Genesis 8:18

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:13-19 God consults our benefit, rather than our desires; he knows what is good for us better than we do for ourselves, and how long it is fit our restraints should continue, and desired mercies should be delayed. We would go out of the ark before the ground is dried; and perhaps, if the door, is shut, are ready to thrust off the covering, and to climb up some other way; but God's time of showing mercy is the best time. As Noah had a command to go into the ark, so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set him before us in all our removals. Those only go under God's protection, who follow God's direction, and submit to him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- XXVII. The Ark Was Evacuated

19. משׁפחה mı̂shpāchah, "kind, clan, family." שׁפחה shı̂pchâh, "maid-servant; related: spread."

20. מזבח mı̂zbēach, "altar; related: slay animals, sacrifice."

21. עלה 'olâh, "whole burnt-offering." That which goes up. "Step; related: go up."

Genesis 8:15-19

The command to leave the ark is given and obeyed. As Noah did not enter, so neither does he leave the ark, without divine direction. "The fowl, the cattle, and the creeper." Here, again, these three classes are specified under the general head of every living tiring. They are again to multiply on the earth. "Every living thing." This evidently takes the place of the cattle mentioned before. "After their families." This word denotes their tribes. It is usually applied to families or clans.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ge 8:15-22. Departure from the Ark.

15, 16. And God spake … Go forth—They went forth in the most orderly manner—the human occupants first, then each species "after their kinds" [Ge 8:19], literally, "according to their families," implying that there had been an increase in the ark.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Noah went forth,.... Being obedient to the divine command, and no doubt with great pleasure in his countenance, and with a heart full of thankfulness for so great a deliverance:

and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: in all eight persons, and no more were saved in the ark, as Peter observes, 1 Peter 3:20 and the Arabic writers say (a), Noah and his sons built a city near the place where they came out of the ark, and called it Themanin, giving this as a reason of the name, we are eight, that is, who have escaped; so Berosus says (b), that the earth being dried of the waters, there were then only eight men in Armenia, from whence all mankind sprung.

(a) Elmacleus, p. 12. Patricides, p. 10. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 8. p. 282. (b) Hist. l. 2. fol. 11. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 18, 19. - And Noah went forth, - in obedience to the Divine command, - and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, - in obedience to Noah, to whom alone the Divine instructions were communicated; - an early instance of filial subjection to parents. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, i.e. the chayyah, the remes, the 'oph, all creepers upon the ground (cf. Genesis 1:26; Genesis 7:8, 14), all of which had previously entered in. After their kinds. Hebrew, families, tribes (Genesis 10:18); i.e. not confusedly, but in an orderly fashion, as they had come in, each one sorting to its kind. Went forth out of the ark. Genesis 8:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Noah waited some time, and then, on the first day of the first month, in the 601st year of his life, removed the covering from the ark, that he might obtain a freer prospect over the earth. He could see that the surface of the earth was dry; but it was not till the 27th day of the second month, 57 days, therefore, after the removal of the roof, that the earth was completely dried up. Then God commanded him to leave the ark with his family and all the animals; and so far as the latter were concerned, He renewed the blessing of the creation (Genesis 8:17 cf. Genesis 1:22). As the flood commenced on the 17th of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's life, and ended on the 27th of the second month of the 601st year, it lasted a year and ten days; but whether a solar year of 360 of 365 days, or a lunar year of 352, is doubtful. The former is the more probable, as the first five months are said to have consisted of 150 days, which suits the solar year better than the lunar. The question cannot be decided with certainty, because we neither know the number of days between the 17th of the seventh month and the 1st of the tenth month, nor the interval between the sending out of the dove and the 1st day of the first month of the 601st year.