V. 1. And the LORD said unto Noah, Go into the box, thou, and all thy house.
There you see the right judgment of the Almighty God, which is terrible to hear, but much more terrible to see. St. Peter also quotes it, and moves it up: "God did not spare the former world, but preserved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, and brought the flood upon the world of the wicked. As if to say, That world was much better that time than now, nor did he destroy it; how terribly will he punish now, at the end of the world?
2 Now therefore behold Noah standing there in the midst of hell. It is a bad history to look at, but so powerful that no one can get enough of it. If it were to happen today that we were to live like him in the box, who would not despair? It is too horrible for reason and the senses to see that they have to float like this, that they have no place to stay, that water bursts and beats above and below.
(3) Secondly, they see nothing before their eyes, where they turn, but only death and dying, which should make one's heart tremble. For in such terrible wrath, since God is so severe that he does not spare any animal for the sake of mankind, they would think that God would also strike among them, especially because they saw the water striking all around.
4 Therefore, see what kind of faith it was that could stand in such a reputation of cruel wrath. There has been a real battle with faith and unbelief, and their heart must have suffered many a strong blow. There they still do not know any
1) In the editions: er.
They had to hold out for forty days, so that they could come out and be safe, neither above nor around themselves. Whoever would have helped him himself would have despaired, for there was no help to be seen. They had to cling to the word alone and fight by faith against all sense and reason. So you see what great, mighty power the word has when it is grasped with faith, that for five months they had death before their eyes without ceasing, and yet could despise it.
(5) Therefore it is written for the praise of faith, as all scripture is given for the strengthening of faith. The fish is one, that Christ might feed the people in the wilderness; and the ox or fatling, slain for the marriage, as it is written in Matthew [Cap. 22:4]. These things are to be preached and rehearsed; no work nor any pretence can help, one must cling nakedly to the mere word that God has said.
For I have seen you justified before me at this time.
This was so strong that it preserved them all with the ark in death, who otherwise would not have remained one day. The faith had to remain alive, even if there had been an eternal flood of sin. So they had to give themselves freely in the midst of death, so that they would be lost body and soul, where the word had not been.
7 Let us therefore also learn, when the hour cometh that we should die, and death is before our eyes, and with his look the devil's deceitfulness and God's wrath terrifieth us; lest thou think thou must perish, and grope about thee, and see where thou shalt tarry and stand (as they do that say, I die, and know not when; I go, and know not when).
not where). There you must close your eyes and all your senses, neither knowing nor wanting to hear, but what God's word says, not paying attention to what you feel, or ever overcoming it. Take hold of the word and do not let it be taken away from you, that you say: Here I am in distress and fear, but I know that I have been baptized and that God has promised me this and that; therefore, as much and as strongly as death may break in, hold out his word to him.
8 It will not do to say, "Oh! who has served God and done many good works. These are vain, nonsensical words, so that the devil only makes the poor people despondent. But then one should say: I have sinned and done much evil, and I am sorry for it; but you are such a God, who does not consider how pious or how evil one is, if one only looks and trusts in your goodness. Thus one can recover and remain in death, as the eight remained in the midst of the flood. That is what one should learn from this. Now this is the promise given to Noah: "Go into the box, you and your whole house" 2c. And these are living words, in which they are much more firmly preserved than in the box. For if he had not had this, he would have had to sink deeper than under the earth, where it could be. But to us they are written for an example, to strengthen and comfort the faith.
(9) And here it is necessary to be accustomed to the fact that the Scripture is called a "house", since we say "wife and child". But he excludes the servants, understands only what is of one flesh and blood and of the clan. Accordingly, in the other book of Moses [Cap. 1, 17. 21.], we read of the mothers of sorrow: "Because they feared God and let the children of the Jews live, he made them houses," that is, he gave them men and children; not that he built them houses of wood and stones. So you will find hereafter in this book, Cap. 30:3, how Rachel, when she had no children, gave her handmaid to Jacob her husband, saying, "Lie with her, that I may be built up by her," that is, that we may chasten ourselves and become more in the house. So he says here: "Thou and all thy house," that is, thy wife, three sons, and their wives.
V. 2.3 From all the clean livestock take to you seven and seven, the little woman and her maiden; but from the unclean livestock a couple each,
the male and his female. The same of the birds of the air, seven and seven, the male and his female, that seed may live upon the face of the whole earth.
(10) This is a strange text, so that I would not know why it was said if it did not contain mysteria, that is, spiritual interpretations. Above [Cap. 6, 20] he said about pairs and pairs, as also afterwards in this chapter, and yet here in the middle of the text he speaks that he should make a distinction between the clean and the unclean, and especially he expresses the birds, that he should take seven and seven in each.
(11) First of all, it is clear to see that much of the Law of Moses is taken from the ancient histories of the patriarchs. For so we read in the third book of Moses [Cap. 11, 3. 9. 10.] that God makes a distinction between the clean and the unclean, which are to be eaten or not eaten, and says what the sign is of the clean animals, namely, what splits the claws in two in the middle and chews the cud; item, from the fish, which have scales and raft feathers 2c. This is what Noah already said here, distinguishing the animals. In this way, Moses shows how the Law was already in effect in many parts among the earliest fathers, which he subsequently compiled, increased and improved by God's command.
12) As to the second, why he says here seven and seven each of the clean animals and birds, and above in the sixth chapter, v. 20, only one pair of all kinds of cattle and birds, we leave it until the mysteria. For according to the written sense, it is enough to think that there were not too many unclean animals in the box. After that, when Noah came in, he was to sacrifice perhaps once or twice, as it was already done, as afterwards with Moses in the law. If he had taken only one pair of clean animals with him, nothing else would have remained, so that a living seed would have been preserved.
V. 4. For yet more than seven days will I cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and will destroy every living thing from off the face of the earth that I have made.
This is the last sermon that Noah preached "on earth" before the flood, when he had now registered and prepared all things. But the people were now used to him bluing with them so long, 1) that it did not help and they were only hardened. Therefore Moses besieged:
V.5-10. And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Now he was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood came upon the earth, and he went into the coffer with his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives, before the waters of the flood: of the clean cattle, and of the unclean, and of the fowls, and of all the creeping things of the earth, went into the coffer with him in pairs, male and female, as the LORD commanded him. And when the seven days were expired, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
14. above [Cap. 5, 32.] he says that he was five hundred years old, now he says six hundred, that he has just preached a hundred years, and has given the castes enough time to mend. They lived a long time at the same time, so God gave them such a long time. Now He does not give such a long time, because we do not live so long. This also made them angry and hardened them, so that they thought: God gives us such a long respite, makes us comfortable, which is a sign that He is merciful to us and does not yet have need; if He were so angry and wanted to plague us so horribly, He would not let us live so long; as all unbelievers think. But God only allows them to be blinded and hardened by the fact that they deserve it.
(15) But when it came upon their necks, they fled, and had nowhere to go. God would not listen to them anymore, because they had not obeyed any preaching; they had called him in vain, so he calls them again in vain (Micah 3:4). So we are to learn in this, both the long-suffering and the wrath and punishment of God.
V. 11: In the six hundredth year of Noah's age, on the seventeenth day of the second month.
1) to blanch - to struggle, to toil.
16) Whoever reads in Moses must be accustomed to the fact that he uses many words in a hostile manner, so that he always does one thing, and is sometimes rich beyond measure, and therefore floods with words; again, at times so ill that he hardly dribbles, and does many things with one word, that it might be annoying to one who does not know the way of language. But God allows it to be written in such a way that he makes a fool of reason, because where he speaks most foolishly, he is most wise; therefore it is not to be despised. But he does it here in the chapter especially because Noah was concerned about it, since he was in such fear. When one is in distress, it is not too much to hear a word three or four times, one cannot preach and comfort enough; but when one has a good rest, one soon becomes discontented, as here one would think: You fool, why do you speak so many words? because it seems like he is washed; but this does not make anything different, because we are not in the sense that he had here.
V.11-24. This is the day when all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and opened the windows of heaven, and there came rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights. That same day Noah went into the box with Shem, Ham, and Japheth his sons, and with his wife, and his sons' three wives. And all manner of beasts after their kind, and all manner of cattle after their kind, and all manner of creeping things that creep upon the earth after their kind, and all manner of fowls after their kind, and all that fly, and all that have feet, all went in unto Noah into the coffer by couples, of all flesh, wherein was a living spirit: and they were male and female of all flesh, and went in, as God commanded him: and the LORD shut up after him. Then the flood came upon the earth forty days, and the waters increased, and lifted up the box, and carried it up above the earth. So the waters overflowed, and increased greatly on the earth, so that the box on the waters
2) hostile-----very much.
went. And the waters overflowed, and increased so much upon the earth, that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; fifteen cubits high did the waters overflow the mountains that were covered. Then all flesh that crept upon the earth perished, of birds, of cattle, of beasts, and of all that moved upon the earth, and of all men; every living thing that had a living breath in the dry land died. So everything that was on the face of the earth was destroyed, from man to beast, and to creeping things, and to the fowls of the air, all were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah remained, and all that was with him in the box. And the waters stood upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
(17) Then he says where the waters come from, that is, from below and above. What then are the fountains of the deep, and windows of heaven? It is spoken with flowery words, and so much is said: Where there was depth, as great ponds and lakes, there it went out, welled up and poured out, so that it washed away; so that the wells are, from where it welled up, and is broken out below; but above it is poured in.
Broken with a vain breast of clouds, 1) and violently washed away, suddenly gave much water; for much water belonged to it, that it went fifteen cubits over all the mountains, as he writes here.
(18) Of the secret interpretation of this chapter I will not say much; for what the flood signifies is sufficiently dealt with above [Cap. 6, ยง 35]; but of the clean and unclean animals belongs in another book of Moses, where it is commanded not to eat of unclean things, nor to sacrifice. For this interpretation is too broad and belongs to the gospel and the law. We have it also still in many pieces that we do not eat some animals, which uncleanness does not come from nature, but from God's law. So from the beginning of the world there have always been some statutes. For it is almost impossible for a government to exist without various outward statutes. The fathers already had differences among the animals, but they undoubtedly dealt with them freely, according to the freedom of conscience, just as many prophets afterwards did under the law.
1) Cloud breast - cloudburst.