Genesis Chapter 8 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - And the ark rested. Not stopped sailing or floating, got becalmed, and remained suspended over (Kitto's 'Cyclop.,' art. Ararat), but actually grounded and settled on (Tayler Lewis) the place indicated by עַל (cf. ver. 9; also Exodus 10:14; Numbers 10:36; Numbers 11:25, 26; Isaiah 11:2). In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month. I.e. exactly 150 days from the commencement of the forty days' rain, reckoning thirty days to a month, which seems to confirm the opinion expressed (Genesis 7:24) that the forty days were included in the 150. Supposing the Flood to have begun in Marchesvan, the second month of the civil year (about the beginning of November), "we have then the remarkable coincidences that on the 17th day of Abib (about the beginning of April) the ark rested on Mount Ararat, the Israelites passed over the Red Sea, and our Lord rose again from the dead" ('Speaker's Commentary'). Upon the mountains. I.e. one of the mountains. "Pluralis numerus pro singulari ponitur" (cf. Genesis 21:7; Genesis 46:7; Judges 12:7; vide Glass., 'Philoh Seer. Tract.,' 1. cap. 14. p. 866). Of Ararat. 1. It is agreed by all that the term Ararat describes a region. 2. This region has been supposed to be the island of Ceylon (Samaritan), Aryavarta, the sacred land to the north of India (Van Bohlen, arguing from Genesis 11:2); but "it is evident that these and such like theories have been framed in forgetfulness of what the Bible has recorded respecting the locality" (Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Ararat). 3. The locality which appears to have the countenance of Scripture is the region of Armenia (cf. 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38; Jeremiah 51:27; Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Vulgate). . . .

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) The seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month.--As the months had each thirty days (see Note on Genesis 8:14), this makes exactly 150 days (see Genesis 7:11). The seventh civil month would be Abib; and the Speaker's Commentary notices the following remarkable coincidences:--"On the 17th day of Abib the ark rested on Mount Ararat; on the 17th day of Abib the Israelites passed over the Red Sea; on the 17th day of Abib, Christ, our Lord, rose again from the dead."Ararat.--If in Genesis 11:2 the Authorised Version is right in saying that the descendants of Noah travelled "from the east" to Shinar, this could not be the Ararat of Armenia. Moreover, we are told that the word in, Assyrian means "highland," and thus may signify any hilly country. In the Chaldean Genesis the ark rests upon Nizir, a region to the east of Assyria, the highest peak of which, now named Elwend, is called in the cuneiform texts "the mountain of the world" ( Chaldean Genesis, p. 307). The rendering, however, "from the east," is by no means certain, and many translate "eastward," and even the Authorised Version renders the word east, that is, eastward, in Genesis 13:11. In 2Kings 19:37 "Ararat" is translated Armenia; but it is more correctly described in Jeremiah 51:27 as a country near Minni, that is, near Armenia. There are in this region two mountains of great altitude, the Aghri-Dagh and the Kara-Dagh, the highest of which is 17,260 feet above the sea-level; and naturally legend chooses this as the place where the ark settled. But the inspired narrative says that it rested "upon the mountains of Ararat," upon some chain of hills there, and seventy-three days afterwards Noah found himself surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountains, the word used in Genesis 8:5 being emphatic, and signifying "the tops of the mountains became distinctly visible," and not that they had just begun to emerge. For, doubtless, after so vast a flood, mists and vapours would for a long time prevail, and shut out the surrounding world from Noah's view. . . .