Bible Commentaries
Go deeper in Scripture
Browse trusted public-domain commentary alongside DiscipleDeck Bible study. References inside each commentary open Bible previews in place.
35,156 commentary entries
All active commentary sources
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:1-9
The ark entered. I. THE INVITATION OF JEHOVAH. "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." This invitation was— 1. Timely. It was given on the finishing of the ark, and therefore not too soon; also seven days before the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:1
And the Lord, Jehovah, since Elohim now appears as the covenant God, though this change in the Divine name is commonly regarded by modern critics as betraying the hand of a Jehovist supplementer of the fundamental docum…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:1-6
God the Savior inviting faith. "Come thou and all thy house into the ark," &c. Covenant mercy. A type of the Christian Church, with its special privilege and defense, surrounded with the saving strength of God. I. DIVIN…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:2
Of every clean beast. That the distinction between clean and unclean animals was at this time understood is easier to believe than that the writer would perpetrate the glaring anachronism of introducing in prediluvian t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:3
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female. I.e. of clean fowls, "which he leaves to be understood out of the foregoing verse" (Poole). The Samaritan, Syriac, and LXX. (not so Vulgate, Onkelos, Arabic)…
The Deluge. (b. c. 2349.)
THE DELUGE. (B. C. 2349.) Here is Noah's ready obedience to the commands that God gave him. Observe, 1. He went into the ark, upon notice that the flood would come after seven days, though probably as yet there appeared…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:6
And Noah was six hundred years old. Literally, a sum of six hundred years, i.e. in his 600th year (cf. Genesis 7:11). The number six "is generally a Scriptural symbol of suffering. Christ suffered on the sixth day. In t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:7-16
Realized salvation. "And Noah went in," &c. "And the Lord shut him in" (Genesis 7:7, Genesis 7:10, Genesis 7:16). I. The CONTRAST between the position of the BELIEVER and that of the UNBELIEVER. The difference between a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:7
And Noah went in. I.e. began to go in a full week before the waters came (vide Genesis 7:10). "A proof of faith and a warning to the world." And his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him. In all eight persons…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:10
And it came to pass after seven days (literally, at the seventh of the days), that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. HOMILETICS
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:11-12
Here is, I. The date of this great event; this is carefully recorded, for the greater certainty of the story. 1. It was in the 600th year of Noah's life, which, by computation, appears to be 1656 years from the creation…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:11-24
EXPOSITION Genesis 7:11, Genesis 7:12 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month. Not Genesis 7:13, Genesis 7:14 In the selfsame day—literally, in the bone, or strength, or essence (Genesis 2:23) of t…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:13-16
The ravenous creatures were made mild and manageable; yet, when this occasion was over, they were of the same kind as before; for the ark did not alter their natures. Hypocrites in the church, who outwardly conform to t…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:13-16
Here is repeated what was related before of Noah's entrance into the ark, with his family and creatures that were marked for preservation. Now, I. It is thus repeated for the honour of Noah, whose faith and obedience he…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:15
And they went in unto Noah into the ark (cf. Genesis 6:20, which affirmed they should come), two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. Cf. the three expressions for an animated creature— חַיָּה (Genesis 1…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:16
The believer's safety. Parable of the ten virgins speaks of a final separation. "The door was shut." 'There our thoughts are turned to those without; here, to those within. The time was come when the choice must be made…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:16
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God (Etohim) had commanded him. This evidently closed an Elohistic passage, according to Colenso, as the ensuing clause as manifestly belongs to the Jehovi…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:17-20
The flood was increasing forty days. The waters rose so high, that the tops of the highest mountains were overflowed more than twenty feet. There is no place on earth so high as to set men out of the reach of God's judg…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:17-20
We are here told, I. How long the flood was increasing—forty days, Genesis 7:17. The profane world, who believed not that it would come, probably when it came flattered themselves with hopes that it would soon abate and…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:17-19
And the flood was forty days upon the earth. Referring to the forty days' and nights' rain of Genesis 7:4 ( τεσσαρα ì κοντα ἡ μεì ρας καιÌ τεσσαραì κοντα νυì κτας, LXX.), during which the augmentation of the waters is…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:19
Was the Flood universal? I. THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT. Unquestionably the language of the historian appears to describe a complete submergence of the globe beneath a flood of waters, and is capable of being so understood, so…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:20
Fifteen cubits upward—half the height of the ark—did the waters prevail. Literally, become strong; above the highest mountains obviously, and not above the ground simply; as, on the latter alternative, it could scarcely…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:21-24
All the men, women, and children, that were in the world, excepting those in the ark, died. We may easily imagine what terror seized them. Our Saviour tells us, that till the very day that the flood came, they were eati…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 7:21-24
Here is, I. The general destruction of all flesh by the waters of the flood. Come, and see the desolations which God makes in the earth (Psalm 46:8), and how he lays heaps upon heaps. Never did death triumph, from its f…