בְּרֵאשִית Genesis Chapter 7

God commanded the building of the vessel, but in the end it is God Himself Who completes the work of the vessel by closing the vessel and securing it around Noach, his family and the animals. The Hebrew text gives the impression of a cosmic hug from the Creator. It is HaShem Himself Who surrounds and secures the occupants of the vessel. He is the seal and shield that protects them from the judgement of the flood. In fact, using the meaning, “Mercy” to represent the Holy Name, we could read, “And Mercy enfolded them”.

​Gen 7:1 And saying יהוה HaShem (Merciful) to נֹחַ Noach (Comfort, rest), “Come, you and all your household into הַתֵּבָה hateivah the vessel; for you have I seen צַדִּ֥יק tzadik a righteous one לְפָנַי lefnay before my face in this generation.
 
Up to this point the nameאלוהים  Elohim has been used, indicating the Just Judge of the universe, now, the sacred name יהוה HaShem (YHVH) is used to convey God’s mercy.
 
In His mercy God redeems Noach and his family, whom, by their own merits did not deserve to be saved. For it is Noach alone whom God speaks of when He says, “For you [singular] have I seen righteous…” (cf. Gen 6:8). Noach’s righteousness is the fruit of God walking with him and Noach’s acceptance of God’s redemptive purpose.
 
Notice the רֶמֶז remez (hint) in the names used. The Merciful One calls נֹחַ Noach, whose name means rest and comfort, to come into a place of safety, security, rest and comfort. Why? Because God has perceived Noach’s inherent desire to serve Him and accept His offer of covering atonement. This has set Noach apart in his generation. This is why the text says, בַּדּוֹר הַזֶּה bador ha-zeh, “in the generation this one.”
 
Kefa (Peter) the talmid (disciple) of Yeshua HaMashiach writes:
 
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into the abyss and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noach, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a deluge upon the world of the ungodly;”
 
–2 Peter 2:4-5 [Author’s translation]
 
Noach is seen as a herald or preacher of righteousness. This can be interpreted to mean that Noach himself is a symbol and therefore a sign to all generations, one whose story heralds righteousness. Additionally it can be understood to refer to the fact that Noach warned his own generation of the coming judgement of God.
 
The writer of the book to the Hebrews (Probably Bar-Navi [Barnabas]) writes:
 
“Through trust Noach, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverent awe prepared a vessel for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
 
–Hebrews 11:7 [Author’s translation]
 
The writer of Hebrews confirms the fact that Noach’s salvation, like that of all redeemed human beings, is based on his having accepted the gift of God by trust/faith (אֱמוּנָה emunah). Though he was comparatively righteous in his generation, he was saved by faith through atonement and received the righteousness of God in obedience to God’s call. Noach’s obedience was also a seal and confirmation of the coming judgement of the flood.
 
The דְּרַשׁ‎ d’rash (comparative halakhic meaning) here, is one that teaches security and rest through obedience. We cannot hope to obtain rest and comfort from God if we fail to act in obedience to His call. Yeshua says:
 
“Come unto Me all you who grow weary, tired and exhausted, and are burdened by an oppressive load, and I will give you rest, comfort, peace and wholeness.”
 
–Matthew 11:28 [Author’s translation]
 
Gen 7:2 Of every beast הַבְּהֵמָה habeheimah, the clean, pure הַטְּהוֹרָה ha-t’horah you shall take seven, seven of the male and his female: and of the beasts הַבְּהֵמָה habeheimah that are not clean, not pure הַטְּהוֹרָה ha-t’horah them, take two, the male and his female. Gen 7:3 Also, flying creatures of the heavens by sevens, the male and the female; to keep offspring, seed, alive upon the face of all the earth.
 
Although it is Moses who is recording these details, he is not imposing his own view of clean and unclean animals upon the narrative retrospectively, rather he is recording what has been revealed to him by God both directly through divine revelation and indirectly through the passing down of oral history via the Patriarchs. Noach was aware of a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between the Holy and the mundane long before the giving of the Torah at Sinai.
 
God, knowing the end from the beginning ensures that the clean animals will be plentiful in the future, for use in the sacrificial system and as kosher flesh, designations which will follow at a much later date (given at Sinai), pursuant to God’s giving of animal life for food in Genesis 9:3.
 
Both the clean and unclean animals are brought into the vessel in breeding pairs for the purpose of sustaining the existence of each kind, meaning that subsequent varieties of species are adapted from the DNA present in each base pair that were secured on the vessel. This silences arguments from secular science that suggest that there was not enough room on the vessel for all the varieties of species that exist today.
 
Verses 2 and 3 begin a rhythm of fullness, using the number seven to signify both the unique sacred role of the clean animals and the fullness of the work of bringing all the various kinds of land dwelling animals into the safe haven of the vessel.
 
Gen 7:4 For in seven days, I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and nights; and wipe out all living substance that I have fashioned עָשִׂיתִי asiytiy upon the face of the ground הָאֲדָמָה ha-adamah.
 
The seven days are employed in mercy, giving the populace a final opportunity to repent (sevens are used in the book of Revelation in a similar way), and as a sign of fullness. Seven is also attached to grief in Hebrew thought, thus Rashi suggests that these seven days were days of mourning for the loss of מְתוּשָלַח Metushalach Methuselah.
 
The forty days and nights are both literal and symbolic. The number 40 signifies the convergence of the fullness or goal of something and the birth of something new (Exodus 16:35; 24:18; 34:28; Deut. 9:11; 25; Judges 3:11; 1 Sam 4:18; 17:16; 2 Sam 5:4; Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2; ).
 
Gen 7:5 And fashioned וַיַּעַשׂ vaya’as  נֹחַ Noach, all that which יהוה HaShem (Merciful) instructed him. Gen 7:6 And Noach was six hundred years old, and deluge, flood waters came upon the earth הָאָרֶץ ha-aretz.
 
As God prepares to bring judgement against all that He has עָשׂה asah (fashioned), Noach asah (fashions) the practical elements commanded by God for his deliverance. Thus we see Ha-Elohim (Judge) and HaShem [YHVH] (Merciful) at work in the redemptive story of humanity.
 
Gen 7:7 And נֹחַ Noach went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
 
Based on the phrase, “because of the waters of the flood.” And verse 7:10, which says, “after seven days”, it is possible to interpret an additional seven days, making a total of fourteen days prior to the waters reaching a destructive level. If this is the correct reading then Noach and his household didn’t go into the vessel until the deluge had begun. This indicates that at the time they entered the vessel, the flooding had not yet reached unusually high levels. However, by the time the general populace realized the gravity of what was happening, it hit them like a tidal wave (both literally and metaphorically), because they had been going about life as usual, presuming that the flood would recede and the land would return to its normal state. The New Testament explains that the returning of the Messiah will happen in a similar way:
 
“For the coming of the Son of Man [Yeshua] will be just like the days of Noach. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noach entered the vessel, and they didn’t understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man [Yeshua] be.”
 
–Matthew 24:37-39 [Author’s translation]
 
Gen 7:8 From the beast הַבְּהֵמָה habeheimah, the clean, pure הַטְּהוֹרָה ha-t’horah, and from the beast הַבְּהֵמָה habeheimah not clean, not pure, and from the flying creatures fowls, and of everything that creeps upon the earth, Gen 7:9 There went in two and two to נֹחַ Noach into the vessel, the male and the female, as God אֱלֹהִים Elohim had commanded Noach.
 
The animals, possibly driven by the rising flood waters were drawn by ha-Elohim (the Judge), came in to Noach (rest), just as Noach had come in to God’s rest and security within the vessel.
 
Noach’s obedience to God meant that God worked in Noach’s favour to fulfil all that He had asked of Noach, bringing the animals to him. When we obey God in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, He works in our favour to bring about the fulfilment of that which He has instructed.
 
Gen 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, the waters of the flood came over the earth הָאָרֶץ ha-aretz.
 
These may be seven more days, or they may simply be the seven days mentioned previously. Either way, the waters rose gradually and were now at a level where they were covering the land but not yet deep enough to float the vessel.
 
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noach, in the month the second, in the seventeenth day of the month, in that day broke open all the springs of the great deep, and the windows of heaven were opened.
 
The very specific dating of these events is intended to convey an historical point in time that refutes conjecture regarding the supposed mythological elements of the story. The ancient Hebrew recipients of this text read this as history.
 
While Rashi and Rabbi Eliezer of the Talmud seek to link the dating of these events to Rosh Hashanah (Yom ha-teruah), saying that the second month must therefore be Mar-cheshvan; I prefer the interpretation of Rabbi Yehoshua, who maintains that the second month is the month Iyar, the month which follows Nisan [Talmud Bavliy Rosh HaShanah 11b]. This seems most likely because since the time of the Exodus, the time of the writing down of the Torah, the Hebrew religious months have been determined according to the command of God to keep Nisan as the first month (Exodus 12:2).
 
This is significant in relationship to the story of the flood because the month of Nisan commemorates Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt and metaphorically from slavery to sin and spiritual darkness. Israel arrived at Sinai in the third month (Exodus 19:1). Therefore, having initially left Egypt in the middle of the first month [Nisan] and because Israel arrived at Sinai at the beginning of the third month, we can determine that they must have been traversing the Red Sea in the second month [Iyar]. It is not a great stretch to suggest that Israel crossed the Red Sea on the seventeenth day of the second month. This means that covering by water as a symbol of death and resurrection, took place at the same time of year in both instances. The symbolism of the name “Red Sea” being an obvious allusion to blood atonement.
 
The flood also marks Noach’s deliverance from the wickedness of a debauched generation. Both Noach and the Israelites are delivered through a great act of God’s judgement and through the symbolic cleansing of water. This in turn corresponds to the deliverance of all humanity through the covering/atoning flood of Yeshua’s blood, which bore fruit in the second month, the month following Nisan, when the risen Messiah appeared bodily to His followers for forty days prior to returning to the heavens, ten days after the 17th of Iyar. In Hebrew thought the number 10 is a symbol of completion and fulfilment. Thus the Messiah Yeshua completes and fills the work of covering and at the same time, the judgement of God is issued against humanity for the final time, offering escape from the final flood (Day of the LORD) through the second Adam (Noach), Yeshua, Who calls us to, “Come” into His vessel/Ark, which is the community of believers [Ecclesia] both Jew and Gentile. Just as Noach’s righteous status covered his family, Yeshua’s righteousness covers the family of God.
 
The waters above and below the firmament gush forth in a deluge that covers the face of the earth. This is deliberate language that is used to recall the beginning of creation.
 
“1:1 In the beginning, creating from nothing בָּרָא bara, אֱלֹהִים Elohim made the waters of the sky, and He made the earth הָאָרֶץ ha’aretz: 1:2 And the earth came into existence, desolate תֹהוּ tohu and vacant בהוּ bohu, and darkness חֹשֶׁךְ choshekh was over the face of deep, surging, subterranean waters, and רוּחַ Ruach the Spirit, Wind, Breath of אֱלֹהִים Elohim brooded (Like a mother eagle), relaxing, over the face of the waters.”
 
–Genesis 1:1-2 [Author’s translation]
 
Noach and his family are witnessing a judgement that will act as a catalyst for a type of new or renewed creation. This is an obvious foreshadowing of the judgement of God at the end of days, which will be followed by a new heavens and new earth in fulfilment and completion of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. Noach (Rest, comfort) is seen as a type for the second Adam (human), the Messiah Yeshua (Salvation). Rest and comfort will come to humanity through Salvation.
 
Gen 7:12 And it came to pass that the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Gen 7:13 In substance the same day, entered Noach, and שֵׁם Sheim, and חָם Cham, and יֶפֶת Yefet, the sons of Noach, and Noach's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the vessel;
 
The same day means the same day that the flood began, or began to reach the level of danger, as previously alluded to. Noach and his family alone were redeemed in the vessel. This is confirmed by the New Testament:
 
“For Messiah also has suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noach, while the vessel (ark) was being prepared, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved through water.”
 
–1 Peter 3:18-20 [Author’s translation]
 
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into the abyss and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noach, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a deluge upon the world of the ungodly;”
 
–2 Peter 2:4-5 [Author’s translation]
 
Gen 7:14 They, and every living creature, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind, and every flying creature after his kind, every bird of every sort. Gen 7:15 And they went in to Noach (Comfort, rest) into the vessel, two and two of all flesh, which had the breath of living רוּחַ חַיִּים ruach chayim.
 
Four of the five categories of created life from Genesis 1:21-25 are mentioned here, the fifth category, sea creatures, were able to survive outside the vessel.
 
Gen 7:16 And they that went in, went in male זָכָר zachar and נְקֵבָה nekeivah female of all flesh, entering as instructed צִוָּה tzivah as a sign אֹתוֹ oto of אֱלֹהִים Elohim (Judge) and closed יהוה HaShem (Merciful) around about.
 
The Hebrew זָכָר zachar used here to name the male of the pair comes from the root זכר zachor meaning to, “Remember”. HaShem has remembered His creation in the same sense that He later remembers Noach (Gen. 8:1). In this sense, “Remember” means to acknowledge rather than to recall something forgotten.
 
God commanded the building of the vessel, but in the end it is God Himself Who completes the work of the vessel by closing the vessel and securing it around Noach, his family and the animals. The Hebrew text gives the impression of a cosmic hug from the Creator. It is HaShem Himself Who surrounds and secures the occupants of the vessel. He is the seal and shield that protects them from the judgement of the flood. In fact, using the meaning, “Mercy” to represent the Holy Name, we could read, “And Mercy enfolded them”.
 
Gen 7:17 And it came to pass that the deluge, flood, was forty days upon the earth הָאָרֶץ  ha-aretz; and became great the waters, and lifted up the vessel, and it rose up above the earth הָאָרֶץ  ha-aretz. Gen 7:18 And mighty the waters became exceedingly upon the earth הָאָרֶץ  ha-aretz; and to walk וַתֵּלֶךְ  vateilekh the vessel went upon the face of the waters.
 
The vessel was lifted in stages. It seems that the progression of the deluge is intended to prevent the capsizing of the vessel. First it is lifted, then it walks or begins to move across the waters.
 
Gen 7:19 And the waters were mighty exceedingly upon the earth הָאָרֶץ  ha-aretz; and covered all the mountains at their highest, that were beneath all the heavens.
 
The waters were apparently high enough to cover all the mountains beneath the heavens. Some seek to qualify the extent of the flood waters by saying that the Hebrew הָאָרֶץ  ha-aretz can refer to a localized section of earth, however the phrase, “beneath all the heavens” clearly refutes this. Additionally the New Testament confirms that of all humanity only Noach and his 7 family members were saved from the flood (2 Peter 2:4-5).
 
Gen 7:20 Fifteen אַמָּה amah (.5m per = 7.5m) high did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
 
The referencing of the covering depth of the waters is intended to show that the vessel, which is twice this height, with less than a third of its height below sea level, is easily able to float above the nearest peaks without being damaged or grounded and torn apart in violent seas.
 
Gen 7:21 And died, all flesh that moved upon the earth, both of flying creatures, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every human being כֹל הָאָדָם kol ha-adam: Gen 7:22 All which had breath wind נִשְׁמַת־רוּחַ nishmat ruach spirit wind חַיִּים chayim living in its nostrils, all that was in the dry land, died.
 
This confirms the fact that the creatures that died were creatures of the land and skies. While it’s true that sea creatures utilize oxygen from the water, they do not have the breath of life in them in the sense that the Hebrew intends here.
 
The intimate nature of the description, being the breath-spirit of living in the nostrils, seems to indicate a counterpoint to the act of God’s breathing Adam into life in the beginning (Gen. 2:7).
 
Gen 7:23 And wiped out all living substance which was upon the face of the ground הָאֲדָמָה ha-adamah, both human being, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the flying creatures of the heavens; were wiped out from the earth הָאָרֶץ ha-aretz: and remaining surely, only Noach, and they that were with him in the vessel. Gen 7:24 And mighty the waters were upon the earth הָאָרֶץ ha-aretz a hundred and fifty days.
 
The one hundred and fifty days indicate the length of time that the water maintained its level at 7.5m above the highest peak.
 
© 2023 Yaakov ben Yehoshua Brown