7.4 In the J version, God sends the flood as rain…for forty days and forty nights (also v. 12). In contrast, the P flood is a cosmic upsurge that comes on the earth for one hundred fifty days (v. 24), after which it takes even more time to subside (8.3–5). The P version characteristically portrays the flood on a grander scale than J. In the Mesopotamian versions the flood is on the earth for seven days.
7.11 In the P version, God opens the fountains of the great deep and the windows of the heavens in order to inundate the earth with the cosmic waters below the ocean and above the dome of the sky. This returns the earth to a state of watery chaos like the one before God separated the waters (1.6–7). The flood in P is a reversal of creation. Great deep (or “great ocean”) deliberately evokes the primeval deep of 1.2.
GENESIS 8
The Flood Subsides
1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 2the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; 4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
13In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
God’s Promise to Noah
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
22As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.”
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8.1 God remembered Noah, the turning point of the P story, which highlights the importance of memory in biblical religion. See also 9.15–16; 19.29; Ex 2.24. God’s memory is salvific, yielding beneficent deeds that fulfill his promises. The image of God making a wind blow over the earth (which is covered by the cosmic waters) recalls the primordial situation of 1.2. Creation is about to begin again.
8.4 Mountains of Ararat, in Turkish Kurdistan (ancient Urartu), the tallest mountains in the Near East and hence the appropriate place for the ark to come to rest. In Mesopotamian traditions, the flood hero’s boat comes to rest on Mount Nimush, in Iraqi Kurdistan, the tallest mountain in Mesopotamia.
8.6–12 The sending of the birds is paralleled in the Mesopotamian flood story in Gilgamesh tablet 11, where the flood hero sends a sequence of three birds, a dove, a swallow, and a raven. The use of birds to scout for land is also common maritime practice. Noah’s sending the dove three times, with seven days between, serves stylistically to express the passage of time and Noah’s watchful expectation.
8.13 The drying of the waters on the first month, on the first day of the month suggests the beginning of a new era analogous to the first day of creation in ch. 1 and the inauguration of the tabernacle (Ex 40.2, 17). In the P calendar, the first month was in the spring.
8.17 God’s blessing for all creatures to abound…be fruitful and multiply echoes his blessing in 1.22, 28. With the departure from the ark, the history of life begins again.
8.20–22 Noah’s offering of sacrifices at the end of the flood reestablishes the relationship between humans and God. Although human predilection for evil has not changed (cf. 6.5), God’s compassion toward humans overcomes his anger and regret. His pledge never to destroy all life again reaches a dramatic climax in the poetry of v. 22. The eternal rhythms of time are colored as human time, beginning with seedtime and harvest. The Mesopotamian flood hero similarly offers a sacrifice after the flood, which reestablishes the reciprocity between gods and humans.
GENESIS 9
The Covenant with Noah
1God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
6Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
7And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.”
8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.a 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Noah and His Sons
18The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
20Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in h
is tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”
26He also said,
“Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.
27May God make space forb Japheth,
and let him live in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
28After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years. 29All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.
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a Gk: Heb adds every animal of the earth
b Heb yapht, a play on Japheth
9.1–7 Be fruitful and multiply, blessing repeated in vv. 1, 7 signaling the beginning of the new era after the flood in P (cf. 1.28). Between these blessings God gives the first laws, which are designed to control the violence that corrupted the earth before the flood (see 6.11–12). Humans are henceforth allowed to eat animal flesh, with the condition that they do not eat its life, that is, its blood (v. 4; cf. Lev 17.11; Deut 12.23), since the lifeblood belongs to God. The killing of humans is also prohibited, on penalty of death, since humans are made in the image of God.
9.8–17 The formal grant of the covenant between God and all creatures, framed by the phrases I am establishing my covenant (v. 9) and the covenant that I have established (v. 17). The covenant is essentially a promise that the flood will never recur and confirms the eternal bond between God and his creatures. Sign of the covenant (v. 12), the rainbow, a visual reminder for God. Set my bow in the clouds (v. 13). The setting aside of God’s weapon of war conveys a sense of the cessation of destruction. Circumcision will be the sign of the Abrahamic covenant (17.11), and the sabbath will be the sign of the Mosaic covenant (Ex 31.16–17). See also notes on 6.18; 8.1.
9.18–27 The story of the curse of Canaan, from the J source, has an ethnographic meaning, describing the Canaanites as cursed for their ancestor’s transgression. Hence the Canaanites are destined to be slaves. The story justifies Israel’s later conquest of Canaan. The story also concerns proper filial duties toward the father, exemplified by Shem and Japheth, and describes the origin of wine.
9.20–21 Noah resumes the relationship between man (’adam) and the soil (’adamah) by inventing viticulture (see also notes on 2.4–5; 4.1–2; 3.14–19). This may be part of his destiny to bring…relief from work (5.29). Elsewhere wine is described as a boon that “cheers gods and mortals” (Judg 9.13), but here it leads to drunkenness, which here and elsewhere is associated with nakedness (see Hab 2.15).
9.22–24 For a son to see his father drunk and naked and to leave him in that state is a dereliction of filial duty. Ham’s guilt is compounded by his telling his brothers. The brothers perform their proper filial duty by covering Noah without looking at his nakedness. Although the shame of seeing his father’s nakedness is clear, the text also hints that sexual transgression (homosexual incest?) may have been involved, since when he woke Noah knew what his youngest son had done to him. This hint may anticipate the licentiousness of Canaanites in biblical tradition (e.g., ch. 19).
9.25–27 Noah’s curse is on Canaan, not his father Ham, because of the ethnographic import of the story. The blessings and curses on the different lineages of Noah anticipate the spread of nations in chs. 10–11 and the blessings and curses in the promise to Abraham (12.2–3).
GENESIS 10
Nations Descended from Noah
1These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; children were born to them after the flood.
2The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4The descendants of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.a 5From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the descendants of Japhethb in their lands, with their own language, by their families, in their nations.
6The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 7The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a mighty warrior. 9He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. 11From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and 12Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13Egypt became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim, from which the Philistines come.c
15Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, 16and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. 19And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20These are the descendants of Ham, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
21To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. 22The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. 23The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber. 25To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,d for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. 26Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the descendants of Joktan. 30The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, the hill country of the east. 31These are the descendants of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
32These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
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a Heb Mss Sam Gk See 1 Chr 1.7: MT Dodanim
b Compare verses 20, 31. Heb lacks These are the descendants of Japheth
c Cn: Heb Casluhim, from which the Philistines come, and Caphtorim
d That is Division
10.1–32 The Table of Nations, a genealogical map of the nations descended from Noah and his three sons. It proceeds from Noah’s youngest son, Japheth, to his oldest, Shem, and Shem’s line continues in 11.10–26 with the descent of Abram. The table is primarily a P text into which some J sequences have been appended (Hamites in vv. 8–19; Shemites in vv. 24–30). The grouping of the three branches of nations is primarily geographical: the Japhethites are to the north and west of Israel; the Hamites are to the south (but also include Canaan, which perhaps recalls that it was once a province of the Egyptian empire); and the Shemites are to the east. There are some exceptions to this rule, e.g., Lud/Ludim (Lydia) is a Hamite in J (v. 13), a Shemite in P (v. 22), and should be a Japhethite by its geographical location. The Arabian peoples (e.g., Seba/Sheba and Havilah) are Hamite in P (v. 7), but Shemite in J (v. 28–29). There are no “racial” characteristics for any of the three groups.
10.2–5 Japheth, a name probably related to Greek Iapetos, a Titan who was the grandfather of Deucalion, the Greek flood hero. His descendants are primarily peoples of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, include Gomer (Cimmerians), Magog (probably a region of Lydia, whose king, Gog [Greek Gyges], is an enemy in Ezek 38–39), Javan (Ionia), Ashkenaz (Scythia; in medieval Hebrew the word was reused to refer to Germany and late
r denoted the Jews of central and eastern Europe), Elishah and Kittim (both names for Cyprus), Tarshish (Tarsus), and Rodanim (Rhodes).
10.6–7 The descendants of Ham (which means “hot” in Hebrew) are primarily peoples of North Africa and Arabia, including Cush (Nubia), Egypt, and Put (Libya). Cush is the father of Arabian peoples, including Sheba, whose queen visits Solomon in 1 Kings 10. Canaan is a son of Ham, perhaps because of its historical ties with Egypt.
10.8–19 The J list of Hamites consists of the children of Cush, Egypt, and Canaan. Cush, the father of Nimrod, may serve here as a homonym for the Kassites, who ruled Mesopotamia in the mid-to late second millennium. The children of Egypt include Caphtorim (Crete), which had close trade relations with Egypt. The children and territory of Canaan include Sidon (referring to the Phoenicians), the Jebusites (of Jerusalem; see 2 Sam 5.6), and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (see ch. 19).
10.8–12 The brief legend of Nimrod provides an epitome of Mesopotamian history up to the time of the Assyrian Empire (with its great capital of Nineveh). The name Nimrod is probably a distortion of Ninurta, a Mesopotamian god of kingship and the hunt, who was a patron god of the Assyrian kings.
10.21–31 The descendants of Shem (which means “name, fame”) include many peoples of the Near East (western Asia), excluding Canaan. Eber, the eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews. His name may refer to his geographical location “on the other side of the (Euphrates) river” (‘eber hannahar), perhaps referring to the patriarchal homeland.
GENESIS 11
The Tower of Babel
1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.2And as they migrated from the east,a they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confusedb the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
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