32. "Shem, Ham, and Japheth."-The opinion most generally entertained, that the order of the birth of the three sons of Noah was according to their enumeration in this place, is shown to be incorrect by other passages in this book, which describe Japheth as the first-born, Shem as the second, and Ham as the youngest. See chap. x. verse 21, where Shem is described as "the father of all the sons of Heber, the brother of Japheth the elder." It is, however, less certain that Japheth was older than Shem than that he was older than Ham, who, in chap. ix. verse 24, is expressly called the youngest. It is not unusual in the Bible to enumerate the younger before the elder son, when the former was more eminent. Thus, in chap. xi. verse 26, it is said that Terah begat Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, when Haran was the eldest. In the present instance, the ground of distinction is that Shem was the progenitor of the Hebrew race.

1 Or, the whole imagination. The Hebrew word signifieth not only the imagination, but also the purposes and desires. 2 Chap. 8. 21. Matth. 15. 19. 3 Heb. every day. Heb. from man unto beast. 5 Ecclus. 44. 17. 2 Pet. 2. 5. 6 Or, upright. 7 Or, from the earth. Heb, nests.

thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they

shall be male and female.

20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of

the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and

for them.

22 'Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

9 Heb. 11. 7.

Verse 4. "Giants."-It is by no means agreed by commentators that the word (nephilim) thus translated means men remarkable for their stature; the derivation and the context concur to render it more probable that it here characterises the men who first departed from the religion taught to Adam, and who sustained their apostacy by acts of violence and oppression. They were probably the men who were the first to endeavour to gain for themselves power in the earth. Several very different words in the Bible, signifying eminence, not only in wickedness but in knowledge, courage, piety, virtue, &c. are equally translated by the same English word "giant;" and it is never safe to understand it as meaning large stature, unless the context fixes that signification. In the present word, apostacy seems the leading idea.

"Sons of God-daughters of men.”-There is no foundation for the common opinion that angels are meant by the term "sons of God." The obvious and reasonable sense is, that upright and true men (sons of God) formed ill-advised unions with apostate and unbelieving women (daughters of men); and that the combination of influences resulting from this parentage enabled their children to become conquerors and chiefs-" mighty men, men of renown." We seem here to be witnessing the first efforts of men coveting dominion over their fellows.

14. "Make thee an ark."-There is much difference of opinion about the form of the ark. The common figures are given under the impression that it was intended to be adapted to progressive motion; whereas no other object was sought than to construct a vessel which should float for a given time upon the water. For this purpose it was not necessary to place the ark in a sort of boat, as in the common figures; and we may be content with the simple idea which the text gives, which is, that of an enormous oblong box, or wooden house, divided into three stories, and apparently with a sloping roof. The most moderate statement of its dimensions makes the ark by far the largest of vessels ever made to float upon the water. As the measurements are given, the only doubt is as to which of the cubit measures used by the Hebrews is here intended. It seems that the standard of the original cubit was the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, or about eighteen inches. This was the common cubit; but there was also a sacred cubit, which some call a hand's breadth (three inches) larger than the common one; while others make the sacred cubit twice the length of the common. The probability is that there were two cubit measures beside the common; one being of twenty-one inches, and the other of three feet. Some writers add the geometrical cubit of nine feet. Shuckford says we must take the common or shortest cubit as that for the ark; and Dr. Hales, taking this advice, obtained the following result: "It must have been of the burden of 42, 413 tons. A first rate man-of-war is between 2200 and 2300 tons; and, consequently, the capacity or stowage of eighteen such ships, the largest in present use, and might carry 20,000 men, with provisions for six months, besides the weight of 1800 cannon and all military stores. It was then by much the largest ship ever built."

"Gopher wood.”—When we consider that and xuzagirros have the same radical consonants, we are at once led to select a species of cypress as the "gopher wood," or rather the gopher tree in question. The wood of the cypress possesses an unrivalled fame for its durability, and its resistance to those injuries which are incident to other kinds of wood. The divine appointment had doubtless a reason founded in the nature of things, and no better reason can be found than the matchless excellence of the wood recommended. The compact and durable nature of the cypress rendered it peculiarly eligible for sacred purposes; hence we find it was employed in the construction of coffins among the Athenians, and mummy-cases among the Egyptians. The cupressus sempervirens, a straight and elegant tree of the cone-bearing family, seems therefore to have the best title to the credit of having furnished the material for the most important vessel that was ever constructed.

“Pitch” (Chemer).—The pitch here mentioned was of the mineral kind, and essentially of the same nature as that inflammable substance which is often seen bubbling up in a piece of coal when laid upon a clear fire. Naphtha, petroleum, mineral tar, &c. seem to be, in fact, but one substance in different conditions. They are all remarkable for their inflammable character. Neither the inventions of art nor the researches of science have discovered any other substance so well adapted to exclude the water and to repel the injuries of worms as the mineral pitch or bitumen. In reading the Bible in a cursory manner, we are too apt to regard the directions of the Almighty as founded upon some arbitrary or mysterious reason, instead of assuming, that if they are not to be accounted for upon the principles of common sense, it is because we have failed to interpret them rightly. The original word copher is worth remembering, since it is the parent of our word cover, and is preserved in all the Shemitic languages, or those spoken by the descendants of Shem.

9 Wisd. 10. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 5.

14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 3 Heb. blot out. 4 Or, on the seventh day. 5 Or, flood-gates. Verse 2. "Every clean beast.”—It is not necessary to conclude that the terms "clean" and "unclean," in this verse, express fitness or unfitness for food. The expressions do not impair the alleged probability that animal food was not used before the deluge. Since the institution of sacrifice existed in the antediluvian period, there must have been a distinction between the beasts that were proper and those unsuitable to be offered. The former are here supposed to be described as "clean," and the latter "unclean,"-probably comprehending all carnivorous animals.

Heb. in going forth and returning. 4 Heb. caused her to come. 5 Heb. families. 6 Heb. a savour of rest. 7 Chap. 6, 5. Matth. 15. 19.

8 Heb. as yet all the days of the earth.

Verse 4. "Ararat"-It is generally admitted that the mountain on which the ark rested lies in Armenia; although there are some who contend that it must be sought in Cashgar, on the extension eastward of the great Caucasian chain. The investigations of recent Biblical critics have, however, tended to strengthen the original conviction in favour of the Armenian mountains. The particular mountain to which people of different nations and religions concur in awarding this distinction is situated in N. lat. 39° 30', and E. long. 44° 30', in the vast chain of Taurus, and nearly in the centre between the southern extremities of the Black and the Caspian Seas. Its summit is elevated 17,260 feet above the level of the sea, and is always covered with snow, as indeed is the whole mountain, for three or four months in the year. It is a very grand object, being not merely a high summit in a chain of elevated mountains, but standing as it were apart and alone-the minor mountains, which seem to branch out from it, and decline away in the distance, being so perfectly insignificant in comparison, that the sublime effect of this most magnificent mountain is not at all impaired, or its proportions hidden by them. This great mountain is separated into two heads, distinguished as the Great and Little Ararat, which perhaps accounts for the plural expression, "mountains," of the text. The heads form distinct cones, separated by a wide chasm or glen, which renders the distance between the two peaks 12,000 yards. One of them is much smaller than the other, and forms a more regular and pointed cone: it is also much lower, and its summit is clear of snow in summer. The Armenians, who have many religious establishments in its vicinity, regard the mountain with intense veneration, and are firmly persuaded that the ark is still preserved on its summit.

7. "Raven."-xoga, Oreb, Heb., which, from its etymology, we might translate" the bird of night," an appellation which it owed to the tincture of its plumage, which was dark, like the livery of night, or Ereb, Heb. A word of the same origin is extended by the Arabian writers to the rook, crow, and jackdaw, as well as to the raven: in fact it seems to include all those species which are by Cuvier ranged under the genus Corvus. The predominant colour of these is black, hence Ereb (the origin of the classic Erebus), implying a sable hue, is a very proper word as a generic appellation corresponding to Corvus. As this bird soon grows familiar, its docility might have induced the patriarch to think, that unless it found a fair resting-place, it would return again to the ark. When it is said that "it went forth to and fro," we are not to suppose that the raven continued upon the wing for seven days and nights without resting; for the words in the original imply a going forth, and returning to the same spot whence the departure was taken.

8. "A dove."-The nearest approximation to the truth will be, pernaps, to consider the original word Yonah as a counterpart to Columba, the generic term for all the various kinds of dove with which we are acquainted. Different species of dove seem to be diffused over all the regions of the torrid and temperate zones. The fondness which these birds exhibit for home is well known, and for this reason, probably, the patriarch made choice of the dove for the purpose alluded to in the Sacred Narrative.

22. "Seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter."-Here six divisions of the natural year are mentioned; and it seems that the Jews adopted the same division of the seasons, in reference to the labours of agriculture, which formed the principal employment of the mass of the population. The same divisions are still in use among the Arabs. A few particulars concerning the period and natural phenomena of each season in the Holy Land may be usefully given. The same statement applies more or less to the adjoining regions.

"Seed-time" extended from the beginning of October to the beginning of December. During this season the weather is various, very often misty, cloudy, with mizzling or pouring rain. The early autumnal rains begin to fall late in