Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 7

Come thou. —The task of building the ark is over, and after a week, to be spent in collecting animals and birds, Noah is to dwell in it. Many commentators suppose that 120 years were spent in the work; but this view arises from an untenable interpretation of Genesis 6:3, which really fixes the future duration of human life.

Of every clean beast — Hebrew: of all clean cattle — you shall take for yourself by sevens — Hebrew: seven seven. — This probably does not mean seven pairs of each, though many commentators interpret it that way, but rather seven individuals of each kind. If, however, seven pairs is the correct interpretation, then only a few species could have been included, since attending properly to such a large number of animals would have been beyond the capability of Noah and his sons. But which were the clean beasts?

There can be no reference here to the Levitical law, which concerned human food, nor to a distinction between tamed and untamed animals, since all are alike called cattle. Instead, the clean cattle were probably those that, from the days of Adam and Abel, had been offered in sacrifice.

Thus, provision was made for Noah’s sacrifice upon his departure from the ark, and also for his possession of a small herd of such animals as would be most useful to him amidst the desolation that must have existed for a long time after the flood. The clean beasts would therefore be oxen, sheep, and goats; the unclean would be camels, horses, asses, and such other animals as stood in some relation to humans. Among birds, the dove would especially be clean.

It has been pointed out that these more complete and specific orders are given in the name of Jehovah, whereas most of the narrative of the flood is Elohistic. Hence, it has been assumed that a Jehovist narrator added to and completed the earlier narrative. These additions would include Genesis 7:1-6, the last clause of Genesis 7:16, Noah’s sacrifice in Genesis 8:20-22, and the cursing of Canaan in Genesis 9:18-27.

Now, it is remarkable that the sacrifice is as integral a part of the Chaldean Genesis as the sending forth of the birds (Chaldean Genesis, p. 286), and is thus indubitably older than the time of Moses. Still, there is nothing improbable in Moses having two records of the flood before him, and while the division of Genesis into Elohistic and Jehovistic portions usually breaks down, there is a prima facie appearance of the combination of two narratives in the present history, or, at least, in this one section (Genesis 7:1–6).

Forty days. —Henceforth, forty became the sacred number of trial and patience. Besides the obvious places in the Old Testament, it was also the duration of our Lord’s fast in the wilderness and His sojourn on earth after the Resurrection.

Every living substance. —The word “living” is found neither in the Hebrew nor in the ancient versions, and it limits the sense unnecessarily. The word is rare, being found only three times, namely: here, in Genesis 7:23, and in Deuteronomy 11:6. It means whatever stands erect. Thus God “destroys”—Hebrew, blots out ()—not only man and beast, but the whole existing state of things—“from the face of the earth”—Hebrew, the adâmâh, the cultivated and inhabited ground. This section assigns a much more limited extent to the flood. It does not include reptiles (or rather, small animals) among those saved in the ark, and it confines the overflow of the waters to the inhabited region.

Noah was six hundred years old. —It follows that Shem was about one hundred years of age , and his two brothers younger; but all were married, though apparently without children. (Compare Genesis 11:10.)

Beasts. —Hebrew, of the clean cattle and of the cattle that was not clean. In the Chaldean Genesis, Xisuthrus also takes wild animals, seeds of all kinds of plants, gold and silver, male and female slaves, the “sons of the best,” and the “sons of the people” (pages 280-283). There it is a whole tribe, with their chief, who are saved—here one family only.