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PERIOD THE FIRST;

FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE.

Chapter

I. THE CREATION.

II.—INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH, and Fall of MAN.
III.-HISTORY OF ADAM AND HIS DESCENDANTS, TILL THE
Deluge.

IV. GENEALogy of the Patriarchs.

V.-STATE OF THE WORLD IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE Deluge.

VI.-THE DELUGE.

VII. THE COVENANT WITH NOAH.

VIII-NOAH PROPHESIES THE FATE OF HIS SONS.

VOL. I.

THE

OLD TESTAMENT.

PERIOD THE FIRST'.

CHAPTER I.

The Creation 2.

GENESIS I.

1 IN the beginning God created the heaven and the A.C.4004.3. earth.

a Psal. xxxiii.

Acts xiv. 15.

2 And the earth was without form and void; and 6. cxxxvi. 5. darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, 'Let there be light light.

xvii. 24 Heb.

xi. 3.

and there was

b2 Cor. iv. 6.

1 Two objects are continually kept in view throughout the volume of the Old Testament. One, is to turn men from idolatry in all its forms of vice and error; the other, to direct their attention, by the gradual developement of the scheme of prophecy, to the future Messiah. It is my design, in the following notes, not only to give the reader, wherever it may appear necessary, satisfacfactory references for the arrangement I have adopted; but to point out the wonderful manner in which Infinite Wisdom has manifested itself in the government of the world, in constant reference to these two great objects.

2 The design of Moses will be better understood, if we consider the state of the world at the time in which the Pentateuch was written. Mankind was absorbed in the grossest idolatry; and that idolatry, for the most part, originated in the neglect, the perversion, or the misapprehension of certain truths, which had once been universally known. Moses therefore commences his narrative, by relating, in simple language, the truths thus disguised, or perverted; and he alludes, in many of his expressions, to the surrounding superstitions. In pursuance of this plan, he relates first, the creation of the world by the one true God, in opposition to the Egyptian doctrines of the necessary eternity of the world, and an infinite succession of similar worlds.-Vide Horsley's Biblical Criticisms, vol. i. p. 3; Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. p. 111-152; Hales' Analysis, vol. i. p. 317; with the authorities in Pritchard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 178-187.

* The dates of the Bible chronology are chiefly adopted throughout; Dr. Hales' dates are inserted in an Appendix.

A. C. 4004.

*Heb. be

tween the light and between

4 And God saw the light, that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness.

*

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he the darkness. called Night. And the evening and the morning were

+ Heb. and

the evening was and the

morning was, &c.

c Ps. cxxxvi.

5. Jer. x. 12.

li. 15.

+ Heb. expansion.

d Job xxxviii.

8. Ps. xxxiii.

the first day.

6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a

firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9¶ And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be 7. cxxxvi. 6. gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear and it was so.

Heb. tender grass.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it

was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmaHeb. between ment of the heaven to divide || the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

e Deut.iv. 19. Ps. cxxxvi. 7.

the day and between the night.

4

e

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light *Heb. for the *to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he

rule of the

day, &c.

f Jer. xxxi.

35.

made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

4 The sun and moon being objects of worship, Moses here specifies the purposes for which they were created; as if in ridicule of the idolatrous Sabianism of the day.

* Or, creep

5

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abun- A. C. 4001. dantly the moving creature that hath + life, and fowl that g 2 Esdr. vi. may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 47. 21 And God created great whales, and every living crea- ing ture that moveth, which the waters brought forth abun-Heb. face of dantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: the firmament and God saw that it was good.

h

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and 5 every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

soul.

of heaven.

Chap. viii.

17. ix. 1.

ix. 6. Wisd.

xi. 7. Epher.

26¶And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, i Chap. v. i. after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the . 23. 1 Cor. fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the iv. 24. Col. iii. cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 10. that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image

of God created he him; male and female created he k Matt.xix.4. them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be 1 Chap. ix. 1. fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue

it and have dominion over the fish of sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that § moveth Heb. creepupon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb

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eth.

ing seed.
m Chap. ix. 3.

|| bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and Heb. seedevery tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for

meat and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

5 For the same reason (vide note 4) he mentions the creation of vegetables, reptiles, and inferior animals; many of which were worshipped by the Egyp-. tians; thereby asserting, in the very beginning of his work, the superiority of the God of Israel to the gods of the Egyptians.

Heb. a liv

ing soul.

n Ecclus

xxxix. 16.

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