Genesis 8:21

Genesis 8:21

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour
Or a "savour of rest" F5; he was delighted and well pleased with his sacrifice, which was offered up in the faith of the sacrifice of Christ; the apostle says, "is for a sweetsmelling savour", ( Ephesians 5:2 ) referring to this passage; that being a satisfaction to the justice of God, an appeasing of his wrath, and a propitiation for the sins of men:

and the Lord said in his heart;
within himself; it was awhile a secret there, but Noah being a prophet, as Aben Ezra observes, he revealed it to him, or "to his heart" F6, that is, to the heart of Noah, as some interpret it, he spoke comfortably to him, as follows, when the Jewish writers F7 say he stretched out his right hand and swore, agreeably to ( Isaiah 54:9 )

I will not again curse the ground for man's sake,
or drown it for the sin of man, as he had cursed it for the sin of Adam, and which continued till this time; but now was taken off, and it became more fruitful, and very probably by means of the waters which had been so long upon it, and had left a fructifying virtue in it, as the waters of the Nile do in Egypt. Some interpret the phrase, "for man's sake", for the man Christ's sake, for the sake of his sacrifice, of which Noah's was a type, and the sense be, that God would no more curse the earth; for by his sacrifice the curse of the law is removed, with respect to his people; they are redeemed from it, and shall inherit that new earth, of which this earth, renewed after the flood, was a type, in which there will be no more curse, ( Revelation 21:1 ) ( 22:3 ) which sense, though evangelical, cannot be admitted, because of the reason following, unless the first word be rendered "though", as it may:




F5 (xxynh xyr) "odorem quietis", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster
F6 (wbl la) "ad cor suum", Montanus, Tigurine version; "prophetae suo", Arab.
F7 Jarchi in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 23.
F8 (yk) "quamvis", Piscator; so Ainsworth.