Genesis 8:4 - Exposition

And the ark rested. Not stopped sailing or floating, got becalmed, and remained suspended over (Kitto's 'Cyclop.,' art. Ararat), but actually grounded and settled on (Tayler Lewis) the place indicated by עַל (cf. Genesis 8:9 ; also Exodus 10:14 ; Numbers 10:36 ; Numbers 11:25 , Numbers 11:26 ; Isaiah 11:2 ). In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month. I .e. exactly 150 days from the commencement of the forty days' rain, reckoning thirty days to a month, which seems to confirm the opinion expressed ( Genesis 7:24 ) that the forty days were included in the 150. Supposing the Flood to have begun in Marchesvan, the second month of the civil year, "we have then the remarkable coincidences that on the 17th day of Abib the ark rested on Mount Ararat, the Israelites passed over the Red Sea, and our Lord rose again from the dead" ('Speaker's Commentary'). Upon the mountains . I .e. one of the mountains. "Pluralis numerus pro singulari ponitur". Of Ararat .

1. It is agreed by all that the term Ararat describes a region.

2. This region has been supposed to be the island of Ceylon (Samaritan), Aryavarta, the sacred land to the north of India (Van Bohlen, arguing from Genesis 11:2 ); but "it is evident that these and such like theories have been framed in forgetfulness of what the Bible has recorded respecting the locality" (Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Ararat).

3. The locality which appears to have the countenance of Scripture is the region of Armenia (of. 2 Kings 19:37 ; Isaiah 37:38 ; Jeremiah 51:27 ; Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Vulgate).

4. In Armenia three different mountains have been selected as the site on which the ark grounded.