Глава 8

“And the waters subsided for an hundred and fifty days. And the ark sat... on the mountains of Ararat... and in the tenth month... the top of the mountains appeared... And in the first and six hundredth year... on the first day of the first month, the water dried up from the face of the earth... In the second month, which is Jor (Iyar), - on the twenty-seventh day of the month the earth dried up” (Gen. 8:3-5, 13-14). So Noah and those with him were in the ark for three hundred and sixty-five days. For from the twenty-seventh day of the second month of Ior to the twenty-seventh day of the same month of another year, according to the lunar reckoning of months, three hundred and sixty-five days passed. Look, even in the Noahic family they counted three hundred and sixty-five days in a year; Therefore, can it be said that the Chaldeans and Egyptians invented and established such a number? “And the Lord God spoke to Noah... come out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives” (Gen. 8:15–16). God brought them into the ark separately to preserve purity, but He brought them out in pairs so that they would grow and multiply on the earth. And the animals kept the purity in the ark, as can be seen from the words: “all the beasts and the fowl are with you, and all flesh... bring with you: and grow and multiply on the earth” (Gen. 8:17). When Noah and all those who were with him came out of the ark, then “he took from all the clean animals... and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen. 8:20). On the day Noah came out of the ark, all the clean birds and beasts obeyed Noah, he offered all clean flesh as a sacrifice pleasing to God, and this sacrifice put an end to the flood. “And the smell of the Lord” (Gen. 8:21) is not the smell of animal flesh or burning wood, but He looked and saw the purity of heart in the one who sacrificed to Him from everything and for everything. And the Lord God said to Noah what he wanted to hear: “Because of your righteousness, the remnant of creatures was preserved and did not perish in the waves of the flood, and because of your sacrifice, made of all flesh and for all flesh, I will no longer bring a flood on the earth.” God, as it were, binds Himself in advance with a promise, so as not to bring a flood upon people again, if they again walk after an evil thought, directed towards evil every day. And since sowing and harvest were interrupted by the flood, the order of times was upset, God returns to the earth what was taken from it in anger, and says: “All the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, winter and heat, summer and spring, day and night will not cease” (Gen. 8:22). For at the time of the flood there was night for forty days because of the rains, and throughout the whole year, until the earth dried up, winter continued without summer. You might be interested in: