Bible Commentaries

And God ^a remembered Noah, and ^b every living thing, and all the cattle that [was] with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;

(a) Not that God forgets his at any time, but when he sends comfort then he shows that he remembers them.

(b) If God remembered every brute beast, that ought also to assure his children.

And the ark rested in the ^c seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

(c) Part of September and part of October.

And the waters decreased continually until the ^d tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first [day] of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

(d) Which was the month of December.

But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth: then he ^e put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

(e) The raven flew to and fro, resting on the ark, but did not come into it, unlike the dove that was taken in.

And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth [was] an ^f olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

(f) Which was a sign that the waters were much diminished: for the olives do not grow on the high mountains.

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the ^g first [month], the first [day] of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

(g) Called in Hebrew Abib, part of March and part of April.

^h Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

(h) Noah declares his obedience, in that he would not leave the ark without God's express commandment, as he did not enter in without the same: the ark being a figure of the Church, in which nothing must be done outside the word of God.

And Noah ⁱ builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

(i) For sacrifices which were as an exercise of their faith, by which they used to give thanks to God for his benefits.

And the LORD smelled a ^k sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

(k) That is, by it he showed himself appeased and his anger at rest.

While the earth remaineth, ^l seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

(l) The order of nature destroyed by the flood, is restored by God's promise.