Genesis 7:1-5

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 7:1

Verse 1 1.And the Lord said unto Noah. I have no doubt that Noah was confirmed, as he certainly needed to be, by oracles frequently repeated. He had already sustained, during one hundred years, the greatest and most furious assaults; and the invincible combatant had achieved memorable victories; but the most severe contest of all was, to bid farewell to the world, to renounce society and to bury himself in the ark. The face of the earth was, at that time, lovely; and Moses intimates that it was... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 7:2

Verse 2 2.Of every clean beast. He again repeats what he had before said concerning animals, and not without occasion. For there was no little difficulty in collecting from woods, mountains, and caves, so great a multitude of wild beasts, many species of which were perhaps altogether unknown; and there was, in most of them, the same ferocity which we now perceive. Wherefore, God encourages the holy man, lest being alarmed with that difficulty, and having cast aside all hope of success, he... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 7:3

Verse 3 3.To keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. That is, that hence offspring might be born. But this is referred to Noah; for although, properly speaking, God alone gives life, yet God here refers to those duties which he had enjoined upon his servant: and it is with respect to his appointed office, that God commands him to collect animals that he may keep seed alive. Nor is this extraordinary, seeing that the ministers of the gospel are said, in a sense, to confer spiritual life.... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 7:5

Verse 5 5.And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded. This is not a bare repetition of the former sentence; but Moses commends Noah’s uniform tenor of obedience in keeping all God’s commandments; as if he would say, that in whatever particular it pleased God to try his obedience, he always remained constant. And, certainly, it is not becoming to obey one or another commandment of God only, so that when we have performed a defective obedience, we should feel at liberty to withdraw;... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:1

And the Lord , Jehovah , since Elohim now appears as the covenant God, though this change in the Divine name is commonly regarded by modern critics as betraying the hand of a Jehovist supplementer of the fundamental document of the Elohist (Bleek, Vaihinger, Davidson, Kalisch, Colense, Alford); but "that the variations in the name of God furnish no criterion by which to detect different documents is evident enough from the fact that in Genesis 7:5 Noah does as Jehovah commands him,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:1-6

God the Savior inviting faith. "Come thou and all thy house into the ark," &c.; Covenant mercy. A type of the Christian Church, with its special privilege and defense, surrounded with the saving strength of God. I. DIVINE PREPARATION . Providence . The ark. 1. Human agency under inspired direction. The word of God. The institutions of religion. The fellowship of saints. 2. A preparation made in the face of and in spite of an opposing world The history of the Church... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:1-9

The ark entered. I. THE INVITATION OF JEHOVAH . "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." This invitation was— 1. Timely . It was given on the finishing of the ark, and therefore not too soon; also seven days before the Flood, and therefore not too late. God's interventions in his people's behalf are always opportune: witness me exodus from Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea, the destruction of Sennacherib's army; Christ's walking on the sea, sleeping in the boat, rising... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:2

Of every clean beast . That the distinction between clean and unclean animals was at this time understood is easier to believe than that the writer would perpetrate the glaring anachronism of introducing in prediluvian times what only took its rise several centuries later (Kalisch). That this distinction was founded on nature, "every tribe of mankind being able to distinguish between the sheep and the hyena, the dove and the vulture" ('Speaker's Commentary'), or "on an immediate conscious... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:3

Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female . I .e. of clean fowls, "which he leaves to be understood out of the foregoing verse" (Poole). The Samaritan, Syriac, and LXX . (not so Vulgate, Onkelos, Arabic) insert the word "clean unnecessarily, and also add," και Ì α ̓ πο Ì πα ì ντων τω ͂ ν πετεινω ͂ ν τω ͂ νν μη Ì καθαρω ͂ ν δυ ì ο δυ ì ο α ̓ ì ρσεν και Ì θη ͂ λυ , " manifestly to make the verse resemble... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 7:4-5

For yet seven days . Literally, for today's yet seven—after seven days; thus giving Noah time to complete his preparations, and the world one more opportunity to repent, which Poole thinks many may have done, though their bodies were drowned for their former impenitency. And I will cause it to rain —literally, I causing it, the participle indicating the certainty of the future action— upon the earth forty days and forty nights . The importance assigned in subsequent Scripture to... read more

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