when all the men went first. Now Noakh's wife is made more prominent than her sons, possibly to counter some social problem caused by the former ordering.
17. "Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh: of the fowl, and the quadrupeds, and of every reptile that crawls on the earth, so they can breed abundantly, and bear young, and multiply on the earth."
Now that there are seasons (v. 22), the best breeding time is as winter begins, so young will be born in the spring, maximizing the warmer seasons while they grow to maturity.
18. So Noakh went out, and his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him;
19. every living creature, and every flying creature, and everything that crawls on the ground—they went forth out of the ark according to their families.
The advantage after the flood is that there were now seven times as many of the clean animals as unclean ones.
20. Then Noakh built an altar to YHWH, and took some of every clean animal and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21. And YHWH smelled the soothing aroma, and YHWH said in His heart, "Never again will I curse the ground on humankind's account, because the inclination of his heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again strike down every living thing as I have just done;
I.e., "Though I have washed everything clean, mankind has not changed." The evidence of this shows up shortly hereafter. Though Adam (mankind) has not changed, the adamah (the feminine form of Adam, meaning the ground) is no longer cursed. Y’shua did not come to break this curse; it was already broken here, for Noakh was born for this purpose. (5:29) Y’shua came to break the curses that were on the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This curse was on the ground, not on humanity, so there is no “original sin” in this inclination to evil. We area all born with it, but if we do not walk in it, it is not counted against us. As with Qayin, YHWH offers us a way out through repentance and restoration. Our inclination to evil is not an excuse to do evil, nor is it a guarantee that we will. We also have the option of following our better inclination. Gravity always makes us resist walking up hills, but of what value are we if we cannot overcome our inclinations? Soothing aroma: representing satisfied justice, restored relationship, and recovered purity--atonement for the blood of Hevel and many others. The word “soothing” is closely related to Noakh's name. This takes place during the month following the fall festivals, when normally the harvest has been brought in, and we settle into quietness and rest with no fear. The total number of days Noakh was in the ark was 377, which is the numeric value of the Hebrew word for “oath”.
22. "Until the earth's days are filled up,
Seeding-time and harvest, Cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not fail to recur [on schedule]." This again suggests a polar shift at this time (which could also explain the back-and-forth motion of the waters in verse 3), as there would have been no changing of seasons before the axis was tilted to its current position. Somehow having seasons made planting and harvesting more effective or successful in a way the prior greenhouse effect would not. Did the weeds outstrip the crops too quickly before this? It is also easy to see how the earth would become corrupt in a seemingly-idyllic “rainforest”-type climate. So much moisture made decay spread more quickly, whereas now there are deserts in some parts of the world where paper documents, grain, and paint can be preserved for thousands of years without ever rotting. Insects that devour crops would now be culled back by the freezing temperatures each year; in a greenhouse environment, they would have proliferated uncontrollably, especially since man had become slack about governing creation. Note that Hebraically, there are two seasons, not four, and there are times of transition between them, as with the “evening and morning” of chapter 1. Our deliverance depends on doing what is right in the right season and retaining the balance.
CHAPTER 9
1. And Elohim blessed Noakh and his sons. And He told them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Blessed: literally, bent the knee; i.e., He knelt down to pay them special attention. He repeats what He told Adam and Chawwah, as in a sense this is a new creation, designed to rebuild what Adam had broken.
2. "And the fear and dread of you shall [henceforth] be upon all the land animals and upon every bird of the heavens, on all that crawls on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hands.
This again is a repetition of the dominion granted in 1:28 (compare Psalm 8:6; Hebrews 2:8, 9), with the intent of protecting and managing them properly—though now there is an added dimension of fear, which would make it at the same time easier to have dominion over the animals (for they would see themselves as at man’s mercy) and more difficult (since they would keep their distance). At creation, man had not feared the animals either, even in at least one case when he should have. Now man will have less contact with them, and therefore not learn as many of their ways, which had been his downfall before the flood. The types of animals He wanted man to domesticate and therefore learn more from are those of which he had left seven times as many.
3. "Every crawling thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given you all things, just as I gave you the green plant.
If the Nefilim contributed to the reason for the Deluge, it may be insightful that Hindus claim that a body fluid called akasa, which facilitates communion with spirits, can be replenished through abstinence from meat. Elohim may have deliberately initiated meat-eating for this reason, as well as to guarantee a shorter lifespan for mankind, until Messiah binds the demons' ability to communicate with man (Yeshayahu/Isa. 11:6; 65:20; Yechzq./Ezek. 45). The flip side of this is that, in the right context, Daniel's spiritual perceptiveness may have been aided by his abstinence from meat, though his intent was only to obey YHWH’s dietary laws where kosher meat was not available to him. Food: though we see animals slaughtered as offerings to YHWH before this allowance is made, now for the first time mankind is overtly permitted to eat animals. YHWH does not forbid any type of animals from being eaten at this point, but the knowledge of which animals were acceptable as offerings was already known to Noakh. This time the test comes not in His saying “Do not eat of it” as in the Garden, but whether we will seek out the distinctions He has already made between clean (a picture of selflessness) and unclean (a picture of selfishness). He has made known which animals He is willing to “consume”, and they are later called His food (Num. 28:2). Will we follow His example and be discriminating in what we eat? Will we make things better than before? He is opening the door for us not just to serve Him (which is mandatory), but also to choose Him, be intimate with Him. “You are what you eat” has some truth to it, and we are not meant to be like the pig, which will even devour another pig and has no way to rid its body of impurities; we are to be like the sure-footed animals and those that chew the cud, processing and again meditating on the words He gives us as our food.
4. "Of course, you must not eat flesh with its life--[that is,] its blood—[still in it].
Life: or soul. Its life—its blood: Both phrases imply eating meat with the blood not removed. We do not wish to partake of another species' soul. This command was specifically reiterated for those (re)turning to YHWH from among the Gentiles (Acts 15:20), and still it is commonly disobeyed, though it was given here to all mankind, not just Israel. Dogs are fed bloody meat to make them more vicious, and men who have stopped eating unbled meat have become more spiritually attuned and less violent, not to mention having less body odor when they sweat. We may not even eat the blood of clean animals, because they are still animals, having some measure of both fear and selfishness—attributes we do not want to ingest.
5. "And I will surely demand satisfaction for the blood of your lives as well: at the hand of every animal will I require satisfaction, and at the hand of man. I will demand the life of every man at the hand of every man's brother.
Here the death penalty is instituted and is thus applicable in every nation since that time. Under Torah, even animals that kill men are to be “executed”. (Ex. 21:28)
6. "Whoever sheds man's blood, his own blood shall also be shed by man--because He made man in Elohim's image.
From the start, YHWH makes it clear that He will not tolerate another "Qayin and Hevel" event. YHWH let even Qayin live, but men were taking too much advantage of His mercy, so He removed part of it. Rather than evidencing a callous disregard for human life, capital punishment demonstrates how valuable one human life is. The blood is where YHWH’s image resides. If someone presumes to take it, he must pay the ultimate penalty. Some measure of amnesty is granted to those who kill unintentionally (Num. 35:6ff), but there are still restrictions placed on them.
7. "And you, be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth abundantly, and become numerous upon it."
He repeats the command in verse 1 because He has just blessed us with laws. Our fruitfulness depends on handling life properly. These have been the first social laws that are binding upon all mankind; for us, however, He gives us the job of increasing, so we should not even think about killing one another, thus reducing our population. Elohim gave additional laws to the people of Israel—and any who wish to learn from us--to teach them deeper things about Himself.
8. And Elohim spoke to Noakh, and to his sons with him, saying,
9. "I—mark My words—I am causing My covenant [agreement] with you to be established, and with your descendants after you,
10. "and with every living being that is with you, among the fowl, and the beasts, and every living creature that is with you on the earth, from all that are leaving the ark, to every living things of the earth:
11. "I have also established My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a deluge to destroy the world."
No flood will again destroy 100% of the world, but this does not mean there will not be smaller floods—or other forms of destruction. We saw that the last thing to be flooded was Yerushalayim (see note on 7:20); this time will it take His destroying all but it before men will become what He meant us to be?
12. And Elohim said,
"This is the sign I am giving you of the covenant between Myself and you, and every living being that is with you, for the generations of the age:
13. "I have set my bow in the cloud, and it will be for a pledge of a covenant between Me and the earth.
Bow: The new atmospheric conditions produced this beautiful phenomenon, which could not have been seen in the antediluvian firmament.
14. "And when I gather the clouds over the earth, then the bow shall be seen in the clouds,
15. "and I will recall to mind My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living soul among all kinds of flesh.
These people had never seen a rain cloud that did not bring massive destruction, so He placed a comforting factor right within the scenario that might otherwise bring fear of a repeated deluge. But the rainbow is more for His sake than ours. He never actually says "rainbow", though, but only "bow". If He drew back an arrow toward the earth with His bow, it would be doomed, so He aims the bow back at the heavens, since only He is able to prevent this.
16. "And the bow will be visible in the clouds; I will see it, and remember the age-long covenant between Elohim and every living being, in all flesh which is on the earth."
Noakh built the first altar in the new world, as Hevel had in the former, and reparation was made in YHWH's heart. Noakh's righteous sacrifice showed Him that it was still possible for a man to do the right thing.
17. And Elohim told Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have made between Myself and all flesh which is on the earth."
18. Now the sons of Noakh who went out of the ark were named Shem, Kham, and Yefeth. Now Kham is the one who was the father of Kanaan.
Kham’s claim to fame in YHWH’s eyes was being Kanaan’s father. He is not even the eldest son, but is the focus of the Hamitic line from that point on in Scripture (other than Egypt, briefly). YHWH judges people in part by whose seed they are.
19. These are the three sons of Noakh, and from them the whole earth was overspread.
Overspread: i.e., populated.
20. And Noakh made a new start [as] a man of the soil, and planted a vineyard,
Literally, he "broke through" (compare 10:8), making use of t he clean slate that YHWH had given him. But the word also has the nuance of desecrating or polluting, in the sense that something is no longer pristine or virginal. He had to plant crops again, or no one would have food, and somehow conditions were easier after the flood. (5:29) But would he now put the fruit to a better use than Adam and Chawwah had when they made their start? Or would he restart the kind of problems Elohim had done away with? Soil: "ground"; was he now letting himself become common (another sense of the word “profane”), no longer acting as a spiritual man? We see some evidence of this here, but he would recover his perceptiveness. Levitical vintner Gershon Ferency notes that the University of California and other sources have traced the genetic origins of domestic wine grapes to the Caucasus Mountains—precisely where Mt. Ararat is.
21. and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and he became uncovered inside his tent.
Noakh lost control of himself and was put through great shame. There is more than one way to become intoxicated (which means poisoned!): we can be drunk with power, greed, lust, or even simply love for beauty, art, or music; if we lose our self-control in any of these things, we too may end up in degradation. The only safe thing in which to lose control of oneself is the presence of YHWH. Not that we should assume Noakh, a righteous man, intended to become dissipated. The atmospheric changes probably made the juice ferment more quickly than he had been used to it doing before the Deluge. (Custance) Lev. 19:23-25 specifies that fruit should not be eaten from a plant until its fifth year. His grandson's age (v. 22) also suggests that a significant amount of time had elapsed since the Flood. Became uncovered: This strongly suggests that he did not uncover himself. (See below.)
22. And Kham, the father of Kanaan, gazed upon his father's nakedness, and he exposed [him] to his two brothers outside.
Kham also "restarted" another sin pattern that had gone haywire before the Deluge, and the “line of Qayin” began again. Instead of doing something about his father’s condition, he gossiped about the man who all his life had been his covering, probably making fun of him as well. "Kanaan" means either "one who bends the knees", "one brought low", or "one who trafficks". Gazed upon: i.e., stared, with a sexual connotation, as in the Torah's prohibitions (e.g., Lev. 18:6ff, where“became uncovered”, the phrase used in v. 21 above, also refers to having sexual relations with someone). Kanaan apparently followed his desire at any cost, just like an animal. It appears that Kham discovered Kanaan’s deed, but did not stop him or punish him for it.
23. But Shem and Yefeth took a garment, laid it on both of their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered their father's nakedness, with their faces in the direction from which they came, so they did not see their father's nakedness.
The Torah was not yet given, yet out of respect for their father they knew this was not right. They did not want to increase his shame or even see what the gruesome results of this deed looked like.
24. But when Noakh, upon awaking from his wine, found out what his grandson had done to him,
Grandson: literally, small or young son, but Kham does not appear to have been the youngest. That Kanaan did not just look, but actually did something himself makes Noakh's cursing of him rather than Kham more understandable, though in cursing Kham far too many people might be affected. It appears that Kham did not merely see his father's nakedness in a cursory sense, but exposed his most vulnerable part, and Kanaan actually sodomized him, and when he sobered up, he realized this. An alternate reading of “young son” is that Kham himself lay with Noakh’s wife (Lev. 18:8) and fathered Kanaan through her, and the result may have been much like Yaaqov’s diminishing of Reuven’s primogeniture—thus calling Kham his youngest, though he was not literally so.
25. He said, "Cursed be Kanaan. A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.
Interestingly, these are the first recorded words of Noakh. Servant of servants: the lowest, meanest, most degraded of slaves. Compare Y’hoshua/Joshua 9:21-23, where those of his descendants smart enough to take advantage of Y’hoshua's compassion did become just this.
26. And he said,
"Blessed be YHWH, the Elohim of Shem,and may Kanaan be his servant.27. "Elohim shall enlarge Yefeth,
"Elohim shall enlarge Yefeth,and he shall sit in Shem's tents,And Kanaan shall be a slave to them both."Note that though he has just been molested, Noakh still blesses YHWH. Enlarge: Heb., yaft, a play on Yefeth's name, which means to open up, broaden, or grant an entrance. YHWH is called the Elohim of Shem, and Yefeth’s blessing is that he would be inhabit the tents of Shem. This is an idiom for being taught by Shem. (Yaaqov is called a dweller in tents in Gen. 25:27, and these plural tents were the tents of Shem.) Numbers 24:5 and Yeshayahu/Isaiah 54:3 associate "tents" with the spread of Israel's influence through the Messiah. Thus, the religious culture of Yefeth's children has been strongly influenced by the knowledge and love of Shem's Elohim. But if both righteous sons were to be blessed, why does the rest of Scripture only speak of spiritual blessings to Shem? Beginning at 10:5, we see that Yefeth was counted the ancestor of the "Gentile" inhabitants of the "coastlands" or "islands", which is used elsewhere in a special sense (e.g., Yeshayahu/Isa. 42:4, 10; 51:5) in conjunction with the House of Israel (the northern tribes) and Efrayim, the tribe that led them astray into admixture with the Gentiles. It was specifically the "lost sheep of the House of Israel" to which Y’shua said He was sent (Mat. 10:6; 15:24) as Kinsman-Redeemer (the Consolation of Israel for which Shim'on was waiting, Luk. 2:25), and Sha'ul (Paul) says it was precisely this mixture which set the stage for some Gentiles to be enlightened as well, since their proximity with the "Lost Sheep" whom Y’shua sent His followers to seek out, would afford them the occasion to hear about the Elohim of Israel and enter into a relationship with Him. Yeshayahu builds on Noakh's promise very directly (Yesh.49:6; 54:2). It was necessary for Yefeth to inhabit Shem’s tents because the other part of Yefeth’s blessing was that he would be “enlarged”. The root meaning actually means “made wide open”, and elsewhere has the connotation of being “open” to deception (Deut. 11:16; 2 Shmu’el 3:25), to being enticed (Judges 14:15), persuaded in a negative direction (2 Chron. 18:19), or flattered. (Psalm 78:36) Shem had a clear inclination toward the ways of YHWH, and Kanaan had a clear tendency away from it, but Yefeth had the proclivity to be open-minded and thus easily persuaded either way. When they covered up Noakh (v. 23), Shem was mentioned first, indicating that he was the initiator of this reparation. Under Shem’s leadership, Yefeth could learn to do the right thing, but if influenced by Kanaan, he would be led to follow his belly. Men are to walk uprightly, but animals walk with their stomachs parallel to the earth. Israel is not to eat the animals that creep on the ground (Lev. 11:42), because we are not meant to be like them. Kanaan means “to bend the knee”, and so suggests getting down on all fours like this. Kanaan wanted pleasure at any cost, and thus was turned over to his animal nature. The reason the Kanaanites had to be thoroughly removed from the Holy Land was because the animal nature is not to occupy the Land where the Kingdom will be established. Outside the Land, some learning might be possible, but no “belly-crawlers” are to be within. Noakh knew Kanaan’s tendencies to indulge his flesh, so he gave him a curse that was actually a blessing—that he would serve Shem and Yefeth. The one unclean animal that Israel may domesticate is the donkey, if one redeems it with a lamb. (Ex. 13:13) This does not hold true for a dog. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 66:3) A donkey’s stubbornness can become beneficial if it submits to being a beast of burden. By becoming enslaved he could at least be useful toward a worthwhile cause, and there was hope that he might learn from Yefeth to become teachable and open to the truth, then take the next step and actually learn what Shem had to teach. To be great, one must first serve the great. YHWH gave us tzitziyoth to remind us not to follow after our heart or eyes, after which we tend to stray, but to follow the Torah, which means “teaching”. (Num. 15:38-39) Gorillas walk on their knuckles when in the wild, but when around humans, they begin to imitate men and walk on two legs. However much further they might or might not be able to progress, by becoming teachable like Yefeth any of us can go through a genuine evolution (or chiropractic treatment!) toward the upright position of Shem, and be qualified to then be a light to the nations as well, as a whole “kingdom of priests”. Kham himself is not even mentioned in this blessing/curse. Noakh was probably so disgusted with Kham for doing nothing about Kanaan that he did not even want to mention his name again. His son’s actions reflected on him. We cannot be treated like Shem if we act like Kanaan.
28. And Noakh lived 350 years after the Flood.
The word for "dust" in Hebrew has the numeric value of 350--and it appears the rest of his days were just that. But if YHWH had limited mankind’s lifetime to 120 years, how is it he lived this much longer? He was already 500 years old when this limitation was imposed, so he was quite literally “grandfathered in”, being already well past that age. YHWH may also have left Himself the option to be more merciful to the righteous in this regard for a few more generations. By Moshe’s day, the limit was airtight, for he had to die at that age though his natural strength was not abated. (Deut. 34:7)
29. And all the days of Noakh were 950 years, and he died.
CHAPTER 10
1. And these are the genealogies of the sons of Noakh--Shem, Kham, and Yefeth. (Sons were born to them after the Deluge.)
The "Table of Nations": Ethnic names vary according to time and language, so when Elohim prophesies about a given people, He often refers to their earliest ancestors. Thus, when He wants to speak of the Slavs, He did not use their then-current name, Skythians, nor their present-day name, such as Russia, but Magog, their ancestral name, to make their identity clearest. Clues to who they later became are found in the Greek (LXX) and Aramaic versions are so are included here in brackets:
2. The sons of Yefeth:
Gomer [Gamer/Phrygia]Magog [Magog/Germania]Madai [Madoi/Media]Yawan [Iuan/Macedonia]Thuval [Thobel/Bithynia; Tibareni]Meshekh [Mosoch/Asia (Minor)]Thiras [Theiras/Thrace]Germania: its original, not present, territory. Thuval: Tabal in eastern Turkey. Meshekh: Mushki of Phrygia, SE of the Black Sea, or Mazaki in Kappadokia.
3. The sons of Gomer:
Ashkhenaz [Askhanaz/Aschanax]Rifath [Rifians/Paflagonians]Togarmah [Thorgama/Thrugamma--Phrygians]Ashkanaz: one of the Germanic peoples.
4. The sons of Yawan:
Elishah [Elyseans/Hellas]Tarshish [Tharseis/Tarsus]Kittim [Kethioi/Akhaya]Dodanim [Rhodes/Dardania--Dardanelles, Bosporus, Troy]Elishah: spelled differently in Hebrew than Elisha the prophet. It was called Aeolia in Josephus' day. Hellas is the Greek name for Greece. Tarshish: the western extremity of the civilized world--Spain, possibly later, Britain; compare Yonah 1:3. Akhaya: the region around Athens and Corinth, and the island of Cyprus was called this at one stage of their migration. The Rabbinic writings later link Kittim with Rome. Dodanim is alternately spelled Rodanim, as the letters are very similar in both sound and appearance in Hebrew. The Dardanelles and Bosporus strait are thought to comprise the River Sambatyon, over which a substantial portion of the northern kingdom of Israel crossed, becoming "lost" to those remaining in their homeland, but not lost to YHWH, who says that of those mixed with the Goyim (see v. 5), not one will be lost when it comes time for Him to bring them back to the Land. (Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 23:3)
5. From these the [sea] peoples spread out into their territories, each according to his language, and clan, and nation.
Sea peoples: goyim, simply nations or "Gentiles". Territories: literally, "coastlands" or "islands". This term referred in asncient times to anyone who dwelt along the shores of the Mediterranean outside of Kanaan. The Greeks were island-dwellers on Crete earlier in their history. “Dwellers in the coastlands” also became an idiom for those from the Northern Kingdom who mixed with these nations and who inhabit Greek forms of culture and thought to this day. Spread out: but not at this point; this is a preamble to chapter 11. According to language, clan, and nation: The nations were also divided by clans (and the term used here at its most basic level refers simply to families). These nations were founded according to common birth, but Avraham formed a new “family” from those who joined him along his journey in order to be trained by him. Few of them were related to him directly; some may have been Yafethites, who were open to learning from this Semite. He trained them to hear YHWH and walk with him, following his own exmple. A nation is based on having a common “story”. This brings unity, as we see among veterans of the same war, survivors of the Holocaust, etc.) What sayings does Israel have in common? The words of YHWH’s Torah. They unite us, though we are still spread far and wide. What is our story? For the most part, it began with Avraham. But the Passover, in which YHWH brought a people scattered throughout Egypt together, defines us as a nation. In it He gave us a history that He wants us to recount to our children. This is what He did for us, not just our ancestors. We need to see ourselves in the Torah. Our story does not begin in Matithyahu (Matthew). That is the story about Y’shua, but the story He told was the Torah. We are now coming back from many ethnicities and thus bring different strengths, but those were our parents’ story; ours is different. We have another common story today, for YHWH is again doing something in Israel right now, pulling us out again from the Gentile nations with which we have been mixed for thousands of years, for we are NOT Gentiles! Y’shua says the family that forms Israel as the subjects of His Kingdom is made up not so much of those to whom we were born, but those who do YHWH’s will. (Mark 3:31) Those who have a yearning to please YHWH and be back in His presence—that is how his nation is defined; that is the seed from which the nation will grow again.
6. The sons of Kham:
Kush [Kus/Chus]Mitzrayim [Mesrain/Mestre Egypt]Put [Fus/Fut/Arabia]Kanaan [Khanaan/Allihroq]Kush: often equated with the Ethiopians, but some Kushites also inhabited the area now known as Iraq (v. 10). Arabia: the region, which changed hands often; the Arabs themselves are a mixture of Semitic and Egyptian peoples. Kanaan seems to have been born soon after the flood, but here he is listed in last place, possibly because he was youngest, but possibly due to his action in 9:24, like Reuven's (35:22), which cost him a birthright as well (49:3,4). Kanaan, of course, inhabited the levant at the eastern end of the Mediterranean until the time of YHWH’s patience had run out.
7. The sons of Kush [in both Africa and Mesopotamia]:
Seva [Sabeans/Sinirites]Chawilah [Evilas/Getuli/India]Savtha [Sabathes/Semar/Astaborans]Raamah [Rhegma/Ragmus/Libya]Savthekha [Sabacta/Zingi]Chawilah/India: Note the etymology of the Hindu Kush mountains near the Indus River--not to be confused with the Shemite Chawilah of v. 29; 25:18; 1 Shmuel 15:7.
The sons of Raamah [Mauritanos]:
Sheva [Saba/Zemargad]Dedan [Dadan/Yudadas/Mezag]8. And Kush became the father of Nimrod; he profaned and was the first to be a mighty hero upon the earth.
Profaned: Elohim's name; or "made a new breakthrough" as in 9:20. The Sumerian ideograph Nin-mirud ("son of rebellion", from the same root as Merodach) can also be read Nin-girshu, possibly the root for "Nigeria", whose Yoruba tribe has a legend that the "Kishites" (Kushites?) moved into Africa from Mesopotamia (Shinar). Other sons of Kush definitely settled Africa, especially Ethiopia.
9. He became a great hunter before YHWH, which is why there is a saying, "[He's just] like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before YHWH."
A great (or heroic) hunter: He was the “rock star” of his day; everyone knew him, and he is still well-known. But the connotation here is that he was a conqueror of people and nations, more than animals, trying to make the whole world his own; a powerful potentate, he knew how to lie in wait and make other men his victims. Before YHWH: this can either mean “in YHWH’s presence” or “in YHWH’s face”, and which way we will go depends on our priorities and our choices. Nimrod was “in YHWH’s face, i.e., in defiance of Him. People put him before YHWH. Tradition says Shem killed Nimrod for his sins, and a myth began that he was resurrected as his own son, born of his wife and the sun god after Nimrod's death, and this grew into many pagan customs worldwide, most notably that of "mourning for Tammuz" (Yechzq./Ezek. 8:14), who incidentally was born December 25. The proof she cited that “the father could be the son” was that an evergreen tree had grown out of the stump of one cut down, explaining the connection between that date and evergreen trees that continues to our own day. Statues and paintings of this Semiramis with her son were later called the Madonna and "mother of God"--another example of how Constantine painted a thin veneer of Christianity over existing paganism, thus allowing it to continue. It predated Christianity by over 2,000 years.
10. At first, his kingdom consisted of
Bavel [Babylon]Erech [Orech/Edessa, or Uruk, the modern Warka, cf. 4:17]Akkad [Archad/Nisibis], andKalneh [Chalanne/Ktesifon], in the land of Shinar [Senaar].11. From that land Asshur went forth and built Nin'weh, the broad parts of the city, then Kalach [Chalach/Hadriath],
Went forth: probably after the event described in the next chapter. Alt., From that land he went to Asshur and built Nin’weh. Asshur was the Semite father of the Assyrians. The broad parts of the city: or, the city of Rehovoth (wide-open spaces; see 37:37).
12. then Resen [Dasey/Talsar], between Nin'veh and Kalach—that is the great city.
13. And Mitzrayim fathered the
Ludites [Ludikim/Nivat]Anamites [Nefthal/Mareoth]Lehavites [Labiim, Lybians]Nafthuchites [Nefthal/Pentaskan]Mitzrayim means "of the two narrow strips", a clear picture of the land his descendants settled along the Nile; Mitzrayim is thus the Hebrew name for Egypt.
14. Pathrusites [Patroson/Casioth]
Pathrusites [Patroson/Casioth]and Kasluchites [Chasmon/5 cities] (from them came the Filistines),Kaftorites [Gafthor/Kapudkai]Kapudkai: early Kappadokians, Crete, the Minoan civilization. Five cities: the Filistines, here defined as a mixed race, not counted among the 70 nations, but they also had five chief cities. Interestingly, the Palestinians (also not a historic nation, but a contrived one) pronounce their own name exactly as "Filistine". By branding themselves as Khamites, they deny their connection to their own Qur’an, which purports to be about Semites as the Torah does.
15. And Kanaan fathered his firstborn
Tsidon [Sidon/Sidonius], [and then]Cheth [Chettites/Hittites], Tsidon: or Sidon, a major historic port in what is now Lebanon. Hittites: a powerful empire ruling from Karchemish, near the Turko-Syrian border, until 717 BC. At least one Hittite, Uriyah, joined the people of Israel in David’s time.
16. the Yevusites [Jebuseus]
the Yevusites [Jebuseus]Emorites [Amorraioi/Amorrheus]Girgashites [Gergesus/Gerasenes]The Yevusites were the pre-Davidic inhabitants of Jerusalem. The Gerasenes lived east of the Sea of Galilee (around today’s Jerash, Jordan) in Roman times. Emorites: From the Akkadian for "Westerner", who lived in the hills that form Israel's spine during the conquest by Y’hoshua.
17. Chiwites [Euaioi/Eudeus]
Chiwites [Euaioi/Eudeus]Arqites [Arukaioi/Arke (Acre)]Sinites [Asenaioi/Anthosites]Sinites: now the Chinese and related peoples. So not all Kanaanites remained in the land of Kanaan.
18. Arwadites [Arethusians/Arudeus]
Arwadites [Arethusians/Arudeus]Tsemarites [Emesons/Samareus]Hamathites [Amathus/Antiochites]Many of these were the very ones Israel had trouble with and was told to eradicate, for they did not learn from their brothers, but continued serving their belly. The Hamathites settled north of the Levanon pass that brings the trade route from Mesopotamia into northern Israel. The “entrance to Hamath” was once and is again to be the northern border of Israel.(Num. 34:8)
But later the Kanaanite clans overstepped [their boundaries].
The book of Jubilees (8-10) tells us that the borders were agreed upon by all of Noakh’s descendants (its interpretation of verse 25 below), but the Kanaanites decided to just take some of Shem’s land as their own. This sets the stage for Israel’s taking it over, recovering it for Shem by YHWH’s command, and the next sentence defines Israel’s later borders:
19. And the Kanaanites' border went from Tsidon, as you come to Gerar, as far as Gaza, as you go towards S'dom and Ghamorah, and Admah and Tzevoyim, as far as Lasha [Kallirrhoe].
20. These were the sons of Kham, according to their languages, and territories, and nations.
21. And to Shem himself—the elder brother of Yafeth—was born the ancestor of all the children of Ever.
Shem is not the youngest, but the literary technique used here is to build up to the punchline, so the story that continues will flow from its true context, that of Shem. Ever is mentioned before his place in the genealogy, flagging us to pay careful attention to him. His name is based on “crossing over”. He is thus the first “Hebrew”, for that term is based on his name. There are many crossings-over along the way; we become what we cross over into, and do not remain in what we left behind. We are Hebrews after we cross over, not while we merely contemplate doing so. Ever is the one who carries on the school of Shem, whose responsibility is to teach the other nations to know and love YHWH. Yafeth proved to be a true brother, and so is mentioned here, while Kham is not.
22. The sons of Shem were:
EylamAsshur [Assyr]Arpachshad [Arfaxad]LudAram 23. And Aram's sons were:
Utz [Udz--Iyov/Job 1:1]Chul [Ul]Gether [Gater]Mash [Mosoch]24. And Arpachshad fathered [Kainan, and Kainan fathered] Shalach [Sala], and Shalach fathered Ever.
25. And two sons were born to Ever: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the land was divided, and his brother's name was Yoqtan [Yektan].
Land: scientists believe it was originally all one continent, and this verse seems to uphold that theory. Divided: by water--literally, "canaled": possibly a reference to the rapid continental drift required to fold mountains; today's snail-pace geology would be incapable of such feats. This was either a delayed effect of flood tectonics, or another similar catastrophe that had lesser effects. Peleg’s name is related to this word “divided”; he lived a generation after Nimrod, allowing the dispersal to the ends of the earth (11:9) to take place before Elohim moved the inhabited lands even further apart to guarantee that men would obey this time. The expansion that began at creation took yet another step forward.
26. And Yoqtan fathered:
Al-Modad [Elmodad]Shaleph [Saleth]Hatzarmaweth [Sarmoth]Yarah [Yarach]Hatzarmaweth: “enclosure of death”; the southern coast of Arabia is called the Hadramawt.
27. Hadoram [Odorrha]
Hadoram [Odorrha]Uzal [Aibel]Diqlah [Dekla] 28. Oval [Eual]
Oval [Eual]Avima-El [Avimael]Sh'va [Sava] 29. Ofir [Ufeir]
Ofir [Ufeir]Chawilah [Eueila]Yovav [Iovav] These were all the sons of Yoqtan.
30. And their dwelling area was all the way from Mesha toward Safar, a mountain in the east.
Dwelling area: In contrast to Kaanan's "borders", the Semites originally lived in tents; some (the Bedouins, who are neither Jews nor Arabs, but descendants of Avraham’s wife Qeturah) still do.
31. These were the sons of Shem, according to their clans and languages and ethnicities, in their territories.
Peleg’s descendants are not mentioned here, but his genealogy will be the focus of the remainder of the book. Languages: up to this point, there is only one language, but this is a preview of the next chapter.
32. These have been the clans of Noakh, according to their genealogies by their nations. And from these the nations were divided after the Deluge.
They are 70 in total, giving rise to the Hebraic idea that in reality there are "70 nations" in the world, despite further divisions later. This is borne out by Deut. 32:8 (which correlates this number with the number of the sons of Israel, which in Gen. 46:27 is listed as 70), and Y’shua's sending out 70 disciples as a symbolic prelude to opening redemption to the whole world. Israel would be an offshoot of Peleg. Everyone alive today comes from one—or a mixture—of these. The mixing has become nearly as complete as it can become, and it is no longer politically correct to put too much emphasis on one’s ethnicity. The blurring of definitions is intentional. But it is crucial for Israel to remember who we are, for we have an assignment from YHWH—to continue the teaching of Shem. From the many stories that form our identity, we must choose the family that hears and does the will of YHWH. To the slaves in Egypt, the history of Avraham must have seemed like a fairy tale, but once they no longer accepted the slavery and cried out to YHWH, He upheld His covenant. He made more covenants with our later ancestors, and we need to recognize that we are Hebrews and go back to keeping the promises our ancestors made to Him.
CHAPTER 11
1. Now the whole world had one language and few words.
Language: literally "lip". The fact that all the names up to this point make sense in Hebrew may give us a clue as to what that one language was. Few: literally, the plural of the word "one"! "Few words" give little room for argument, and all of them still had the same story—that of the Deluge. Nowadays there is the push to “think globally”, but by it is meant more than saving the earth from destruction. It is driven by finding what we have in common and emphasizing that. One day we will have unity when the Messiah reigns with a rod of iron. That is proper unity, but to espouse unification now means accepting much that is against the Torah and distasteful to YHWH—faiths that did not originate from Him and do not pertain to Israel, horrendous things that are done to women and children, substituting unacceptable names for YHWH, etc. While in exile we must coexist to some extent and cannot demand that others follow our practices, but in His Land YHWH has certain standards, outlined by the Torah, which cannot permit some of the political agendas of our day to have their way.
2. And what took place [was] that as they travelled from the east, they found a mountain pass at the land of Shinar, so they settled there.
It seems they all traveled together at this point. Shinar: Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). This is a large flat plain, where they would not have mudslides or need terracing to farm, and there is plenty of water. From the east: from Mount Ararat by way of Persia.
3. And the all said to each other, "Let us make bricks for our building material, and bake them with fire." And they used bricks for [instead of] stones, and bitumen for mortar.
Stones are scarce in Iraq's marshes. But bricks are man-made substitutes for stones, which are the building materials required for YHWH's altars. Like Qayin, they used materials of their own choosing to build a counterfeit temple. To make mortar they would have toi cut limestone, burn it, and pound it into powder, then mix it with water. Bitumen (tar, resin, asphalt, or pitch) is common there in its natural, raw form, and would be ready to use—much easier and quicker. But they knew from the ark that pitch would not admit water if there should be another flood, though YHWH had promised there would not be one over the whole world. This was the equivalent of a bomb shelter. They knew the valley could still flood, and they wanted to be prepared to survive His next judgment or escape any attempt to judge them in any way. The ark, however, succeeded as a refuge because of its mobility, and they wanted to be stationary:
4. And they said, "Come on, let's build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves [for renown], so we won't be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
They knew unity was necessary for survival. Tower: in Hebrew, a large place of strength. This time, it was to be a stronghold against YHWH Himself. He had deposited them on a mountain, which is “closer to heaven”, but they chose the valley. By staying near it, they would be able to get to the shelter quickly if a flood came. On the level topography of southern Babylonia, it would have been a rallying point and landmark visible for many miles. But YHWH’s presence, as symbolized by His Name—is our strong tower. (Prov. 18:10) A name for ourselves: Contrast this with 12:2, in which YHWH says He will make a name for Israel’s ancestor. "The Name" is often a substitute used for YHWH's name to keep it from being abused; "Let’s make a name for ourselves" might mean they intended to invent a deity of their own. Top in the heavens: or, with the symbols of the heavenly hosts in its top. The sun and moon--the chief deities in that region, recalled even in Islam's crescent moon symbol--were probably depicted and worshipped in this tower. Mesopotamian ziggurats have been found with names like "House of Link Between Heaven and Earth". It may have been the first pagan temple. Targum Pseudo- Jonathan says it had an idol at the top with a sword drawn against YHWH. Josephus says that Nimrod (its founder) also attempted to turn men to dependence on himself rather than Elohim. But the punishment He meted out was exactly what they were trying hardest to avoid, because it was in violation of His command to "replenish the earth" (9:1).
5. But YHWH came down to survey the city and the tower that the sons of man had built for themselves.
The "gods" were invoked at such ziggurat temples as were undoubtedly patterned after vestigial memories of this one. The "Elohim of elohim" was not invited, but had the right to come anyway.
6. And YHWH said, "Behold, the people are one unit, and they all have the same language, and if this is just what they are starting to do, nothing that they can dream up will be beyond their reach.
One unit: the same word used for Elohim's unity--acting in unified harmony. Our globalizing culture is beginning to take the same attitude: 'If we can dream it, we can do it!' They did have a unity, but the house they were building was "built on sand". In fact, this phrase in Mat. 7:26 was an allusion to the dream Nevukhadnetzar had right at this same location. (Dan. 2:33-34) This tower is clearly the root of that “other house”. YHWH Himself attests to the power of unity by saying that as long as men are “on the same page”, they cannot be stopped. But YHWH could beat them at their own “game”.
7. "Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another's speech."
Such widespread communication can unify the righteous or the rebellious, and because the latter was beginning to take the upper hand again,with the more rapid division opf languages, YHWH added still more limits to those the changes at the flood had already placed on mankind—shorter lifespans, more weather challenges, things to “keep them out of trouble” until His own way out of the vanity could be forged. One of the quickest ways to fall out of unity is for one person to start saying, “You don’t understand me”, for one’s story changes once self (“poor me”) is allowed to come into play. Note the contrast with the Kingdom, when all nations will say, "Come, let us go up...to the house of the Elohim of Yaaqov"! He probably speeded the processes of linguistic divergence. Dialects would develop later as a further outcropping of self-expression. Even if they were able to maintain a common writing system, as is true with Chinese characters throughout many Asian countries now, each cuneiform ideograph could be pronounced in at least 22 different ways!
8. And YHWH scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.
This migration is well before the division of the earth in Peleg’s day (v. 16), which would have sealed the gains achieved here in their spreading out. Stopped: or, left off.
9. On account of this, its name is called "Bavel", because there YHWH confused the language of the whole world; and YHWH scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth from there.
Bavel: In their minds its name meant "Gate of Elohim", but it also sounds like the word for "confusion". We get the English word “babble” from this. Centuries later, Babylon’s strength would be in their ability to overcome the confusion. They took people from many languages and nations and tolerated all their ways to the point that most Jews found it more advantageous to remain there than to return to their own land. Yet its feet are of clay; it will ultimately fall apart and the hands of YHWH’s Kingdom, which cannot pass away. Mankind’s unity, which took YHWH into account but did not want to include Him but rather be free from Him, could never succeed until we again fear Him in a way that makes us receive instruction, until we wait on His timing—after He deals with our corruption and assembles the nations in order to pour out on them the fire of His jealousy—only then can He return us to having “a pure lip”—i.e., a single language, so that we can call on Him in unison and serve Him “with one shoulder”. (Ts’fanyah 3:7-9)
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10. This is [has been] the genealogical [record] of Shem.
* * *
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At 100 years old, Shem fathered Arpachshad, 2 years after the Flood.
11. And after he fathered Arpachshad,
Shem lived 500 years, and he fathered [more] sons and daughters.
Thus Shem died in the year 2158 / 1842 BC, so his life overlapped with the patriarchs Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov, and tradition says he had a Yeshiva (school of the knowledge of Elohim) which all of them attended.
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12. Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shalach.
13. And after he fathered Shalach,
Arpachshad lived 403 years, and fathered [more] sons and daughters.
Notice the consistently shortening lifespans.
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14. Shalach lived 30 years and fathered Ever.
15. And after he fathered Ever,
Shalach lived 403 years, and he fathered [more] sons and daughters.
Ever’s is the line that preserved the original language, even giving it its present name: Ivrit (Hebrew). A team of 150 scholars has been bringing to light the Hebrew root of all languages.
16. Ever lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.
17. And after he fathered Peleg,
Ever lived 430 years, and he fathered [more] sons and daughters.
Ever is the only one of Shem’s descendants mentioned here who outlived Shem.
18. Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.
19. And after he fathered Reu,
Peleg lived 209 years, and he
fathered [more] sons and daughters.
20. Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.
21. And after he fathered Serug,
Reu lived 207 years, and he
fathered [more] sons and daughters.
22. Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nakhor.
23. And after he fathered Nakhor,
Serug lived 200 years, and he fathered [more] sons and daughters.
Serug means “intertwined branch”. Was he the one who started introducing idolatry even into Shem’s line? We see in Y’hoshua 24:2 that Terakh (mentioned in the next verse) served other elohim than YHWH. Jewish tradition says that he was even an idol-maker by trade.
24. Nakhor lived 29 years and fathered Terakh.
25. And after he fathered Terakh,
Nakhor lived 119 years, and he fathered [more] sons and daughters.
26. And Terakh lived 70 years and fathered Avram, Nakhor, and Haran.
27. These are [have been] the generations [chronicles] of Terakh:
* * *
Terakh fathered Avram, Nakhor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.
28. And Haran died in the presence of his father Terakh in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29. And Avram and Nakhor took wives for themselves. The name of Avram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nakhor's wife was Milkah, the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milkah and Yiskah.
Did Nakhor marry his niece? Josephus says no, this was another Haran, a previously-unmentioned brother of Terakh making these women his cousins. Yiskai may have been the same as Sarai, which may be her nickname; it means "princess". Arab men still call their paternal uncle's daughters their "princesses". Milkah also means “queen”. It may be that there was some actual royalty or authority in the women in this family. We will see the next several generations continue wanting to pull women from this particular gene pool as wives despite the distance that had to be traversed to do so.
30. But Sarai was infertile; no child had been born to her.
One possible reason for this was that, being married to her half-brother (20:12), her body was rejecting his seed. This introduces a major source of the conflicts in the chapters ahead.
31. And Terakh took his son Avram, and Haran's son Lot, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Avram, and went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to journey to the land of Kanaan, but when they came to Kharan, they remained there.
The only clue we are given to Terakh’s reason for migration was that he could not stand to remain in the place where his son had died, because of all the memories it would bring back to him. He took his son’s son along nonetheless, probably feeling responsible for him. He left behind Lot’s mother as well as Nakhor and his wife Milkah. Terakh’s own name means “station” or “delay”, suggesting that he either overcame his tendency to stay in one place, or that he did not bring his family as far as he should have, making it necessary for his other son to continue the journey further. Kharan is derived from the Sumerian word Kharannu, meaning "road transfer", or "crossroads"; indeed, major trade routes did meet here at the northern cusp of the "fertile crescent". It was a highly-developed city-state with ties to Ur, possibly explaining why these Urites did not want to leave. There are archaeological indications that there was a degree of fear of Elohim among the rulers there--a contrast with the Kanaanite traders who must have passed through. Avram did not seem from these verses to hold much promise—a barren wife, a father running from his past, no more roots anywhere. But tradition says he was known as a wise man, well versed in astronomy, mathematics, and history. Josephus says he reasoned that idols, made by men's hands, could hardly be superior to men, and that the irregularities sometimes seen in the heavenly bodies' motion meant that they also could not care for themselves, and must not be deities. The path he took is the one that will ultimately heal the curse of Bavel. His descendants will be brought back into unity, though scattered among all nations, and will have one shepherd and YHWH’s dwelling place in their midst (Y’hezq’el/Ez. 37:15ff), and will again have a pure language by which to call on the same Elohim and serve Him “with one shoulder”. (Tz’fanyah 3:9)
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32. And the days of Terakh were 205 years, and Terakh died in Kharan.
Portion Noakh
Genesis 6:9-11:32
We live in South Carolina, and the last few years at this season we have seen the power that floodwaters can pack. We ourselves were blessed; we only had a driveway wash out and a wet tent during Sukkoth. The water receded for a while and most of us dried out, but others in our area experienced severe flash floods. If this had lasted 40 days and 40 nights, it even seemed like our mountains would be covered too!
But we still have YHWH’s promise that though some waters may rise and even wash away cars, roads, bridges, and gut homes almost as effectively as fire (as they did in some cases nearby), still there is a limit; it won’t be everything everywhere. There are still drought-ridden states to balance it all out!
Seriously, though, the sun does come back out. But things change after a disaster. And though some things have to get back to normal, we still have to ask ourselves why it occurred. It wasn’t just a convergence of an offshore hurricane with a strong weather front from another direction. When something so similar to an ancient judgment takes place, we have to ask whether the Controller of all storms is trying to get our attention.
Is there something we are supposed to change? Was this supposed to be a wake-up call? A warning that we are heading toward the same kind of conditions that led to the Deluge? In the aftermath, we are seeing things that need to be rebuilt differently so that if there is a next time, they will be able to withstand what we never expected to be so severe.
In this Torah portion, we see YHWH set additional standards in place to prevent things from ever getting as bad as they were. Noakh could perceive some things that YHWH wanted but had never stated overtly. But most people did not, and the balance of power tipped too far in their direction, so to keep everyone safe, YHWH now had to come right out and say things that should have been self-evident to anyone who cared. He had to be stricter than He wanted to be, just so the whole human race could even survive.
So why were we spared? How are we meant to use the reprieve we were given? What did we learn from seeing how quickly a civilized infrastructure can collapse, and how dependent we are on things that aren’t as reliable as we had thought? How should we spend the time that was salvaged for us? After the cleanup, where do our priorities need to change? We cannot ignore these questions.
As Moshe, who carried the account of Noakh down to us, wrote in the only psalm credited to him (90), “Teach us to number our days, so that we might acquire a heart of wisdom.”
Study Questions:
1. Do you think there was any connection between the corruption of Gen. 6:11-12 and what was going on in 6:1-4? What significance might the fact that Noakh was “perfect in his generations” (6:9) have in relation to the “mixed breeding” that was going on there?
2. How many reasons can you think of for why YHWH would tell Noakh to bring seven times as many clean animals as unclean? (7:2) What can you learn about this theme from the contrast between the raven and dove in 8:7-8?
3. How many different aspects of justice can you see in YHWH’s dealings in 6:13; 7:1-3; 7:23; and 8:1?
4. What was Noakh’s first act after returning to the stability of terra firma? (8:20) Why?
5. The contrast between day and night was seen all the way back at creation, so we have a continuity in 8:22 with what existed before the Flood. But why do you think the other three contrasts in this verse show up here for the first time?
6. Why do you think YHWH put the fear of man in the animals at this point (9:2)? How does that differ from what we find in 1:28? How might it relate to that? Why do you think eating meat is allowed at this point (9:3), when it was not included in the diet of 1:29-30?
7. Why is it important to YHWH that those who shed human blood be executed? (9:5-6) What reasons are given here?
8. What danger did YHWH see in the unity of mankind? (11:1-8) What bearing might this have on today’s world? How does what the people in 11:4 did contrast with what YHWH intended, per 9:1? How might this scattering reflect His mercy in the same way as we see in 3:22-24?
9. Why do you think we see the lifespans getting slowly but surely shorter in the genealogy of 11:10-26? Do you see any connection between this and 6:3? (Note Yaaqov’s response to this trend in 47:9.)
Detail of a mosaic about the builders of Bavel found at Huqoq in the Galilee
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for kids
Why did YHWH have to do something so severe as destroy almost all of humanity? Can you imagine how bad it must have been for people like Noakh when everything that was being done around them was evil?
We see evil increasing a lot today, but there are still moments when we feel hope that things can improve, and joy about one thing or another. When every bit of the news every day was only bad, because everything people were not just doing but even thinking was only bad (they didn’t even want to do better)—what else could He do?
So after He cleans the slate we see Him put things into effect to slow down the spread of evil, which can only be completely stopped by the total destruction of the earth. He makes the most wicked subservient to the best people so they might begin to learn their ways and limits their freedom to express their bad ideas. (Gen. 9:22-27) He lets people spread out for a few generations and then moves the continents apart more rapidly, to isolate people more from each other (10:25), and stops them from all speaking the same language so they cannot communicate their bad ideas to each other as easily. (11:7-8)
But then He takes the biggest step: selecting a man who will start a new nation that will both act as a priest to all the other nations (listed in chapter 10) and become a model to all the nations of what a society of people who do good rather than evil to one another and work together in positive rather than negative ways can be like. And that nation would also bring into the world the deepest solution ever to the human heart—the possibility of regeneration of the same soul so that genuine change could come about even in those who are most evil.
But that story awaits the next portion; this one ends with a glitch that seems to call into question whether this will ever get off the ground, because it appears to be dead in the water: the wife of this man that is to father that new nation cannot have children! (11:30) How, then, will that nation ever come about? That question is the subject of the next chapters, and the problem is repeated in the very next generation!
AH, but this is the perfect setup for the perfect plot, because as someone has said, when YHWH wants to do something good, He starts with a difficulty, but when He wants to do something really great, He starts with an impossibility!
Why would He do that? Because that way we can see that if this thing ever does get off the ground, it could only be His doing. It is no accident, not something that would have just eventually evolved anyway given enough time, and certainly not something that mankind with its evil ideas could have ever thought up.
That is why this book is so important and so crucial, and why this story is so unique and so different from every other story in the world. And guess what? You can not just be someone who hears about this amazing story, but someone who actually becomes part of it!
Keep reading to see how…
Renewal seen in Noakh
The 17th day of the 2nd month is when the flood occurred. (Gen. 7:11) Why was it important to tell us that? Well, the book of Jubilees (of which more copies than any other book were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls) say that this was the same day of the year that the serpent had tempted Chawwah and Adam to disobey YHWH. (3:18)
Actually this is a phenomenon that occurs often with dates on YHWH’s calendar. One of the best-known is the two Temples being destroyed on the same day, the 9th of Av. But a lot of other things in history also occurred on that date, and they were all bad. It was a pattern by which YHWH “signed His name” to show just how precisely in control He is.
But there are some days where the theme is positive. One of these shows up in this very Torah portion. Notice in Genesis 8:4 that the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month, exactly five months after the deluge began. They were not “out of the (gofer) woods” yet, but they were safe and secure.
And that is the pattern for this day. Similar things occurred over and over on that day. Some of them have to be dug out; they are not on the surface, but YHWH says He conceals them for “kings” to search out. (Proverbs 25:2) Maybe the searching will earn some people the privilege of being kings under the Messiah when His empire comes.
One key is to remember that the 7th month was changed to the first month for Israel when YHWH brought us out of Egypt (Exodus 12:2). So what occurred on the 17th of that month at that time?
Again, we have to dig a bit, but we know that the Passover lamb was slaughtered near the end of the 14th, as the 15th was beginning, and that same day our ancestors left Egypt. They traveled day and night to the Reed Sea, and after a night during which the east wind froze the sea (Ex. 15:8) into two walls on both sides of the land bridge, they crossed it, and the pillar of fire came behind them, melting the ice so that the sea liquefied again and drowned Pharaoh’s army.
They had told Pharaoh they were only going three days into the wilderness (at which time YHWH took the next step and freed them from any remaining obligation to Pharaoh through his death). So what day did they come up out of the sea?
Kefa (Peter) gives us a clue. He says that the flood of Noakh’s day corresponds with ritual immersion, cleansing of the conscience, and resurrection. (1 Kefa 3:20-21) Paul also says that all who came out of Egypt were immersed in the sea. (1 Corinthians 10:2) Of course, they weren’t actually buried by the water like the Egyptians were, but going through the place where they would have died if not for YHWH’s miraculous salvation is a picture of the water immersion we undergo, which does not actually drown us, but symbolizes dying and coming back to life, just as Israel, coming out of the Sea, was a new nation of free men. Again, it was the third day after Passover, the 17th of the seventh (now first) month!
So Paul takes the next step and says that those who were immersed into Yeshua are as if we had undergone his death with him. Physically, we didn’t die as he did, but spiritually, that is actually what occurred, and that sets the stage for another parallel to the ark coming to rest. Yeshua died as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered late in the day of the 14th of Aviv. He was in the ground three days and three nights, coming out of the tomb the day after the Sabbath during the feast of Unleavened Bread, which that year was thus the 17th! The ark had come to rest!
We still had a long time before we would be on solid ground ourselves, but we were secure because Yeshua had anchored the victory over haSatan (Gen. 3:15) and the victory over death (Hoshea 13:14), and we no longer needed to fear it. (Incidentally, that passage in Hoshea is about Ephraim—those “lost sheep of the House of Israel” whom Yeshua said he came to seek and rescue (Mat. 15:24), and YHWH accomplished our “death” by an east wind (13:15), just as with Pharaoh—so that we could be “raised up on the third day” too. (Hoshea 6:2)
Some other deliverances in Scripture came on the 17th of the 1st month: the manna had ceased on the 16th (Joshua 5:12), but our ancestors ate the new fruit of the Land (also a gift from YHWH), so the emergency supply was no longer needed and we could be fed by the Promised Land itself.
And when the decree against them was revealed on the 13th of the 1st month, after 3 days of fasting by Esther and all the Jews (corresponding to the three days Yeshua was dead and all hope appeared to be gone), Haman was overthrown (on what was now the fourth day after the decree), and the Jews were saved.
We also see another such positive pattern in this Torah portion: The day the ark was opened and Noakh saw that the earth was dry was the first of the first month (8:13), the anniversary of creation—truly a new beginning indeed.
But again, that which was the first month became the 7th after the first Passover. So what else occurs on the first of the seventh month? The day of T’ruah (shouting or awakening blasts of the shofar). One of these years, on that same day, the trumpet will again be blown, announcing the end of the age and the arrival of the Messiah’s Kingdom and the resurrection of the rest of the righteous dead, of which Yeshua was the firstfruits! (1 Thess. 4:16)
But don’t you think there was shouting and celebrating the day Noakh opened the ark and they could see dry land again?
We can’t leave the study of how Noakh relates to the Renewed Covenant without looking at Yeshua’s statement that “As it was in the days of Noakh, so also it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Mat. 24:37; Luke 17:26)
The book of Yasher (referred to in Y’hoshua 10:13 and 2 Shmu’el 1:18) shows us one way: “YHWH caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun was darkened, and the foundations of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently…to terrify the sons of men, so there might be no more evil upon the earth, but still the sons of men would not repent from their evil ways…” (Yasher 6:11-12)
We see the same pattern all through the book of Revelation. There we see the same kind of catastrophes (also like what Egypt experienced leading up to the Exodus) as the earth moves back into its original, ideal orbit and axis tilt. Over and over we see the same refrain: “Still they refused to repent.” (Rev. 9:21; 16:9, 11)
After the Flood, partly because of decisions made before the Flood, and partly to deal with new conditions on the earth after the greenhouse effect was destroyed, humans were permitted to eat meat. (Gen. 9:3) But in the “times of the restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21), the world will be restored to its original conditions, with even the Tree of Life ultimately being accessible again (Rev. 22:2), and the prophets tell us that, in accordance with the initial command when there was as yet no sin in the world (Gen. 1:29-30), the now-carnivorous animals will again “eat straw like an ox” (Isaiah 11:7; 65:25)
The covenant of Noakh will be reversed, restoring the covenant of Eden, because people will no longer hurt or destroy one another. (Isaiah 2:4; 11:9; 65:25; Micah 4:3) There will be no more curse, and we will even be able to stand the sight of YHWH’s face again (Rev. 22:3-4), since our bodies will be back to what they were before Adam and Chawwah lost the image of Elohim that they had once borne.
Though of course we say, “May it be soon and in our days!”, don’t forget that we, through our actions, can have a part in making that come to be the case. (2 Kefa 3:12)
Was it Right?
From a modern standpoint, the question that this Torah portion begs is, “Was YHWH just to destroy all life on earth with so few exceptions?” Well, if you read 1 Enoch chapters 7-16, Jubilees chapter 4, and the book of Jasher chapters 4-5, which go into more detail about that era, you will find that you would not want to have lived in those days. Things had actually gotten so bad that, yes, sadly all this destruction was truly a good thing, though YHWH regretted having to do it.
He started over with this world, tipping the scale in favor of the clean animals this time. There must have been a reason, too, that He gave us permission to eat them now. There must have been something, the details of which YHWH thought it wisest not to go into, that was going on between humans and animals that He had to put a stop to. Were they, like the serpent, leading humans astray just as the fallen angels did? Is that why YHWH now made them fear us? Or was that because we were not doing our job of ruling over them, and they were doing whatever they pleased and wreaking havoc? Maybe all of the above.
Some of what was going on, too, may not have been what we think of as "wicked", but simply "everyone doing what was right in his own eyes."
The more immediate question for us is: what doors are we opening now in human society that could make things get, as Yeshua said, to the point of being “as in the days of Noakh” again? (Mat. 24:37-39) What clues does Noakh’s story give us as to how that might occur and why there will be absolutely no injustice involved when YHWH sends Yeshua to light the fire he hates to have to light (Luke 12:49), and how we will actually be grateful for it by that point?
And what parallels do you see in our modern world with what was going on at the Tower of Bavel (chapter 11)? What benefits do you see in YHWH having broken up that type of unification?
A Totally Plausible Story
Did animals (as much part of “all flesh” as humanity) have a part in some of the corruption before the flood? (Gen. 9:5, cf. Lev. 18:23) Even if it was at mankind’s instigation, they too needed to be culled, but some more than others, and made more hesitant to comply (9:2). When the foreshocks began their migration to Noakh, YHWH Himself selected the optimal specimens to breed out whatever characteristics had caused problems. (6:20) By having Noakh take seven pairs of certain animals on the ark, YHWH weighted the clean animals more heavily than the unclean, to tip the balance in a healthier direction. (7:2)
How was there enough water to cover all the mountains? If we consider the works of scientists like Velikovsky (Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upheaval), Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer (Catastrophism and the Old Testament, The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch, etc.), Henry Morris (The Twilight of Evolution), Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis), or Joseph Dillow (The Waters Above), who studied “flood tectonics” in detail, one answer is that mountains were not as high then. A passing heavenly body—comet or planet whose orbit used to be different—which also shifted the axis so we began having summer and winter (8:22), had enough gravitational force to make large-scale “tides” of magma under the earth’s crust well up and pull mountain ranges to their current heights soon after the waves washed the early, then-lower mountains (and valleys) clean of those who corrupted (literally destroyed) the world YHWH had made. (6:11)
Such strong gravitation also caused gigantic earthquakes that set off tidal waves, so the water “sloshed” back and forth over land masses, not staying the same depth the whole time in any given place, but submerging each location over and over. The third major factor was the “sluices of heaven” (7:11; 8:2) The term denotes something held in reserve, waiting for the right moment. (Compare 2 Peter 3:5-7)
Their “opening” was the breaking up of a vapor canopy and possibly an ice sphere that shielded our atmosphere from more cosmic rays and maintained stable temperatures like a greenhouse, allowing for such long lives. (Dillow goes into great technical detail about factors after the flood that would have shortened our lifetimes due to new conditions, as well as why someone as righteous as Noakh would get so drunk [9:21]: fermentation would have worked much more quickly under the new conditions than those he was used to. And he deals with why we could survive better without meat before the flood.)
The proportions of the ark (6:15) were perfect for such conditions: it could right itself and not capsize even if the violent waves pushed it perpendicular to the water’s surface! Compared to stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh (a less-accurate account) in which the ark was a cube that would roll over often, the science here all works.
When the right factors are considered—outside the usual box but very possible under certain rare conditions--none of this story is at all far-fetched. It’s just so different from current conditions that many can’t believe it is true. But the geologic evidence is all there, once you get past assuming geological processes have always been uniform. (2 Peter 3:3-4 warned us of this trap.)
Did the Grand Canyon really require millions of years to form? Only at normal rates, but we are blessed with modern proof that they are not always the same: a similar canyon was cut through freshly-laid sediment within 2 years of the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington state. So we now have empirical proof that this flood could lay down most of the “geologic column” in that year and ten days—and really just within the 150 days before things started to calm down and subside. (Gen. 7:24; 8:3)
Knowing we don’t have to suspend reason to believe this account gives us confidence that the unusual circumstances prophesied for the end of this age, too, are not preposterous but just as necessary, and arms us for the battle for our minds that is sure to accompany them.
How the Flood Could Be Worldwide
Once you get outside the Lyellian box of thinking all geological processes have been uniform throughout history, there are explanations of how the Deluge of Noakh’s day could have been caused by unique dynamics we do not see operating today; some of them only could occur once because they then changed the environment of earth to what it is now.
Around 1950 Velikovsky (Worlds in Collision) first proposed that a flyby of a comet later captured by the sun as Venus was used to trigger some of the unusual events at the time of the Exodus. Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer (The Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Catastrophes) later honed this theory and found it more likely that Mars used to have an orbit that crossed earth’s every 54 years (See also Patten’s Catastrophism and the Old Testament and The Mars-Earth Wars), sometimes coming even closer than the moon, causing many of the extraordinary events in Scripture (though Venus did play a part in adjusting Mars’ course toward what became the last encounter in 701 BCE--Hezekiah’s day--when their poles repelled and both planets were thrown into their present orbits and the earth year changed from 360 days--the reason a circle has that many degrees--to its present length; every nation had to recalibrate its calendar at that time.)
This explains why ancient peoples really did fear the planets and treated them as gods; many “myths” were probably just ways of trying to explain radically-gigantic thunderbolts (exchanges of electrical charge between the two planets), way-off-the-scale earthquakes, and spectacles in the sky. It probably brought earth’s axis near its current tilt, which may be why summer and winter are not mentioned until after the flood. (8:22; archaeology shows that the axis shifted another 6 degrees between the first and second temples in Jerusalem, probably during one of the last of these events.)
Joseph Dillow details in The Waters Above (title based on Gen. 1:7) how before the flood a vapor canopy kept the environment much more like a greenhouse with an even temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit all over the earth. Some even think it was an ice shield caused by a heat sink 11 miles above the earth, which fragmented (probably due to Mars’ gravitational pull on this flyby), “opening” the “windows of heaven” (7:11), and fell to earth as some of the 40 days of rain. (7:4) Additional precipitation would have been caused when the “fountains of the great deep” (also 7:11) broke open, probably caused by such a massive force, even creating the tectonic plates that forced water once beneath the surface to shoot from the seams high into the atmosphere in many places and cool rapidly, raining down in great sheets.
“The waters prevailed … above all the high mountains.” (7:19) In those days the mountains were not as high as the Alps, Himalayas, or Andes are today, so the water did not need to rise that high; Patten shows that the great mountain ranges of the earth are in arc shapes, and were probably pulled much higher either during this or one of the later flybys of Mars as it came near enough to cause tides not just in the seas but in the very magma under the crust. Rapid collisions of tectonic plates compressed the crust even more and forced it to buckle to much higher elevations.
The entire surface of the earth was probably not covered the whole year and 10 days that the flood lasted, but a series of huge tsunamis that “sloshed” back and forth over various landmasses before the mountains rose so that it was all covered at least once and most places probably received many successive waves, each laying down one of the layers of sediment that are thought (based on current rates assumed to be uniform) to have taken millions of years to lay down.
300 x 50 x 30 cubits (6:15) has been shown in wave tank tests to the best proportion to keep the ark stable amid the churning seas which would have kept battering it, and undoubtedly the kind of massive inundation that first set the ark afloat. It could be pitched up to a 90-degree angle without capsizing!
By the way, gofer wood seems to be not the wood of a particular tree, but a form of treated wood. The only related word used in Scripture may be gawfrit, which means the burning sulfur that rained down on S’dom and ‘Amorah (19:24). A compound like this may have helped them either bend the wood to shape or make it more waterproof.
This was not a ship with an outer deck like the cartoons show; the animals would all be inside. It was a chest most likely with a 1-cubit-high cap on top (6:16) along which there would have been windows to let in air and light which could then be refracted throughout the ark, unless they had some form of batteries in those days. With such long lives, a single language, and no major weather setbacks before the flood, it would be surprising if their technology did not easily exceed our own.
Donald Patten (The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch) thinks the massive number of volcanoes set off during this eventful year blocked the sunlight sufficiently to cause the most recent ice age—yes, after the flood, well within the historical memory of mankind, not millions of years ago.
Read these books I’ve cited and you will have a much better understanding of how the wonders in the Bible were not fiction, legend, or exaggeration. Even “the mountains skipped like rams” (Psalm 114:4, 6) is probably not merely poetic with such dynamics in force. Scripture is confirmed by science—of an unusual, but plausible, type. You can believe it.
Ridding the World of Hamas
—since Genesis!
In the headlines we’re seeing all too vividly the end result of a people choosing death, not life, as their central theme. (See Deut. 30:19.) Cruel, bloodthirsty havoc is where this path leads, without YHWH’s intervention. In contrast, even when He has to bring death because His creation has become twisted and bent, we see YHWH’s first priority being the preservation of life, though it would take an amazing feat of construction to do so.
The ark’s proportions (Gen. 6:15) have proven to be divinely-inspired. When tested in wave tanks, it was found that boats with this 30:5:3 ratio could be tossed up to 90 degrees—perpendicular to the water surface—and right themselves without capsizing! That was necessary, as there were tidal waves such as have never been seen since, washing over entire continents. (7:18) Something powerful enough to bring atmospheric changes (9:13-14) and move earth’s axis to a position to have extreme seasons for the first time (8:22) was in play.
But however well we may be able to explain the flood’s mechanics (and more comes to light daily; see previous sidebar), the bottom line is that YHWH was in control of the timing, the details, and the protection of those to whom He made promises: Noakh did the work that he could, but “YHWH closed him in.” (7:16) He is the one who secured the ark and saved the seed of the woman (3:15) that was passed down through Noakh’s line, so there would only be setbacks (11:8) allowing for redemption to take place later rather than another wholesale destruction (9:11), for YHWH knew men would grow evil again very quickly (9:22), since the poison had gotten all the way into our hearts. (8:21)
Originally, humanity was made in Elohim’s “image and likeness”. (1:26) That was tampered with when our most ancient ancestors ate of the fruit not suited to our bodies. Though the dimuth (likeness) of Elohim was lost between Genesis 5:1 and 5:3, with all that entails, the tselem (image, shadow, or outline) of Elohim remains in all of humanity (9:6), rendering anyone who sheds man’s blood a murderer—meant to be a deterrent to renewed violence.
This is one reason all soldiers in Israel are required to pay a half-sheqel (Ex. 30:12-15; 38:), even when carrying out a command of YHWH to destroy a particular people, for those people still bear that image, no matter how distorted it has become in some men. They are essentially paying YHWH a fine for killing some of His image-bearers so that they may be legitimately exempted from the requirement of blood for blood (life for life).
Before capital punishment was instituted here, “the earth was filled with violence… All flesh had corrupted (shakhat--marred, spoiled, ruined, made rotten) its direction on the earth.” (Gen. 6:11, 12) That it was not only humans that YHWH had to wipe out implies that there was severe corruption in animals as well. (This may be one reason Exodus 22:19 is needed.) So YHWH tipped the scale in 7 to 1 in favor of the clean beast s (7:2) so that not only would there be more of the best kinds (since He was about to allow men to eat animals for the first time, 9:3), but also so there would be more docile animals than violent predators, and all now feared us. (9:2)
But the Hebrew word for violence here is none other than Hamas, that well-chosen name for the terrorist horde.
The haftarah is uncannily timely this week in Israel as the double-entendre Hamas shows its true colors:
"By righteousness you will establish yourself. Distance yourself from gain by extortion, for [then] you will not be in dread… because [this terror] will not come near you. Yes, they will remain for a time, but it will no longer be from Me. Whoever stirs up trouble for you will [meet their] downfall on your account… Every weapon fashioned against you will be unsuccessful; every tongue that will rise up to judge you, you will bring to condemnation. This is the portion the servants of YHWH inherit, and their vindication comes from Me.” (Yeshayahu/Isa. 54:14-17)
There is hope! 292 years after the Flood, Avraham, the first one ever called YHWH’s servant (Gen. 26:24), was born (Gen. 11:10-26). When mature, YHWH had him start a counter-history that would break the cycles the world was already back into. Ultimately a descendant of his would not only restore the lost dimuth of Elohim (Coloss. 1:15) but also make possible the day when forevermore “Hamas will no longer be heard in your Land, nor the devastation or breaches in your borders; rather, your walls will be called safety (yeshuah) and your gates, objects of praise (t’hillah)”. (Isa. 60:18)
May the fullness of this promise come swiftly, in our day, with Messiah ben David!
The First “New Creation”
There are a great many elements in the story of Noakh that mirror the account of creation in the first part of Genesis:
“But the earth had come to be… filled with violence. And Elohim looked at the earth, and indeed it was decayed, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.” (6:11-12) This is very much like the “ruin and desolation” (Gen. 1:2) which preceded the creation of seas, land, animals, trees, and humans. There are hints in the text that there may have been something there before that YHWH destroyed (possibly what haSatan built after he fell from Heaven).
YHWH told Noakh He would wash Earth clean of all the corruption, and told him to "bring into the ark two each (that is, male and female) from every living thing of all [kinds of] flesh…” (6:19) This would allow every species to remain present when He all but started over, though He did tip the scale away from the violence (hamas in Hebrew, incidentally) by having the clean animals outnumber the others 7 to 1 this time.
“He also sent forth from himself a dove, to see whether the waters had receded from off the earth's surface.” (8:8) When the spirit of holiness rested visibly on Yeshua, it was in the form of a dove; YHWH built on an association forged here; in this “next round of creation”, YHWH’s Spirit was again symbolically “fluttering over the surface of the waters” (as in 1:2) as the first step toward a renewal of order after a necessary chaos—possibly like the first time.
After it was over, He again said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (9:1) He repeated exactly what He told Adam and Chawwah (1:28), since this setback had resulted from their later setting in motion the seeds of the corruption that had become irreversible without such a drastic measure.
"Every crawling thing that is alive can be food for you; I have given you all things, just as I gave you the green plant. Of course, you must not eat flesh with its life—[that is,] its blood—[still in it].” (9:3-4) As in Eden, there’s a prohibition against eating one thing—not as far as Moshe would take it, but Noakh already knew which animals were suitable to offer to YHWH, a first step toward the distinctions the Torah would eventually codify in regard to what to eat as well.
The haftarah begins, "Be overcome with joy, O sterile woman, who could not bear children…” (Isa. 54:1) That sounds an awful lot like the births of Yitzhaq (Isaac—“laughter”, a form of joy!), Yaaqov (Jacob), and Yosef (Joseph), because those were the next miracles that led to a new, unique nation designed to be the vehicle for yet another new creation.
“And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest…” (Gen. 8:4) Since the 7th month became the first at the Exodus, this is the first of many new beginnings that took place on that same day in different years: Israel emerged unscathed from Egypt and the Red Sea; Haman and his sons were sentenced to be hung, ending an attempt at Semitic genocide; and the Messiah rose from the dead, as the Firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:23) of the new creation in which we will also partake, for that year this date was the day the firstfruits of barley were brought and the count-up to Shavuoth--a particular one often called by its Greek name “Pentecost”, for that year a reversal of the Tower of Babel (also in this Torah portion)--began, by making more people understand what had been obscured by the language barrier, for now that Yeshua had received back the authority haSatan swindled out of Adam, it was safe to begin revealing some of what had had to be kept hidden until his defeat was sealed. (He “rioted” over the outcome of YHWH’s “election”, but has no right to appeal.)
This was the first step to when YHWH will “return the people to a purified language, so that they may all call on the name of YHWH and serve Him with one shoulder.” (Zeph. 3:9)
This first “new creation” did not renew things to the extent that will be seen during the Kingdom, and even less so than the “new heavens and new earth” to come after it. (Isa. 66:20) But those who have transferred from the first to the second Adam’s “race” (1 Cor. 15:45ff) are already additional firstfruits of that new creation. Even now—here but not yet—we can experience a new creation whose fulness is still to come.
“If anyone is ‘in’ Messiah, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; indeed, all things have become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17) Have we not been amazed at lives radically changed when, within still-dying bodies, YHWH implants a “new heart and a new spirit” (Ezek. 36:26) and wicked people become good? He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Kefa 3:9) Isn’t that better than destroying them—starting over within the same soul rather than replacing one person with others? It’s what He prefers, for who ever wants to destroy his own creation, even if it has been marred?
To those who welcome this new creation, as to Noakh, He promises to never let His anger overflow again. (Isa. 54:9) He invites those who had once felt it to come to the water He offers freely (Isa. 55:1)—water that’s drinkable! Here, the only flood is the “overflowing torrent of honor from the nations” that accompanies the famous “peace like a river” that He offers those who love His holy city. (66:10-12) So give Him His desire, and choose this kind of water!
