- The Blessing of Noah

2. מורא môrā', "fear, reverence, awful deed." חת chat, "dread, breaking of the courage."

Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the Lord with burnt-offerings. In him, therefore, the race of man is to be begun anew. Accordingly, as at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to bless him. First. The grant of increase is the same as at first, but expressed in ampler terms. Second. Dominion over the other animals is renewed. But some reluctance on their part to yield obedience is intimated. "The fear and dread of you." These terms give token of a master whose power is dreaded, rather than of a superior whose friendly protection is sought. "Into your hand are they given." They are placed entirely at the disposal of man.

God blessed Noah - Even the increase of families, which appears to depend on merely natural means, and sometimes fortuitous circumstances, is all of God. It is by his power and wisdom that the human being is formed, and it is by his providence alone that man is supported and preserved.

And God blessed Noah and his sons,.... With temporal blessings, not spiritual ones; for though some of them were blessed with such, yet not all, particularly Ham:

and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth; depopulated by the flood: this is a renewal of the blessing on Adam, a power and faculty of propagating his species, which was as necessary now as then, since there were so few of the human race left in the world; and the renewal of this grant was the rather necessary, if, as has been observed, Noah and his sons were restrained from cohabiting with their wives while in the ark: but though these words are not an express command for the propagation of their species, yet more than a bare permission, at least they are a direction and instruction to it, and even carry in them a promise of fruitfulness, that they should multiply and increase, which was very needful at this time.

These divine purposes of peace, which were communicated to Noah while sacrificing, were solemnly confirmed by the renewal of the blessing pronounced at the creation and the establishment of a covenant through a visible sign, which would be a pledge for all time that there should never be a flood again. In the words by which the first blessing was transferred to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:2), the supremacy granted to man over the animal world was expressed still more forcibly than in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 1:28; because, inasmuch as sin with its consequences had loosened the bond of voluntary subjection on the part of the animals to the will of man-man, on the one hand, having lost the power of the spirit over nature, and nature, on the other hand, having become estranged from man, or rather having rebelled against him, through the curse pronounced upon the earth-henceforth it was only by force that he could rule over it, by that "fear and dread" which God instilled into the animal creation. Whilst the animals were thus placed in the hand (power) of man, permission was also given to him to slaughter them for food, the eating of the blood being the only thing forbidden.

And God {a} blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

(a) God increased them with fruit, and declared to them his counsel as concerning the replenishing of the earth.

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons - He assured them of his good - will to them, and his gracious intentions concerning them. The first blessing is here renewed, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and repeated, Ge 9:7; for the race of mankind was as it were to begin again. By virtue of this blessing mankind was to be both multiplied and perpetuated upon earth; so that in a little time all the habitable parts of the earth should be more or less inhabited; and tho' one generation should pass away, yet another generation should come, so that the stream of the human race should be supplied with a constant succession, and run parallel with the current of time, 'till both be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity.

[2] and said unto them

The Noahic Covenant. The elements are:

(1) The relation of man to the earth under the Adamic Covenant is confirmed See Scofield Note: "Gen 8:21"

(2) The order of nature is confirmed (Gen 8.22)

(3) Human government is established (Gen 9.1-6)

(4) Earth is secured against another universal judgment by water Gen 8:21 9:11

(5) A prophetic declaration is made that from Ham will descend an inferior and servile posterity Gen 9:24,25.

(6) A prophetic declaration is made that Shem will have a peculiar relation to Jehovah Gen 9:26,27. All divine revelation is through Semitic men, and Christ, after the flesh, descends from Shem.

(7) A prophetic declaration is made that from Japheth will descend the "enlarged" races Gen 9:27. Government, science, and art, speaking broadly, are and have been Japhetic, Song that history is the indisputable record of the exact fulfilment of these declarations. See Scofield Note: "Gen 8.21" for the other seven covenants:

EDENIC Gen 1:28

ADAMIC Gen 3:15

ABRAHAMIC Gen 15:18

MOSAIC Ex 19:25

PALESTINIAN Dt 30:3

DAVIDIC 2Sam 7:16

NEW Heb 8:8

CHAPTER 9

Ge 9:1-7. Covenant.

1. And God blessed Noah-Here is republished the law of nature that was announced to Adam, consisting as it originally did of several parts.

Be fruitful, &c.-The first part relates to the transmission of life, the original blessing being reannounced in the very same words in which it had been promised at first [Ge 1:28].

9:1-3 The blessing of God is the cause of our doing well. On him we depend, to him we should be thankful. Let us not forget the advantage and pleasure we have from the labour of beasts, and which their flesh affords. Nor ought we to be less thankful for the security we enjoy from the savage and hurtful beasts, through the fear of man which God has fixed deep in them. We see the fulfilment of this promise every day, and on every side. This grant of the animals for food fully warrants the use of them, but not the abuse of them by gluttony, still less by cruelty. We ought not to pain them needlessly whilst they live, nor when we take away their lives.