Noah: 1. Rest, (Heb. Noah) the grandson of Methuselah
(Genesis 5:25-29) who
was for two hundred and fifty years contemporary with Adam, and
the son of Lamech, who was about fifty years old at the time of
Adam's death. This patriarch is rightly regarded as the
connecting link between the old and the new world. He is the
second great progenitor of the human family. The words of his
father Lamech at his birth
(Genesis 5:29) have been regarded as in
a sense prophetical, designating Noah as a type of Him who is the
true "rest and comfort" of men under the burden of life(Matthew 11:28) He lived five hundred years, and then there were
born unto him three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth
(Genesis 5:32) He
was a "just man and perfect in his generation," and "walked with
God" (comp.)
(Ezekiel 14:14,20) But now the descendants of Cain
and of Seth began to intermarry, and then there sprang up a race
distinguished for their ungodliness. Men became more and more
corrupt, and God determined to sweep the earth of its wicked
population
(Genesis 6:7) But with Noah God entered into a covenant,
with a promise of deliverance from the threatened deluge
(Genesis 6:18). He was accordingly commanded to build an ark
(Genesis 6:14-16) for the saving of himself and his house. An
interval of one hundred and twenty years elapsed while the ark
was being built
(Genesis 6:3) during which Noah bore constant
testimony against the unbelief and wickedness of that generation
(1 Peter 3:18-20; 2 Peter 2:5) When the ark of "gopher-wood" (mentioned
only here) was at length completed according to the command of
the Lord, the living creatures that were to be preserved entered
into it; and then Noah and his wife and sons and daughters-in-law
entered it, and the "Lord shut him in"
(Genesis 7:16) The
judgment-threatened now fell on the guilty world, "the world that
then was, being overflowed with water, perished"
(2 Peter 3:6) The
ark floated on the waters for one hundred and fifty days, and
then rested on the mountains of Ararat
(Genesis 8:3,4) but not for
a considerable time after this was divine permission given him to
leave the ark, so that he and his family were a whole year shut
up within it
(Genesis 7:11; 8:13-14) On leaving the ark Noah's first
act was to erect an altar, the first of which there is any
mention, and offer the sacrifices of adoring thanks and praise to
God, who entered into a covenant with him, the first covenant
between God and man, granting him possession of the earth by a
new and special charter, which remains in force to the present
time
(Genesis 8:21-22; 9:1-17) As a sign and witness of this
covenant, the rainbow was adopted and set apart by God, as a sure
pledge that never again would the earth be destroyed by a flood.
But, alas! Noah after this fell into grievous sin
(Genesis 9:21)
and the conduct of Ham on this sad occasion led to the memorable
prediction regarding his three sons and their descendants. Noah
"lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years, and he
died"
(Genesis 9:29)
(See DELUGE)
2. Noah, motion, (Heb. No'ah) one of the five daughters of
Zelophehad
(Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Joshua 17:3)
