Welcome to my Hebrew reading & language series.
Continuing with Genesis 6:11-14
This week I read the English first and talk a bit about today's topic. I move to the Hebrew and pick out vowels and identify them by sound, then show Hebrew letters and tell you what they sound like. It is a quick how to in case you have not been reading my blog from the start, each letter, its name, what markings go with it, meanings, history and numerical values. Click here to see Alef
Hebrew style writes the Tanakh using a brief overview of something, then expounds on each point in more detail as you read on. It is almost like a table of contents, followed by the actual chapters. Sometimes there are also sub chapters, if you will.
Overview
Weeks ago we were reading a who fathered who into chapter five where Noah fathered three boys.
Chapter
Last week we see more details about how God chose to focus on Noah and why. In verse 6:10 he restates that Noah had the same three sons.
Sub Chapter
Today we read about the decision to wipe out corrupt mankind, now including a dialogue between God and Noah and how he must build an water-tight ark.
We will get back to who fathered who after the flood story.
So let us look at creation
Some say that God created plants and man after the initial seventh day rest. That is a good theory if one is not familiar with Hebrew writing style. But if you have ever been to any conference, you would know that the Program received at the door does not contain every word you will hear during the entire evening.
Overview
See Gen 1:3 through 2:3 for the overview - Days one to seven.
Chapter
Immediately after that, we see the generations of the earth.
- plants had not sprung up
- there was no rain
- no man yet
- mist watered the earth
- man was formed
- plants grew
- the garden was planted by God
- trees bore fruit to eat
- rivers flowed (from / to where)
- man placed in the garden
- just one command - tree of knowledge = do not eat
- animals formed and brought to man for naming
- no helper found for man
- woman formed from man
- enter the serpent
Creation seems complete.
Linking this all back to Noah
Creating rain and the rainbow.
Today is the day that God decides to create rain and later on, the sun will shine for the first time and reveal the spectrum of light. A colorful reminder of a promise once made.
When I was reading, I pictured God looking down on mankind (all flesh), seeing a twisted mix of human and celestial half breeds that had become violent in all their ways. All the earth had been tainted and the Creator had decided to put an end to "all flesh" or mankind.
He gives us a hint on how it would be destroyed by telling Noah to make an ark and seal it with pitch. Odd that anyoneone would need a boat when it had never rained on the earth before that time. The earth had always been watered by springs that came up out of the ground and mist (dew) in the air.
Scientifically, we know that direct sunlight had never been seen on earth, since rainbows were never seen prior to the flood. All that misting water, but no rainbows? Here is one explanation. There was thick cloud cover and much higher atmospheric pressure on earth, no seasons, no rain or snow. Enough light would have gotten through for plants to grow but not enough to damage skins cells.
No sunlight + high pressure = longer lifespans.
Search "sun aging wrinkles skin cancer" for more clues about pre-flood lifespans.
High pressure and a constant canopy of clouds would have made the entire earth into a paradise, which would explain why we find Mammoths that had once lived in a warm climate. Later to be quick frozen in Northern Alaska. They are still being discovered below the permafrost.
Technically, the rain and rainbow were not created in the period of the flood. Conditions for large water droplets and sunlight had never been observed coming together on earth before. The sun never got through in the form of beams.
A cataclysm was necessary bring water down from the dense cloud cover with an in-rush at the poles that quick-froze all life there. Earth would be completely covered in water until a massive impact (Gulf of Mexico?) pushes in one side and the Himalayas rise on the other. Plates shift creating deep oceans for water to move into and mountain ranges. The biggest impact also tilts the rotational axis giving us our first seasons after more than a century of temperate world-wide climate.
Having seen evidence of impacts all over the world, I think it was a massive bombardment that was ongoing after the ark settled, but started during the flood in order to raise the mountains upon which the ark settled.
Food for thought! We will read on from here next week.
Today's reading
Here is the passage with the vowels highlighted. All other markings are for several other purposes that were explained in earlier lessons.
Here are the links
Please hit the DTube video link below and read the above passage with me in Hebrew.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Info on each letter starting at the beginning
If you are just starting, my lessons are all here starting at Alef, adding vowels (the dots and lines) as we go, the sofit formations and numerical values. Just go to my blog and scroll to the bottom or click here
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