Genesis 9:20 - Exposition

And Noah began to be an husbandman . Literally, a man of the ground . Vir terroe (Vulgate); α ̓ ì νθρωπος γεωργο Ì ς γη ͂ ς ( LXX .); Chald; נְּבַר פָלַח בְּאַרְעָא = vir colens terram; agriculturae dediturus . Cf. Joshua 5:4 , "a man of war;" 2 Samuel 16:7 , "a man of blood;" Genesis 46:32 , "a man of cattle;" Exodus 4:10 , "a man of words." And he planted a vineyard. So Murphy, Wordsworth, Kalisch. Keil, Delitzsch, and Lange regard ish ha' Adamah, with the art; as in apposition to Noah, and read, "And Noah, the husbandman, began and planted a vineyard," i.e. caepit plantare . Neither interpretation presupposes that husbandry and vine cultivation were now practiced for the first time. That Armenia is a wine-growing country is testified by Xenophon ('Anab.,' 4.4, 9). That the vine was abundantly cultivated in Egypt is evident from representations on the monuments, as well as from Scriptural allusions. The Egyptians say that Osiris, the Greeks that Dionysus, the Romans that Saturn, first taught men the cultivation of the tree and the use of its fruit.