Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/261

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righteous ((Symbol missingHebrew characters)) and faultless ((Symbol missingHebrew characters)): on the construction v.i. There is perhaps a correspondence between these two epithets and the description of the state of the world which follows; (Symbol missingHebrew characters) being opposed to the 'violence,' and (Symbol missingHebrew characters) to the 'corruption' of v.11f.. (Symbol missingHebrew characters), a forensic term, denotes one whose conduct is unimpeachable before a judge; (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is sacerdotal in its associations (Ex. 125, Lv. 13 etc.), meaning 'free from defect,' integer (cf. 171).—in his generations (v.i.)] i.e. alone among his contemporaries (cf. 71). That Noah's righteousness was only relative to the standard of his age is not implied.[1]walked with God] see on 522. The expression receives a fuller significance from the Babylonian legend, where Ut-napištim, like the Biblical Enoch, is translated to the society of the gods (p. 177 below).—11 f. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] is the intentional antithesis to the (Symbol missingHebrew characters) of 131 (De.).—All flesh had corrupted its way] had violated the divinely-appointed order of creation. The result is violence ((Symbol missingHebrew characters), G (Symbol missingGreek characters))—ruthless outrage perpetrated by the strong on the weak. A "nature red in tooth and claw with ravin" is the picture which rises before the mind of the writer; although, as has been already remarked (p. 129), the narrative of P contains no explanation of the change which had thus passed over the face of the world.


The fundamental idea of v.11f. is the disappearance of the Golden Age, or the rupture of the concord of the animal world established by the decree of 129f.. The lower animals contribute their share to the general 'corruption' by transgressing the regulation of 130, and commencing to prey upon each other and to attack man (see 95): so Ra. To restrict (Symbol missingHebrew characters) to mankind (TO, Tu. Str. Dri. Ben. al.) is therefore


  • (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] G (Symbol missingGreek characters). The f. pl. is highly characteristic of P

(Ho. Einl. 341); but apparently always as a real pl. (series of generations): ct. the solitary use of sg. in P, Ex. 16. Here, accordingly, it seems fair to understand it, not of the individual contemporaries of Noah (Tu. We. Ho. al.), but of the successive generations covered by his lifetime. The resemblance to (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (71) is adduced by We. (Prol.6 390) as a proof of P's dependence on J.—11. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] One of the few instances of P's use of the art. with (Symbol missingHebrew characters)12. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] G (Symbol missingGreek characters).

  1. So Jerome: "ut ostenderet non juxta justitiam consummatam, sed juxta generationis suæ eum justum fuisse justitiam."