Bible Commentary

Genesis 7:5-10

Genesis 7:5-10

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible · Matthew Henry (1662–1714) · Public Domain

Here is Noah's ready obedience to the commands that God gave him.

Observe, 1. He went into the ark, upon notice that the flood would come

after seven days, though probably as yet there appeared no visible sign

of its approach, no cloud arising that threatened it, nothing done

towards it, but all continued serene and clear; for, as he prepared the

ark by faith in the warning given that the flood would come, so he went

into it by faith in this warning that it would come quickly, though he

did not see that the second causes had yet begun to work. In every step

he took, he walked by faith, and not by sense. During these seven days,

it is likely, he was settling himself and his family in the ark, and

distributing the creatures into their several apartments. This was the

conclusion of that visible sermon which he had long been preaching to

his careless neighbours, and which, one would think, might have

awakened them; but, not obtaining that desired end, it left their blood

upon their own heads. 2. He took all his family along with him, his

wife, to be his companion and comfort (though it should seem that,

after this, he had no children by her), his sons, and his sons' wives,

that by them not only his family, but the world of mankind, might be

built up. Observe, Though men were to be reduced to so small a number,

and it would be very desirable to have the world speedily repeopled,

yet Noah's sons were each of them to have but one wife, which

strengthens the argument against having many wives; for from the

beginning of this new world it was not so: as, at first, God made, so

now he kept alive, but one woman for one man. See Matt. xix. 4, 8. 3.

The brute creatures readily went in with him. The same hand that at

first brought them to Adam to be named now brought them to Noah to be

preserved. The ox now knew his owner, and the ass his protector's crib,

nay, even the wildest creatures flocked to it; but man had become more

brutish than the brutes themselves, and did not know, did not consider,

Isa. i. 3.

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