Genesis Chapter 8 verse 21 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21 - And the Lord (Jehovah) smelled - as is done by drawing the air in and out through the nostrils; from the root ruach, to breathe; high., to smell - a sweet savor. Reach hannichoach literally, an odor of satisfaction, acquiescence, or rest; from nuach, to rest, with an allusion to Noah's name (vide Genesis 5:29); ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (LXX.); (cf. Leviticus 2:12; Leviticus 26:31; Numbers 15:3; Ezekiel 6:13). The meaning is that the sacrifice of the patriarch was as acceptable to God as refreshing odors are to the senses of a man; and that which rendered it acceptable was (1) the feeling from which it sprang, whether gratitude or obedience; (2) the truths which it expressed - it was tantamount to an acknowledgment of personal guilt, a devout recognition of the Divine mercy, an explicit declaration that he had been saved or could only be saved through the offering up of the life of another, and a cheerful consecration of his redeemed life to God; (3) the great sacrifice of which it was a type. Paul, by using the language of the LXX. (Ephesians 5:2), shows that he regarded the two as connected. And the Lord said in his heart. I.e. resolved within himself. It is not certain that this determination on the part of Jehovah was at this time communicated to the patriarch (cf. Genesis 6:3, 7 for Divine inward resolves which were not at the moment made known), unless the correct reading be to his (Noah's) heart, meaning the Lord comforted him (cf. Judges 19:3; Ruth 2:13; Isaiah 40:2; Hosea 2:14), which is barely probable. I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. Literally, I will not add to curse. Not a revocation of the curse of Genesis 3:17, nor a pledge that such curse would not be duplicated. The language refers solely to the visitation of the Deluge, and promises not that God may not some. times visit particular localities with a flood, but that another such world-wide catastrophe should never overtake the human race. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Genesis 6:5 assigns this as the reason for man's destruction; a proof of inconsistency between the Elohistic author and his Jehovistic editor (Bleek). "Hie inconstantiae videtur Deus accusari posse" (Luther). "God seems to contradict himself by having previously declared that the world must be destroyed because its iniquity was desperate" (Calvin). Some endeavor to remove the incongruity by translating כִּי as although (Bush, Inglis), but "there are few (if any) places were כִּי can be rendered although" (T. Lewis). Others connect it with "for man's sake," as explanatory not of the promise, but of the past judgment (Murphy), or as stating that any future cursing of the ground would not be for man's sake (Jacobus). The true solution of the difficulty appears to lie in the clause "from his youth," as if God meant to say that whereas formerly he had visited man with judicial extermination on account of his absolute moral corruption, he would now have regard to the circumstance that man inherited his depravity through his birth, and, instead of smiting man with punitive destruction, would visit him with compassionate forbearance (Keil, 'Speaker's Commentary'). Tayler Lewis regards the expression as strongly anthropopathic, like Genesis 6:6, and indicative of the Divine regret at so calamitous an act as the Deluge, although that act was absolutely just and necessary. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. There should be no more deluge, but -

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) A sweet savour.--Heb., a smell of satisfaction. The idea is not so much that the sacrifice gave God pleasure as that it caused Him to regard man with complacency. The anger at sin which had caused the flood was now over, and there was peace between heaven and earth.Said in his heart.--Heb., to his heart: that is, Jehovah determined with himself, came to the settled purpose. (Comp. Genesis 17:17.)For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.--See Genesis 6:5. There seems at first sight to be an inconsistency between the two passages, and the Jehovist is accused of here contradicting the Elohist. For in the former place man's inborn sinfulness is described as an aggravation of his offence, while here it is used as a reason for mercy. But it is a characteristic of the Bible that it states the two sides of every principle with abrupt simplicity, and most heresies have arisen from seizing upon one side only, and omitting the other from view. Man is one whose every imagination of the heart is only evil continually. (Comp. Matthew 15:19.) In the antediluvian world, with death indefinitely postponed, these imaginations had been unrestrained, and had therefore led to habitual and inveterate sin; and so justice at last had smitten it. But when man strives against them, and sin is the result of infirmity. then mercy heals and grace strengthens the penitent. When man, therefore, began his renewed life by hallowing it with religion, God saw therein the pledge of a struggle on his part after holiness, and the proof that the world would never again become totally corrupt. In this changed state of things human weakness was a reason only for mercy, and God gave the promise that so long as the world shall last, so total a destruction of man and his works upon it shall never again take place by the same agency.