Genesis 9:28

Gen 9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

Ver. 28, 29. And Noah lived after the flood, &c.] This man, if ever any that was born of a woman, had a long life, and full of misery. {Job 14:1} He saw the tenth generation after him before his death. But, oh, how oft was he occasioned to get under the juniper-tree with Elias, and desire to die! Before the flood, what a deal of wickedness and disorder beheld he in family, Church, and commonwealth; and all this punished by the deluge, to his unspeakable heart-break! Soon after he was mocked by his own son, and despised by almost all the rest of his posterity; whose unheard-of hardiness in building the tower of Babel, he was nolens volens , forced to see and suffer; and then shortly after, the confusion of tongues as their just punishment. What should I speak of their so many and so great cruelties, insolences, tyrannical usurpations, effusions of innocent blood, wars, stirs, strifes, superstitions, and abominable idolatries, under Nimrod, Jupiter, Belus, Semiramis, Zoroaster (the magic master), and other Emims and Zamzummims of the earth! Of all which, and a great deal more, this good old patriarch was, to his sorrow, not only an ear but an eye-witness. All which considered, it must needs be granted, that living so long, never any martyr, or other out of hell, suffered more misery than Noah did. {a} And the like may be said of Athanasius, of whom Master Hooker witnesseth, that for the space of forty-six years, from the time of his consecration to succeed Alexander Archbishop of Alexandria, till the last hour of his life in this world, his enemies never suffered him to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day. Was not he to be reckoned a martyr, though he died in his bed? Cur verear Chrysostomum appellare Martyrem ? saith Erasmus. {b} And why may not any man say as much of Luther? &c.

{a} Vix mihi persuadeo virum ex homine miseriorem natum fuisse quam Noah . - Funccii Chron., fol. 17.

{b} Erasm. in Vita Chrysost.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen_9:28-29

And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died

The years of Noah: their solemn lessons

Here is a brief record of a noble life.

There is little besides the simple numeration of years--merely a reference to the great event of Noahs history, and his falling at length under the common fate of all the race. This record, short as it is, teaches us some important lessons.

I. THE SLOW MOVEMENTS OF DIVINE JUSTICE. Before the flood the wickedness of man had grown so great that God threatened to cut short his appointed time upon the earth. His days were to be contracted to one hundred and twenty years--a terrible reduction of the energy of human life when man lived nearly one thousand years (Gen_6:3). But, from the instance of Noah, we find that this threat was not executed at once. Divine justice is stern and keen, but it is slow to punish.

II. THE ENERGY OF THE DIVINE BLESSING. God blessed man at the first, and endowed him with abundant measures of the spirit of life. Even when human iniquity required to be checked and punished by the curtailing of this sift, the energy of the old blessing suffered little abatement. God causes the power of that blessing still to linger among mankind. The hand of Divine goodness slackens but slowly in the bestowal of gifts to man. How often are the favours of Providence long continued to doomed nations and men! Underlying all Gods dealings with men there is the strong power of redemption, which is the life of every blessing. That power will yet overcome the worlds evil and subdue all things.

III. GODS PROVISION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE RACE. When men depended entirely upon verbal instruction, and teachers were few, the long duration of human life contributed to the preservation and the extending of knowledge. But as the education of the world advanced, new sources of knowledge were opened and teachers multiplied, the necessity for long life in the instructors of mankind grew less. The provisions of God are wonderfully adjusted to human necessity.

IV. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO PATIENT ENDURANCE. Here is one who bore the cross for the long space of nine hundred and fifty years. What a discipline in suffering as well as in doing the will of God! Time is the chief component among the forces that try patience, for patience is rather borne away by long trials than overwhelmed by the rolling wave. If tempted to murmur in affliction, or at our protracted contest with temptation and sin, let us think of those who have endured longer than we. (T. H. Leale.)

Noahs life and death

1. He lived accepted of God, promoted by Him, testifying against sin, preaching righteousness, giving laws from God to the generation wherein he was; and sometimes slipping into sin, and falling into bitter afflictions.

2. He died a death beseeming such a man; he died a saint, a believer, a glorious instrument in Christs Church, and so died in hope when by faith he had seen the promises. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Review of the Chapter

I. GOD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL to His promises, and mindful of those who trust in Him.

II. THE GOODNESS AND FAITHFULNESS OF GOD are further seen in His care for all His creatures, and in the steadfast order of nature. (Gen_8:1-22; Gen_9:9-10.)

III. NOAHS SIN is a most solemn warning. (1Co_10:12; Eph_5:18; 1Pe_5:8.) It is a sad finish to the history of so eminent a saint; an ominous beginning to the history of a new world. The first recorded sin after the Fall was a sin of violence; the first recorded sin after the flood was a sin of self-indulgence and sensuality. It is hard to say which of these two classes of sin has been, and is, the greatest curse to mankind. (The Congregational Pulpit.)

Lessons

1. Chronology is given by Gods Spirit. Special uses of it are in the Church.

2. Times and conditions of His Church God would have us know.

3. In the greatest desolations God hath raised some for His

Churchs good.

4. God extends the life of His saints as He bath use of them (Gen_9:28).

5. The longest life of saints wades through various conditions (Gen_9:29).

6. The longest living saint must die, yet like a saint, not fall as the wicked. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 9:28. Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years — Which period, as the Jews observe, reaches to the fifty-eighth year of Abraham’s age. So that we need be under no difficulty in accounting for the transmission of the original revelation made to Adam, and of other branches of divine truth, from the beginning of the world to the time of Abraham. Noah received these from his parents, who had the account from Adam’s own mouth, and transmitted it to Abraham. And its communication and descent from him to the Jews, and from the Jews to us, is sufficiently known. Within this time also Noah saw the building of the tower of Babel, the horrid wickedness and idolatry of his children, and the bloody wars which even then began to arise between some of them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_9:28-29

THE YEARS OF NOAH: THEIR SOLEMN LESSONS

Here is the brief record of a noble life. There is little besides the simple numeration of years—merely a reference to the great event of Noah’s history, and his falling at length under the common fate of all the race. This record, short as it is, teaches us some important lessons.

I. The slow movements of Divine justice. Before the flood the wickedness of man had grown so great that God threatened to cut short his appointed time upon the earth. His days were to be contracted to 120 years—a terrible reduction of the energy of human life when men lived nearly 1,000 years (Gen_6:3). But, from the instance of Noah, we find that this threat was not executed at once. Divine justice is stern and keen, but it is slow to punish.

II. The energy of the Divine blessing. God blessed man at the first, and endowed him with abundant measures of the spirit of life. Even when human iniquity required to be checked and punished by the curtailing of this gift, the energy of the old blessing suffered little abatement. God causes the power of that blessing still to linger among mankind. The hand of Divine goodness slackens but slowly in the bestowal of gifts to man. How often are the favours of Providence long continued to doomed nations and men! Underlying all God’s dealings with men there is the strong power of redemption, which is the life of every blessing. That power will yet overcome the world’s evil and subdue all things.

III. God’s provision for the education of the race. When men depended entirely upon verbal instruction, and teachers were few, the long duration of human life contributed to the preservation and the extending of knowledge. But as the education of the world advanced, new sources of knowledge were opened and teachers multiplied, the necessity for long life in the instructors of mankind grew less. The provisions of God are wonderfully adjusted to human necessity.

IV. An encouragement to patient endurance. Here is one who bore the cross for the long space of 950 years. What a discipline in suffering as well as in doing the will of God! Time is the chief component among the forces that try patience, for patience is rather borne away by long trials than overwhelmed by the rolling wave. If tempted to murmur in affliction, or at our protracted contest with temptation and sin, let us think of those who have endured longer than we.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Gen_9:28-29. He lived accepted of God, promoted by Him, testifying against sin, preaching righteousness, giving laws from God to the generation wherein he was; and sometimes slipping into sin, and falling into bitter afflictions. He died a death beseeming such a man; he died a saint, a believer, a glorious instrument in Christ’s Church, and so died in hope when by faith he had seen the promises.—(Hughes.)

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY

REV. WM. ADAMSON

Noah’s Death! Gen_9:28-29. The Jews have a myth of Noah, that on his deathbed he ordered his children to bring him wine sparkling in a beautiful cup. Holding it in his hand, he spoke to them of the vine. Let the vine be an emblem to you of your dignity, for it is full of weakness.

(1) Yet, as it creeps in the dust until the elm tree offers its aid, and then rises and gains strength by twining itself around the branches, so man is weak until he twines himself round the outstretched arm of God.

(2) Again, as the firm tree offers its supporting branches to the humble vine, in order that its hundred tendrils may wreathe themselves upwards nearer heaven, so God graciously offers His mighty arm for man’s soul to entwine his affections heavenward.

(3) Again, as the vine draws its nourishment of life from the earth, while on high it forms the coarser material into the leaf, and blossom, and refreshing grape, so should man. For as the vine needs light from above to pervade and invigorate, so man’s heart requires God’s light to stablish it. Then Noah gave them each the cup of wine; then drank thereof himself, and died.

“No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode;

There they abide in trembling hope repose,

The bosom of his Father and his God.”—Southey.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here see, 1. How God prolonged the life of Noah; he lived 950 years, twenty more than Adam and but nineteen less than Methuselah: this long life was a further reward of his signal piety, and a great blessing to the world, to which no doubt he continued a preacher of righteousness, with this advantage, that now all he preached to were his own children. 2. How God put a period to his life at last. Though he lived long, yet he died, having probably first seen many that descended from him dead before him. Noah lived to see two worlds, but, being an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, when he died he went to see a better than either.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

28. And Noah lived. Although Moses briefly states the age of the holy man, and does not record his annals and the memorable events of his life, yet those things which are certain, and which Scripture elsewhere commemorates, ought to recur to our minds. Within one hundred and fifty years, the offspring of his three sons became so numerous, that he had sufficient and even abundant proof of the efficacy of the Divine benediction Increase and multiply. He sees, not one city only, filled with his grandchildren, nor his seed expanded barely to three hundred families; but many nations springing from one of his sons who should inhabit extensive regions. This astonishing increase, since it was a visible representation of the divine favor towards him, would doubtless fill him with unbounded joy. For Abraham was nearly fifty years old when his ancestor Noah died. In the meantime, he was compelled to behold many things, which would afflict his holy breast with incredible grief. To omit other things; he saw in the family of Shem, the sanctuary of God, — into which the sons of Japheth were to be received, — destroyed, or, at least, dilapidated and rent. For whereas the father of Abraham himself, having deserted his proper station, had erected for himself a profane tabernacle; a very small portion indeed remained of those who worshipped God in the harmonious consent of a pure faith. With what tormenting pains this terrible confusion affected him cannot be sufficiently expressed in words. Hence we may know, that his eyes of faith must have been exceedingly penetrating, which did not fail to behold afar of, the grace of God, in preserving the Church, at that time overwhelmed by the wickedness of men.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So that he not only saw the old world, and the wickedness of that, and the destruction of it for it, but an increase of wickedness again, the building of the tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, the dispersion of his offspring, and the wars among them in the times of Nimrod, and others: however, it was a blessing to mankind that he lived so long after the flood in the new world, to transmit to posterity, by tradition, the affairs of the old world; and to give a particular account of the destruction of it, and to instruct them in the doctrines and duties of religion. By this it appears, that he lived within thirty two years of the birth of Abraham. The Jews conclude from hence, that he lived to the fifty eighth year of Abraham's life: it may be remarked, that it is not added here as usual to the account of the years of the patriarchs, "and he begat sons and daughters"; from whence it may be concluded, that he had no more children than the three before mentioned, as well as from the silence of the Scriptures elsewhere, and from the old age of himself and his wife, and especially from what is said; see Gill on Gen 9:19.

Genesis 9:29

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which reacheth to the fifty-eighth year of Abraham’s age, as the Jews note. And so we have a manifest account of the propagation of religion, from the beginning of the world to this day. Noah received it from his parents, who had the account of it from their first father Adam’s own mouth, and transmitted it to Abraham; and its descent from him to the Jews, and by the Jews to others, is sufficiently known. Within this time also Noah saw the building of Babel’s tower, the horrid wickedness and idolatry of his children, and the bloody wars which even then arose between some of them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

28. Noah lived after the flood — The narrative up to this verse may have been composed during the life of Noah, and in all probability the details of the deluge, the covenant, and these wondrous predictions, minute and graphic as they are, were written by Noah or by Shem, not in the present form, for the Hebrew did not then exist, but in a more primitive tongue, from which they were afterward translated by some one of their descendants, probably before the time of Moses.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 28, 29. And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. Ie. to the fifty-eighth year of the life of Abram, and was thus in all probability a witness of the building of the tower of Babel, and of the consequent dispersion of mankind. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died. Tuch, Bleek, and Colenso connect these verses with ver. 17, as the proper continuation of the Elohist"s work.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

translationWords

flood

Noah

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

ויחי נח, the principal reason why the Torah lists the ages of these antediluvian people is only to enable us to count back to when human history started with the creation of Adam. All such basic historical data are provided both in the Torah and in the Books of the prophets.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.