בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית • B'resheet
(“In Beginning” or “At First”)
The First Book of Moses,
Commonly Called
Genesis
Genesis: Introduction •
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Yosef as a type of Yeshua
Source of Dates Used
Parashot: Index
1. B'resheet
2. Noach
3. Lech Lecha
4. Vayera
5. Chayei Sarah
6. Toldot
7. VaYetze
8. VaYishlach
9. VaYeshev
10. Miketz
11. Vayigash
12. Vayechi
~ 7 ~
Parashah 2: Noach (Continued)
(Noach, Gen. 6:9-11:32)
5. HaShem’s Final Instructions (7:1-5)
Sheni (Second) 1 Yehovah[GN]
said to Noach, “Go into the ark,
you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
2You are to take with
you seven[2a] of every kind of clean
animal,[2b] a male and his mate, and
two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and his mate.
3Also seven
of every kind of the bird of the air, male and female, in order to
preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.
4For seven
days[4] from now I will
send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will
wipe from the face of the earth every
living thing that I have made.”
5And
Noach did everything that Yehovah had commanded him.
6. Final Week’s Preparations (7:6-10)
6Now
Noach
was 600 years old[6] when the floodwaters came
upon the earth.
7Noach entered the
ark, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, to escape the floodwaters.
8Clean and
unclean animals, birds, and everything that crawls along the ground
9came to Noah[9]
to
enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as Elohim[GN]
had commanded Noach.
7. Floodwaters Begin (7:11-12)
10After seven
days,the floodwaters came on the earth.[10]
11In the six
hundredth year of Noach’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second
month,[11a] all the fountains
of the great deep burst open,
and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.[11b]
12And the rain fell upon
the earth forty days and forty nights.
8. Noah’s Family Enters the Ark (7:13-16)
13On
that very day Noach entered the ark, along with his sons
Shemשם, shem, name,
Hamחם, cham, hot, and
Yefetיפת, yepheth, opened,
and his wife, and the three wives of his sons,[13]
14they and
every species of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and
winged creature.
15They came to Noah
to enter the ark, two by two, of every creature with the breath of life.
16And they entered,
the male and female of every living thing, as Elohim had commanded
him; then Yehovah shut him in.[16]
[TO PARASHAH TOP]
9. Destruction Beneath the Waters (7:17-24)
Shlishi (Third) 17 For forty days the
flood[17a] kept coming on the earth,
and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the
earth.[17b]
18So the waters
continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the surface
of the waters.
19Finally, the waters
completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under the whole
sky were covered.
20The waters
rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits.[20]
21And every creature
that had moved upon the earth perished — birds, livestock, animals, every
creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.
22Of all that had
been on dry
land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23Every living
thing on the face of the earth was destroyed, including man,
livestock, crawling creatures, and birds of the air; they were
blotted out from
the earth, and only Noach remained, and those with him in the ark.
24And the waters
prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.
[11 Things You Didn't Know About Noah and the Great Flood]
Chapter 8
____________
2a. “Pairs of every species of
animals, except the tenants of the deep, were to be taken for the preservation
of their respective kinds. This was the general rule of admission, only with
regard to those animals which are styled ‘clean,’ three pairs were to be taken,
whether of beasts or birds; and the reason was that their rapid multiplication
was a matter of the highest importance, when the earth should be renovated, for
their utility either as articles of food or as employed in the service of man.
But what was the use of the seventh? It was manifestly reserved for sacrifice;
and so that both during Noah's residence in the ark, and after his return to
dry land, provision was made for celebrating the rites of worship according to
the religion of fallen man. He did not, like many, leave religion behind. He
provided for it during his protracted voyage.” (JF&B)
But be careful! The Bible says that Noah was to take kinds of animals, not
species of animals. In our current system of animal
classification, the biblical kind more likely refers to
family or genus, but certainly not species.
[BACK]
2b. The Church
teaches that HaShem’s
food regulations are part of Torah (what the Church calls “the Law of
Moses”) and are only for Jews (Israel), not for Gentiles. However, it
needs to be pointed out that Noach and his family were Gentiles, not
Jews (Jews did not exist as a people group at the time of Noach), yet
Noach knew the difference between “clean” and “unclean” animals. This
can be only because HaShem taught the difference to Adam, and Adam
passed that information to his descendants. That divine instruction is
therefore meant for all of humanity.
[BACK]
4. This would be the day that
Methuselah died. According to Jewish tradition, “Methuselah, the
longest-lived human being of all time, died at the age of 969 years on
the 11th of Cheshvan of the year 1656 from creation (2105 BCE) — exactly
seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood.” (Chabad.org,
accessed 22 October 2019)
[BACK]
6. Tradition holds that the task of
building the ark took Noach and his sons a hundred years. Quite an undertaking
for a man who was five hundred years old at the outset. Gen 5:32 tells us
that Noach was over five hundred years old before his sons were born,
so they were about 100 years old by this time.
[BACK]
9. Critics say that Noach could
not have possibly gone out and rounded up mating pairs of all
species. Note the Torah says that they came to him.
Which is more difficult for HaShem: to have created the entire
universe out of nothing in only six days by the power of His spoken
word, or to call mating pairs of each species to the Ark by His
spoken word? (See also note 10.)
Pre-Flood Pangea
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10. Jewish tradition holds that
Methuselah died on Cheshvan 11 (October 17) and the flood began on
Chechvan 17 (October 24). Some think Noah’s flood was only local,
but the description of the flood in chapters 6 through 8
makes the idea that the flood was only a local event is patently absurd. “Science” tells us that at one
time, all the land mass of the earth was a single continent called
Pangea. Creation Science holds that the global deluge was part of
the literally earth-shattering event that caused Pangea to break
apart and the continents
to move into their current positions. So Noah certainly didn’t have
to go to Australia to collect two kangaroos, two emus, two koalas,
etc. If the flood was only local, Noah had at least 120 years to migrate
his family out of the area to safe ground! Why waste all that effort building a
big boat
and gathering representatives from all of the animals? In 120 years
he could easily have moved to the farthest and highest point on
Pangea and there was absolutely no threat to the world’s animal population! With the possible exception of Psalm 29:10, the word
מַבּוּל (mabbul) always
refers to Noah's flood. The real reason for insisting on a local flood is
the acceptance of evolution with its long geological ages. Most holding
that view are not willing to allow a global flood to have
happened less than 5000 years ago. To admit such eliminates the need for
the geological ages, for most (if not all) of the geological column would have been
rapidly laid down by Noah’s flood within the span of a single year.
[BACK]
11a. Note how HaShem provides the
exact dates for these events. Myths and legends do not provide exact dates.
The narrative, however, is not in strict chronological order.
[BACK]
11b. “Science” holds that even a very severe downpour of rain for forty days and forty
nights is not sufficient to inundate the entire earth, so the Flood
story must be a myth. This was no ordinary rain. All of the water vapor that
had been suspended in the atmosphere since the beginning of creation,
plus the possible ice sheath which surrounded the earth (note
on Gen. 1:6),
was released to fall as rain. Also the Torah says, “on the
same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open,”
indicating that in addition to the condensation of all the water
vapor in the atmosphere, there was a major tectonic upheaval
of the entire earth (resulting in the separation of Pangea into the
present continents), and enormous amounts of underground water were
included in the flood waters.
See note 8a on
Genesis 2.
[BACK]
13. The text says that they
entered the ark “that very day.” This is referring back to verse 4,
the day on which God had issued the command to board the ark.
On this date [10 Cheshvan] in 2105 BCE (1656 from
Creation), Noah and family entered the Ark. It wasn't until seven
days later, however, that the intense rains began for 40 days and
40 nights. The delay was to allow a proper mourning period for
Methuselah, the righteous grandfather of Noah who had just died
at the age of 969 years, history's oldest human being. Noah and
his family (and the animals) would remain on the Ark for over a
year, until the flood waters had sufficiently subsided.
(aish.com/dijh/Cheshvan_10.html, accessed 30 June
2021)
[BACK]
16. The
opportunity to repent had been available for at least 120 years, after which
God literally shut the door. The same opportunity is available now,
but there will come a day when God will again firgurative shut the
door, after which comes the final judgment. But wait a minute. Kefa
(2Peter 2:5) calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness.” Certainly he
would not have just started his “preaching” after God announced the
Flood. So he may well have been “preaching” for 400 years or
longeer.
[BACK]
17a. The word translated
“flood” is מַבּוּל (mabbul), also translated as deluge. Noah’s flood
submerged the entire planet earth under water for about a year.
[BACK]
17b. If didn’t just rain
for 40 days and nights. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights before
the water was high enough to even begin lifting the ark.
[BACK]
20. A cubit is the length
from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or
about 18 inches or 46 centimeters. The Royal, or Long,[GN] cubit used in the
construction of the Egyptian pyramids and mentioned in Ezek. 40:5 is 20.63 inches (52.5
centimeters). The Torah indicates that floodwaters “prevailed
fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.” This
indicates that the floodwaters rose to at least fifteen
cubits (22.5-25.8 feet) above the tops of the highest mountains that
existed at that time (we have no way of
knowing the elevation of the highest mountain at the time the flood began).
The Torah indicates an horrific tectonic event as part of the flood. It
is not unreasonable to assume that many of the highest mountains on
earth are at least partly the result of that tectonic shift.
[BACK]
Other commentaries on Genesis 7
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
Pulpit Commentary
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Originally posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Added dates and a few notes and comments on Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Page revised on Friday, 09 June 2023
Page last updated on
Monday, 02 October 2023 12:52 PM
(Updates are generally minor formatting or editorial changes.
Major content changes are identified as "Revisions”)

ANXIOUSLY WATCHING FOR MASHIACH’S RETURN,
SPEEDILY AND IN OUR DAY. MARANA, TA!
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