Bible Commentaries
Genesis 9

Verse 1

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Be fruitful and multiply. — Here God reneweth the world by the same word wherewith he had created it; and being reconciled to mankind, he blesseth them in like manner as before the fall. Sin once pardoned, is as if it never had been committed. Christ tells his returning Shulamite, that she was as amiable in every point as she had been before her relapse, Song of Solomon 4:1 her hair, teeth, temples, all as fair and well-featured as ever.

Verse 2

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth [upon] the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

And the fear of you, … — Timor, quo a bestiis timeamini, et terror quo bestias terreatis .( Piscat. ) This is a piece of God’s image yet remaining to man, that every nature of wild beasts, birds, creeping things, and things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of the nature of man. James 3:7 , marg. Monoceros interimi potest, capi non potest . - Solin.

Verse 3

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. — God of his goodness grants here to mankind, after the flood, the use of flesh and wine, that the new and much weakened world might have new and more strengthening nourishment. For it is not to be doubted but that, by the deluge, a great decay was wrought both in the earth with its fruits, and also in man’s nature. Various ridges and scars, as it were, of God’s wrath and malediction abided and appeared in the earth. Sundry maladies also and infirmities befell man’s body, not felt before the flood. God therefore in great mercy provides, penum quoddam et pharmacopolium mundo senescenti , Flac. Illyric . new food and physic for the languishing world. "Every moving thing that liveth," …, only, that as the green herb have I given you all things; that is, as you may use them as freely as you used to do herbs, so you must use them soberly, and without curiosity; taking such things as are at hand, and eating to live, not living to eat, as the rich glutton, that fared deliciously every day: -

“ Ingluvies, et tempestas, barathrumque macelli .” - Horat.

Verse 4

But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

But flesh with the life thereof, the blood. — Blood was forbidden: First, as not so wholesome food: Secondly, lest by being fleshed in blood, they should become bloody-minded: Thirdly, blood, the organ of life, is holy to God the author of life (who was also to be pacified by the blood of his Son), and therefore they should not pollute or profane it, by devouring thereof.

Verse 5

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.

Your blood of your lives will I require, — i.e., I will punish it either by the magistrate, or if he fail to do his office, by mine own immediate hand; as he did in David, Charles the Ninth of France, Richard the Third of England, Felix Count of Waterburg, and others, that either were above law, or escaped the lash of it. See for this, "The Thunderbolt of God’s Judgments," lib. ii. cap. iv. 5,16. Richard the Third used the instruments of his bloody plots, as men do their candles; burn the first out to a snuff, and then having lighted another, tread that under foot. Daniel’s Chron. continued by Trussel.

Verse 6

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood. — Some are of the opinion, that before the flood, the punishment of murder and other capital crimes, was only excommunication and exclusion from the Church and their father’s family. And that now first, God made murder to be a matter of death. The firstborn had power, at first, over their own families, to bless, curse, cast out, disinherit, yea, and punish with death, Genesis 38:24 even in case of adultery, as some will have it thus among the people of God. Godw. Heb. Antiq. But what a madness was that in the Egyptians to make no conscience of murder, that they might enjoy their lust! And what a blindness to make less account of murder than adultery!. Genesis 12:13 I have seen, saith the Preacher in his Travels , the king of Persia many times to alight from his horse, only to do justice to a poor body. He punishs theft and manslaughter so severely, that in an age a man shall not hear either of the one, or of the other. The Preacher’s Travels, by Jo. Cartwright. A severity fit for France; where within ten years, six thousand gentlemen have been slain, saith he, as it appears by the king’s pardons. Les Ombres des Defunets Seiurs de Villemor et de Fontaines , p. 46.

Verse 7

And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Be fruitful. — See Trapp on " Genesis 1:28 "

Verse 8

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

And God spake. — See Trapp on Genesis 9:9 " See Trapp on Genesis 9:10 "

Verse 9

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you. — This covenant God had made with them before the flood; but here he renews it for their further confirmation: for he knows our infirmities, and therefore seals again. This covenant is said to be made with an oath, Isaiah 54:9 yet we find no such thing here expressed, because God’s bare word is as sure as an oath. So God is said to have sworn to Abraham, that which he said to him only. Exodus 32:13 , with Genesis 12:7

Verse 10

And with every living creature that [is] with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

And with every living creature, … — Note this against Anabaptists, who exclude infants, for that they want the use of reason. And yet that was but a foolish reason of the canonist, that infants are therefore to be baptized, because the disciples brought to our Saviour, not the ass only, but the foal also. Sphinx Philos. , p. 229.

Verse 11

And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

Neither shall all flesh be cut off. — See Trapp on " Isaiah 54:9 " See Trapp on " Isaiah 54:10 "

Verse 12

And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations:

This is the token of the covenant, … — See here the antiquity of confirming men’s faith, by outward signs, as by the two trees in Paradise: and here the word and sacrament go together. And as God, in Noah, made a covenant with his posterity also, and confirmed it with a sign, so doth he in Christ with the Church, and ratified it with the sacraments; besides, witnesses we have three in heaven, and three in earth, … 1 John 5:7-8

Verse 13

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

I do set my bow in the cloud, … — There it was before, but not till now as a token of the covenant; as still it is applied for a sign of grace from God to his Church. Revelation 4:3 ; Revelation 10:1 Ezekiel 1:28 It is planted in the clouds, as if man were shooting at God, and not God at man. This bow with both ends downward, and back to heaven, must needs be an emblem of mercy; for he that shooteth, holdeth the back of the bow from him. Of God’s bow we read, but not of his arrows, saith Ambrose on this text. "He hath bent his bow, and made it ready," saith David; but if "he ordain his arrows," it is not but "against the persecutors". Psalms 7:12-13 If he shoot at his servants, it is as Jonathan shot at his friend David; 2 Samuel 20:20 to warn them, not to wound them. They are "arrows of the Lord’s deliverance," 2 Kings 13:17 which therefore he multiplies, that they may "compass him about with songs of deliverance". Psalms 32:7 If he "bend his bow like an enemy," Lamentations 2:4 yet in wrath he remembereth mercy.

Verse 14

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

The bow shall be seen in the cloud. — In this heaven-bow, there are many wonders: first, the beautiful shape and various colours; in which respect Plato thinks the poets feign Iris, or the rainbow, to be the daughter of Thaumas, or admiration. The waterish colours therein signify (say some) the former overthrow of the world by water. The fiery colours, the future judgment of the world by fire. The green, that present grace of freedom from both, by virtue of God’s covenant, whereof this bow is a sign. Next, the rainbow hath in it two contrary significations, viz., of rain, and fair weather; of this in the evening, of that in the morning, saith Scaliger. Add hereunto, that whereas naturally it is a sign of rain (and is therefore feigned by the poets to be the messenger of Juno, and called imbrifera , or showery), yet it is turned by God into a sure sign of dry weather, and of restraint of waters. Let us learn to look upon it, not only in the natural causes, as it is an effect of the sun in a thick cloud; but as a sacramental sign of the covenant of grace; a monument of God’s both justice in drowning the world, and mercy in conserving it from the like calamity. Isaiah 54:9-10 The Jews have an odd conceit, Maimon. that the name Jehovah is written on the rainbow. And therefore, as oft as it appeareth unto them, they go forth of doors, hide their eyes, confess their sins (that deserved a second deluge), and celebrate God’s goodness, in sparing the wicked world, and remembering his covenant. Set aside their superstition, and their practice invites our imitation. Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare . Bern.

Verse 15

And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. Genesis 9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth.

Ver. 15,16. I will remember. — That is, I will make you to know and remember by this visible monitor.

“ Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures,

Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus .”

The rainbow is a double sacrament, answering both to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; and declares by its colours, saith one, how Christ came by water and blood. 1 John 5:6

Verse 17

And God said unto Noah, This [is] the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.

This is the token of the Covenant. — This is often repeated, Deuteronomy 6:7 . Exacues ea: id est, accurate et commodissime inculcabis. - Buxtorf. Lexic. that it may be the better observed, and we full assured; as Pharaoh’s dream was for this cause doubled. God goes over the same thing often with us, as the knife doth the whetstone, which is the scriptural allusion. He well knows how slow of heart we are, and how dull of hearing; and therefore whets and beats things of high concernment upon us, that we may once apprehend andm embrace them. Christ is said to have "a rainbow on his head," Revelation 10:1 to show that he is faithful and constant in his promises, and that tempests shall blow over. Let us see God’s love in his corrections, as by a rainbow we see the beautiful image of the sun’s light, in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud.

Verse 18

And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham [is] the father of Canaan.

Ham is the father of Canaan. — Who was cursed together with his father (and why, see Genesis 9:25 ), and became the progenitor of those cursed Canaanites, cast out by the Israelites.

Verse 19

These [are] the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

And of them was the whole earth overspread. — So that we need not add to them (as some have done), Jonitus, a fourth son of Noah (begotten by him after the flood), to replenish a fourth part of the world, with his posterity. Berosus and Nauclerus talk of Tuisco, another son of Noah, whom they make the father and founder of the Germans: but this is too great boldness.

Verse 20

And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

And Noah began to be a husbandman. — Veteres si quem virum, bonum colonum appellassent, amplissime laudasse existimabant. Cic. Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae, referente Plinio, quam cum terram colerent iidem qui Remp. regerent; quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere, scilicet, et Aratore triumphali. See 2 Chronicles 26:10 .

And he planted a vineyard. — Hence Berosus and the poets call him Janus Oenotrius. Janus, of the Hebrew, iajin , vinum; and Oenotrius of οινος , whence our English word wine.

Verse 21

And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

And was drunk. — For his own shame, but our learning. Instruunt nos patres tum docentes tum labentes . Augustin. The best have their blemishes, and a black part, as that cloud had, that conducted Israel out of Egypt; which, while the Egyptians followed, they fell into the sea. Hebrews 11:29

And was uncovered within his tent. — One hour’s drunkenness bewrays that which more than six hundred years’ sobriety had modestly concealed. Well might Solomon say, "Wine is a mocker"; Proverbs 20:1 for it mocked Noah with a witness; and exposed him to the mockage of his own bosom-bird.

Verse 22

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw. — The Hebrews say, that Canaan first saw it, and then showed it to Ham his father, who looks upon it with delight, Ut vultures ad male olentia feruntur , saith Basil; as carrion-kites are carried after stinking carcasses.

And told his two brethren without. — Sic et impii hodie ex Ecclesiae tragaediis comaedias componunt . How glad are the wicked, if they can but get any hint to lay hold on, whereby to blaspheme, and blaze abroad the saints’ infirmities! "Report say they, and we will report". Jeremiah 20:10 Yea, rather than want matter against God’s people, they will suck it out of their own fingers’ ends. But if such a thing as this fall out, that Noah be drunk, though but once in an age, the banks of blasphemy will soon be broken down, and the whole race of religious persons must rue for it; among these Canaanites some also will be found to excuse them in it, as Scaliger doth Ham.

Verse 23

And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid [it] upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces [were] backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

And Shem and Japhet took a garment. — Ham had no hand in this good work; which shows what a good one he was, and how far from being of that good emperor’s mind, Constant. Mag. Theodoret. , lib. i. - Eccles. Hist. , cap. xi. who said, that if he should find a bishop committing adultery, he would rather cover that unclean act with his imperial cloak, than suffer it to come abroad to the scandal of the weak, and the scorn of the wicked.

Verse 24

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

And Noah awoke from his wine. — And returned no more to it. Once was enough; "the time past may well suffice, to have walked in excess of wine". 1 Peter 4:3 We will buy repentance so dear no more. It is expressly noted of Judah, that "he knew Tamar again no more". Genesis 38:26 And we may be well assured, that Noah was never drunk again. Solomon’s drunkard cries, "when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again". Proverbs 23:35 As swine break their bellies, so do such men their heads, with filthy quaffing; yea, "whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away the heart," saith the prophet. Hosea 4:11 They beset and infatuate, yea, rob a man of himself, and lay a beast in his room. Our drunkards say, as the vine in Jotham’s parable; Non possum relinquere vinum meum ." Take away my liquor, you take away my life." Malle se vitam quam vinum eripi . - August. De Temp. Serm. 131. How often, saith a grave divine, Mr Harris’s Drunkard’s Cup. have I seen vermin sucking the drunkard’s blood, as fast as he that of the grape and malt, yet would he not leave his hold, or lose his draught! Some are soaked with drink, and then laid out to be sunned and scorned.

And knew what his younger son had done unto him. — It is probable, that finding himself covered with a cloak, he asked his wife and children how he came covered; and that then Shem and Japhet told him all the matter; which moved him to bless them. It is our wisest way, to do what good we can to others. And though they, for present, being drunk with malice, or rash anger, know it not, yet a waking time may come, when they may see the good, and bless us for it, as David did Abigail. 1 Samuel 25:33 When he had slept out his drunken passion, he saw cause to bless God, to bless her, and to bless her counsel. Mr Gilpin’s plain dealing with the Bishop of Durham, how well it succeeded. See his life written by Bishop Carleton, p. 58.

Verse 25

And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

And he said, Cursed be Canaan. — Because an imitator, and abettor of his father’s sin. Neither good egg, nor good bird, as they say. God himself hath cursed such captives with a curse. Proverbs 30:17 "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother; the ravens of the valley shall pick it out; and the young eagles shall eat it." Effossos oculos voret atro guture corvus . - Catul . Now they are cursed with a witness, whom the Holy Ghost thus curseth, in such emphatical manner, with such exquisite terms. Their parents also, through their unnaturalness, are compelled to curse them, as Noah here: as Oedipus of old; Per coacervatos pereat domus impia luctus . - Oedip. apud Ovid. and our Henry II., who, seeing a few hours before he died, a list of their names that had conspired, with the King of France and Earl Richard (his son and successor), against him, and finding therein his son John to be the first, falls into a grievous passion, both cursing his sons, and the day wherein himself was born; and in that distemperature, departs the world, which so often himself had distempered. Daniel’s Chron., p. 112. "The causeless curse," indeed (though from a parent’s mouth), "shall not come". Proverbs 26:2 Such was it that befell Julius Palmer, martyr, Act. and Mon., fol 1755, 1761. who, when he asked his mother’s blessing, "Thou shalt," said she, "have Christ’s curse and mine, wheresoever thou goest." He, pausing a little, as one amazed at so heavy a greeting, at length said: "O mother, your own curse you may give me, which God knoweth I never deserved; but God’s curse you cannot; for he hath already blessed me, and I shall be blessed." "As for money and goods," said she, "which thou suest to me for, as bequeathed thee by thy father, I have none of thine. Thy father bequeathed nothing for heretics. Faggots I have to burn thee; more thou gettest not at my hands." "Mother," said he, "whereas you have cursed me, I again pray to God to bless and prosper you, all your life long." And so he departed, and shortly after, valiantly suffered for the truth, at Newbury in Berkshire, having some time been Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and all King Edward’s days an obstinate Papist. Thus for the causeless curse of parents. The wild Irish inflict a heavy curse on all their posterity, if ever they should sow corn, build houses, or learn the English tongue. - Heyl. Geog., 508. But where it is just, it lights heavy. The very complaint of a parent makes a loud cry in God’s ears. It is said, that God, by cutting off Abimelech, "rendered the wickedness that he did to his father". Judges 9:56 And who can read with dry eyes that pitiful supplication of the old Emperor Andronicus to his young nephew of the same name ( Turk. Hist ., fol. 172)? But when it proceeds to a curse , lamentable effects have followed. Leonard, son of the Lord Dacres (one of the rebels in the north against Queen Elizabeth), whose father prayed God upon his death-bed, to send him much sorrow for his disobedience, drew forth a most poor life in the Netherlands, to where he escaped, living upon a very slender pension from the Spaniards. Camden’s Elisab., p. 116,117. That rebellion (like the bubbles which children blow up into the air) was no sooner blown up, than blown out, and fell into the eyes of those who with the blasts of ambition and superstition held it up. But most remarkable is that, and apposite to our present purpose, that Manlius reports Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 228. of a certain mother, whom he and many others had seen leading about her miserable daughter, who was possessed by the devil upon her cursing her, and bidding "the devil take her." Involet in te diabolus . Luther and others prayed publicly for the girl; and when Luther said to the devil, Increpet te Deus ," The Lord rebuke thee, Satan," the devil answered, muttering through the maid’s lips, Increpet, increpet . Another like example, the same author hath, Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 228. of a certain angry old man, in the town of Friburg in Misnia, who bidding his son do some business for him, and he making no haste to do it, nor stirring from the place he stood in; the father cursed him, and wished he might never stir alive from that place. God said Amen to it: and although he lived seven years after, yet there he stood leaning upon a desk while he slept, eating little, and speaking not much. When he was asked how he did, he would answer, that he was chastised justly by God, in whose hand it was what should at length become of him here. But of his eternal salvation, by the merits of Christ alone, he nothing doubted; being chastised of the Lord, that he might not be condemned with the world. The prints of his feet are to be seen in the pavement where he stood, to this day, saith the historian. After seven years’ suffering, he departed in the true faith of Christ, with good hopes of a better estate in heaven, September the eleventh, Anno 1552.

A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren. — In which title the Pope of Rome (not without the providence of God) will needs be his successor. A servant of God’s servants he will by all means be called. And yet he stamps upon his coin, "That Nation and Country that will not serve thee, shall be rooted out." What pride equal to the pope’s, making kings kiss his pantofles (upon which he hath Christ’s cross shining with pearls and precious stones, Ut plenis faucibus crucem Christi derideat )! What humility greater than his, to administer himself absolution daily to an ordinary priest! One while he will be styled, Servus servorum Dei ; another while, Dominus regnorum mundi , which is one of the devil’s titles; yea, Dominus Deus noster Papa ; taking upon him a power to excommunicate the very angels; yea, lifting up himself above Christ, who is called Pontifex Magnus , Hebrews 4:14 but the Pope calls himself Pontifex Maximus . Gregory the Great was the first that styled himself "a servant of servants"; in opposition, forsooth, to that proud prelate of Constantinople, who affected to be called Universal Bishop. But after the death of Mauricius, when Phocas the traitor came to be emperor, this Gregory clawed him shamefully, and all to attain that dignity and dominion that he so much condemned in another. Sands’ Relation of West. Relig., sect. 12. - Johan. 23. in Extravag. - Phocae adulari, supparasitari, …, ut suam potestatem per favorem parricidae extenderet. - Revii Hist. Pontif., p. 45. The Pope of Constantinople could not bear a superior, nor the Pope of Rome an equal. The one sought to subdue to himself the East; the other, East and West too: and thence grew all the heat between them. See the like ambition under the colour of zeal for their religion in Selymus the Turk, and Hismael the Persian. Turk. Hist., fol. 515.

Verse 26

And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. — Shem seems to have been the chief actor and persuader of that reverent behaviour; and therefore, as he is first named, Genesis 9:23 before his elder brother Japhet; so here he hath the first and chief blessing. It is good to be first in a good matter, yea, prompt and "present to every good work," as Paul hath it. Titus 3:1

And Canaan shall be his servant. — This curse was not fulfilled for many hundred years after, till the sins of the Amorites were grown full, and then it was accomplished. God’s forbearance is no acquittance. He can also turn a curse into a blessing, as he did this to Araunah the Jebusite, of the worst and most stubborn of the Canaanites; for they held the Tower of Jebus from the posterity of Shem after all the rest had yielded. 2 Samuel 5:7 Yet he became a godly proselyte, and gave, as a king, his freehold to King David, to build an altar on, 2 Samuel 24:18 and this deed of his was long after remembered. Zechariah 9:7 The like may be said of the Gibeonites, who are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah. They were made servants to the Shemites, drawers of water to the temple, as a kind of punishment. God made this cross a mercy. Their employment so near the house of God gave them fit occasion to be partakers of the things of God. And the Lord, we see, did wonderfully honour them; the nearer they were to the church, the nearer to God. It is good getting into his house, though to be but "a doorkeeper" with David, or a water bearer with these Gibeonites. Stand but in God’s way as he passeth, and thou shalt be preferred.

Verse 27

God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

God persuade Japhet. — For none else can do it. Men may speak persuasively, but to persuade is proper to God alone. He "speaks to the heart"; Hosea 2:14 we to the ear only. He persuadeth and allureth, not only by a moral persuasion, but by an irresistible inward drawing. Acts 11:17 In the Hebrew there is a sweet alliteration; q.d., God shall persuade the persuasible. He shall draw them to faith and obedience, Monendo potius quam minando, docendo quam ducendo , saith St Austin; by informing, not enforcing. He brings in his elect by a merciful violence. He sent forth at first, not swordsmen but fishermen; and prevailed by them in those places where the Romans could never come with all their forces. Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo tamen subdita . - Tertul. Elisha could do more with a kiss than his man could do with a staff, in raising the dead child. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," Song of Solomon 1:2 and then follows, "Draw me; we will run after thee."

And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. — The Church’s abode here, is but in tents; she hath "no continuing city, on earth, but seeks one to come". Hebrews 13:14 This, whether prophecy or prayer, was fulfilled when "God was manifested in the flesh, preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world," 1 Timothy 3:16 some thousands of years after. The Gentiles were converted by virtue of this prayer, as Paul was by St Stephen’s, and as we enjoy the gospel by Latimer’s "yet once more," and the prayers of other martyrs.

Verse 28

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

Ver. 28, 29. And Noah lived after the flood, … — 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. Vix mihi persuadeo virum ex homine miseriorem natum fuisse quam Noah . - Funccii Chron., fol. 17. 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. Erasm. in Vita Chrysost . And why may not any man say as much of Luther? …

Verse 29

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

See Trapp on " Genesis 9:28 "