Bible Commentaries
Genesis 8

Verses 1-22

The Flood (continued)

4. The mountains of Ararat] Ararat is the Assyrian ’Urardhu,’ the country round Lake Van, in what is now called Armenia; but the word also signifies ’highlands,’ and perhaps it is a general expression for the hilly country which lay to the N. of Assyria. Mt. Masis, now called Mt. Ararat (a peak 17,000 ft. high), is not meant here.

11. The olive leaf indicated that the tree was above water, and as the olive does not grow at a great elevation, the inference was that the waters had greatly abated.

21. The Lord smelled a sweet savour] A common expression for the favourable acceptance of an offering, cp. Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 1:17.

I will not again curse, etc.] An acknowledgment of man’s innate propensity to evil. If wicked thoughts, desires, and actions were always to be followed by the judgments they merit, disaster would never be far off (Isaiah 1:5).

22. Practically there are but two seasons in the land where this was written: one may be called Seed-time, Cold, Winter (middle of Sept. to middle of March); the other, Harvest, Heat, Summer (the rest of the year).