Tag: Japheth

A Covering

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up.
Genesis 8:13 (NASB)

If you’ve been paying very close attention to the boat building project, you’ll see something odd in Genesis 8.

Noah removes a “covering” that was never mentioned before. It’s meant to be understood like a giant sheet. It must have been massive.

This Hebrew word for “covering” is new to the text. We haven’t seen it before, but it comes up again in Exodus, when the Tabernacle is being described. It, too, is being covered.

The cubit on one side and the cubit on the other, of what is left over in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on one side and on the other, to cover it. And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red and a covering of fine leather above.
Exodus 26:13-14 (NASB)

The next time we see this covering happen is when the Ark of the Covenant is being described in Numbers.

When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the curtain, and cover the ark of the testimony with it; and they shall place a covering of fine leather on it, and spread over it a cloth of pure violet, and insert its carrying poles.
Numbers 4:5-6 (NASB)

In these two later cases, the Holy Place is being covered.

But in Genesis, the ark is being uncovered.

And if we see this symbols of Holy Places being covered and uncovered, perhaps we should consider the contents.

In the Ark of the Covenant, there are three things: the 10 commandments in stone, Aaron’s staff, and a golden pot of manna.

In the Arc of of the Flood, Noah has THREE sons.

Perhaps these three things are related. Perhaps it points to the future.

And on this mountain He will destroy the covering which is over all peoples,
The veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 25:7-8 (NASB)

By the Numbers

Posted on by jovial_cynic

You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female
Genesis 7:2 (NASB)

Also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:3 (NASB)

For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
Genesis 7:4 (NASB)

By the time we get to Genesis 7, we should start noticing some patterns involving numbers. We’re going to start looking at Hebrew numerology, because we’ve finally gotten to the part of the story where the numbers themselves carry the narrative.

Some of the numbers are repeated almost absurdly. It can’t be ignored: seven, two, and forty.

But there is a hint of threes being repeated, too. Back in Genesis 1, we learned about three types of animals. And we read in Genesis 6 that Noah had three sons.

These numbers all have meanings.

Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:7 (NASB)

They all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:9 (NASB)

Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Genesis 7:10 (NASB)

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11 (NASB)

The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:12 (NASB)

Here the three types of animals are listed again, in conjunction with the three sons again: the animals, the livestock, and the crawling things: threes.

And then twos again in the pairs.

On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark
Genesis 7:13 (NASB)

They and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds.
Genesis 7:14 (NASB)

So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
Genesis 7:15 (NASB)

And the chapter closes out with forty again, and then another mention of the three kinds of animals.

(I keep the birds off the list for a reason, and it’s because of how Genesis 1-3 keep them separate. They are different. They represent something different.)

Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.
Genesis 7:17 (NASB)

So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.
Genesis 7:21 (NASB)

There’s a lot of study on numerology — far too much to explain in detail, but here are some basics:

2 = separations, agreements
3 = community
7 = perfection
10 = completeness, fullness
40 = testing, trials

And some might see some larger numbers as being combinations of these underlying numbers. For example, 430 is written 30 and 400 in Hebrew, and it can be read this way: 3×10 and 40×10. Or perhaps “the fullness of community and the fullness of testing.”

Just something to consider.