Genesis Chapter 7

Monday, 22 September 2008

This time around the notes are in brackets and are represented by verse referece. For example, the first note for Gen 7:1 would be [7.1a], the second note would be [7.1b], and so forth.

Translation

And said YHWH to Noach, “Go--you and all your house--to the ark, for I have seen you as just before me in this cycle of generations.[7.1] From all the clean beasts take to you seven by seven--a male and his mate--and from the beasts that are not clean two, a male and his mate. Also from the Flying of the heavens seven by seven, male and female, to cause descendants[7.3a] to live upon the face of all the Land. For in seven days I am causing rain upon the Land, day forty and night forty. I am wiping out all the Living which I have made from all the face of the earthen soil."

And Noach did everything YHWH commanded him.

And Noach was a son of 600 years, and the flood waters were upon the Land. And Noach, his sons, his woman, and the women of his sons with him came to the ark before the waters of the Flood. From the clean beast, from the beast which was not clean, from the Flying, and all which crawl upon the earthen soil, two by two came to Noach and to the ark, male and female, as Elohim commanded Noach.

And it was seven days[7.10a], and the waters of the flood were upon the Land. In the year six hundredth year of Noach’s life, in the second month, in the month’s 17th day, in that day all the springs of the great deep split open and the lattice windows of the Skies were opened. [7.11a] The the rain was upon the Land forty days and forty nights.

In the same day came Noach, Shem, Cham and Yaphet--the sons of Noach--and the woman of Noach and the three women of his sons with them to the ark. They and every Animal according to her kind, and every Beast according to her kind, and every Crawling Crawler upon the Land according to his kind, and every Flyer according to his kind, every Bird and all the Winged. And they came to Noach, to the ark, two by two from all flesh that has in it the breath of life. And those that came, male and female from all flesh, came as Elohim commanded him, and YHWH shut behind him.[7.16a]

And the flood was forty days upon the Land,

The waters were increased and carried the ark,
         and it went high from upon the Land.
The waters were mighty and greatly increased upon the Land,
     and the ark went upon the face the waters.
The waters greatly increased upon the Land
     and covered all the high mountains which were under all the Skies.
The waters prevailed,
     they covered fifteen cubits above the mountains.

All flesh that moved upon the earth died
--of the Flying, of the Beast,
     of the Animal,
     of every Swarming Swarmer upon the Land,
     and all the Earthling.
All things which breathed the breath of life in it’s nose,
     from everything which is on dry land, died.
All living things upon the face of the earthen soil He wiped out,
     from Earthling to Beast
     to Crawler to Flyer of the Skies.
They were wiped out from the Land,
      and only Noach and those with him in the ark remained.[7.23a]

And the waters prevailed upon the upon the Land one hundred fifty days.

Notes

[7.1] Hebrew word dwr has the meaning of cycles. According to HALOT the root means “to stack in circles”. Specific meaning here is “cycle, lifetime, descent, generation, (all the people who have grown up in the period from the birth of a man until the birth of his first son”

[7.3a] “Seed”.

[7.10a] Targums Neofiti and Pseudo-Jonathan add “at the end of the seven days of the mourning of Methuselah”. Pseudo-Jonathan adds to this: “the Lord saw and behold, mankind did not regret, so the waters of the flood were coming down boiling from the heavens onto the earth.” According to Gen 5, Methushelach would have been 600 years old. His name may mean “[At] his death [it] will be sent”. The Rabbis understood this to mean, “At his death the flood will be sent.”

[7.11a] In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan this entire verse reads: “In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, it is the month of Marcheshvan, for until then the months were not reckoned except from Tishri, which was the New Year according to the completion of the world on the seventeenth day of the month. On that day all the fountains of the great deep were split open. Then the sons of the giants put their children there and stopped them up, so afterwards the windows of heaven were opened up.”

[7.16a] Both Onqelos and Neofiti have “protected him” rather than shut behind him. Targum Neofiti has “. . . and the Lord protected him by his good mercies.” Pseudo-Jonathan reads “and the word of the Lord shut the door of the ark after him.” LXX reads “. . . and the Lord God shut the ark outside of him.”

[7.23a] I think this reads like a song or poem fragment. I haven't seen it anywhere else in this manner. I'll have to check commentaries.

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Jonathan Bartlett - My Blogs

|24.249.237.xxx |09-24-2008 09:37

A song! How interesting. I'll have to look at that.

You asked the other day about my blogs - I've got four of them, but they are all linked here as well as a combined feed:

http://www.bartlettpublishing.com/site/bartpub/section/3

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Jimmy Doyle - A Song

|09-24-2008 18:20

Yeah...it makes sense to me. Take a look at it in Hebrew, especially the passages concerning the water (that's what I initially started with) and then the repetition in the later segment, held together by the word kol. In my translation I tried to express the way the reading comes across to me.

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