The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 5

Smelled, etc... A figurative expression, denoting that G.o.d was well pleased with the sacrifices which his servant offered.

8:22. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

Genesis Chapter 9

G.o.d besseth Noe: forbiddeth blood, and promiseth never more to destroy the world by water. The blessing of Sem and j.a.pheth.

9:1. And G.o.d blessed Noe and his sons. And he said to them: Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth.

9:2. And let the fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand.

9:3. And every thing that moveth, and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you:

9:4. Saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat.

9:5. For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man.

9:6. Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of G.o.d.

9:7. But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth and fill it.

9:8. Thus also said G.o.d to Noe, and to his sons with him:

9:9. Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you:

9:10. And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds, as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth.

9:11. I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth.

9:12. And G.o.d said: This is the sign of the covenant which I give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.

9:13. I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me and between the earth.

9:14. And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds:

9:15. And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.

9:16. And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between G.o.d and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth.

9:17. And G.o.d said to Noe: This shall be the sign of the covenant, which I have established, between me and all flesh upon the earth.

9:18. And the sons of Noe, who came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, and j.a.pheth: and Cham is the father of Chanaan.

9:19. These three are the sons of Noe: and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth.

9:20. And Noe a husbandman began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard.

9:21. And drinking of the wine was made drunk, and was uncovered in his tent.

Drunk... Noe by the judgment of the fathers was not guilty of sin, in being overcome by wine: because he knew not the strength of it.

9:22. Which when Cham the father of Chanaan had seen, to wit, that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told it to his two brethren without.

9:23. But Sem and j.a.pheth put a cloak upon their shoulders, and going backward, covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

Covered the nakedness... Thus, as St. Gregory takes notice L. 35; Moral.

c. 22, we ought to cover the nakedness, that is, the sins, of our spiritual parents and superiors.

9:24. And Noe awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,

9:25. He said: Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Cursed be Chanaan... The curses, as well as the blessings, of the partiarchs, were prophetical: And this in particular is here recorded by Moses, for the children of Israel, who were to possess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his father's faults? The Hebrews answer, that he being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather's nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it: which drew upon him, rather than upon the rest of the children of Cham, this prophetical curse.

9:26. And he said: Blessed be the Lord G.o.d of Sem, be Chanaan his servant.

9:27. May G.o.d enlarge j.a.pheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and Chanaan be his servant.

9:28. And Noe lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

9:29. And all his days were in the whole nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Genesis Chapter 10

The genealogy of the children of Noe, by whom the world was peopled after the flood.

10:1. These are the generations of the sons of Noe: Sem, Cham, and j.a.pheth: and unto them sons were born after the flood.

10:2. The sons of j.a.pheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Thubal, and Mosoch, and Thiras.

10:3. And the sons of Gomer: Ascenez and Riphath and Thogorma.

10:4. And the sons of Javan: Elisa and Tharsis, Cetthim and Dodanim.

10:5. By these were divided the islands of the Gentiles in their lands, every one according to his tongue and their families in their nations.

The islands... So the Hebrews called all the remote countries, to which they went by s.h.i.+ps from Judea, to Greece, Italy, Spain, etc.

10:6. And the Sons of Cham: Chus, and Mesram, and Phuth, and Chanaan.

10:7. And the sons of Chus: Saba, and Hevila, and Sabatha, and Regma, and Sabatacha. The sons of Regma: Saba, and Dadan.

10:8. Now Chus begot Nemrod: he began to be mighty on the earth.

10:9. And he was a stout hunter before the Lord. Hence came a proverb: Even as Nemrod the stout hunter before the Lord.

A stout hunter... Not of beasts but of men: whom by violence and tyranny he brought under his dominion. And such he was, not only in the opinion of men, but before the Lord, that is, in his sight who cannot be deceived.

10:10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Arach, and Achad, and Chalanne in the land of Sennaar.