Глава 7

When people did not repent, despite the fact that Noah, by his holiness, served as a model for his contemporaries, and with his righteousness he preached to them about the flood for a hundred years, they even laughed at Noah, who informed them that all kinds of living creatures would come to him to seek salvation in the ark, and said: “How will the animals and birds come, scattered throughout all countries?”, then God again repeated to him: “Come in, you and all your house.” ark, because I saw you righteous before Me in this generation. And from clean cattle you shall bring to you seven, seven, male and female; but from unclean cattle, two, two, male and female” (Gen. 7:1-2). The meek animals are called clean animals, and the harmful animals are called unclean. And at the very beginning, God created clean animals in greater numbers. And so, those who were not convinced by the word had to be convinced by the visible. “Again this seven days I will bring rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights: and I will consume... all that I have made” (Gen. 7:4). On that very day, elephants began to come from the east, monkeys and peacocks from the south, other animals gathered from the west, others hurried to come from the north. Lions left their oak groves, fierce animals came out of their lairs, deer and onagers (wild donkeys) came from their deserts, animals that lived on the mountains gathered from there. Noah's contemporaries flocked to such a new spectacle - but not for repentance, but to enjoy seeing how lions entered the ark before their eyes, oxen rushed after without fear, seeking refuge with them, wolves and sheep, hawks and sparrows, eagles and doves entered together. When such a hasty gathering of animals into the ark, and the peace that soon established between them, did not move Noah’s contemporaries to repentance, then the Lord God said to Noah: “Seven more days and I will destroy all flesh that I have created.” God gave people a hundred years to repent while the ark was being built, but they did not come to their senses. He gathered animals that had never been seen before, but the people did not want to repent; He established peace between harmful and harmless animals, and then they were not afraid. Even after Noah and all the animals entered the ark, God delayed another seven days, leaving the door of the ark open. It is surprising that neither the lions remembered their oak groves, nor other animals and birds of all kinds began to seek their homes again, and that Noah’s contemporaries, seeing everything that happened outside the ark and in the ark, were not convinced to abandon their wicked deeds. God wanted to postpone the punishment of wicked people for one hundred and twenty years, first, so that they would repent; moreover, that during this time the righteous living among them should become their judges; finally, so that the righteous would fulfill the years of their lives, and there would be no reason to say: “Why did not God deliver from destruction those who did not sin?” Having tested the human race for a hundred years, God, however, then subtracted twenty years, because those seven days that He delayed after the animals entered the ark, according to the signs that then took place, were more significant than the subtracted twenty years. For if people did not repent during the signs that occurred during these seven days, then it is clear that they would not have repented even during the twenty years that passed without signs. Therefore, He who reduced twenty years saved people from a greater number of crimes. After the fulfillment of seven days, “in the six hundredth year in the life of Noah, the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month... all the springs of the great deep were bursting open, and the abysses of heaven were opened... and the Lord God shut Noah from without” (Gen. 7:11, 16) - so that when the waters overflowed, no one could break the door of the ark and enter into it. “And there was a flood... And all flesh died... and Noah and those with him were left alone in the ark” (Gen. 7:17, 21, 23). The fountains of the deep and the abysses of heaven were opened for forty days and nights, and the ark floated on the waves for one hundred and fifty days. You might be interested in: