Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/261

 righteous and faultless : on the construction v.i. There is perhaps a correspondence between these two epithets and the description of the state of the world which follows; being opposed to the 'violence,' and  to the 'corruption' of v.$11f.$. , a forensic term, denotes one whose conduct is unimpeachable before a judge; is sacerdotal in its associations (Ex. 12$5$, Lv. 1$3$ etc.), meaning 'free from defect,' integer (cf. 17$1$).—in his generations (v.i.)] i.e. alone among his contemporaries (cf. 7$1$). That Noah's righteousness was only relative to the standard of his age is not implied. —walked with God] see on 5$22$. The expression receives a fuller significance from the Babylonian legend, where Ut-napištim, like the Biblical Enoch, is translated to the society of the gods (p. 177 below).—11 f. ] is the intentional antithesis to the of 1$31$ (De.).—All flesh had corrupted its way] had violated the divinely-appointed order of creation. The result is violence (, G )—ruthless outrage perpetrated by the strong on the weak. A "nature red in tooth and claw with ravin" is the picture which rises before the mind of the writer; although, as has been already remarked (p. 129), the narrative of P contains no explanation of the change which had thus passed over the face of the world.

The fundamental idea of v.$11f.$ is the disappearance of the Golden Age, or the rupture of the concord of the animal world established by the decree of 1$29f.$. The lower animals contribute their share to the general 'corruption' by transgressing the regulation of 1$30$, and commencing to prey upon each other and to attack man (see 9$5$): so Ra. To restrict to mankind (T$O$, Tu. Str. Dri. Ben. al.) is therefore

(Ho. Einl. 341); but apparently always as a real pl. (series of generations): ct. the solitary use of sg. in P, Ex. 1$6$. Here, accordingly, it seems fair to understand it, not of the individual contemporaries of Noah (Tu. We. Ho. al.), but of the successive generations covered by his lifetime. The resemblance to (7$1$) is adduced by We. (Prol.$6$ 390) as a proof of P's dependence on J.—11. ] One of the few instances of P's use of the art. with —12. ] G.
 * —] G . The f. pl. is highly characteristic of P