Who are designated by the phrase 'daughters of men?'

Ans. The wicked and degenerate posterity of Cain, children of the old Adam. Thus, 1 Cor. 13. 3, Walk ye not as men,' i. e. unregenerate men.

How does it appear that such connections were improper, and are still to be avoided by the people of God? Deut. 7. 3, 4; Mal. 2. 15; 2 Cor. 6. 14; 1 Cor. 7. 39.

In what recorded instances were such marriages followed by very unhappy consequences? Gen. 27. 46; Judg. 14. 1; 1 Kings 11. 1; Neh. 13. 23-27.

What is the Lord's declaration, v. 3, and what is to be understood by it?

'Strive; Heb. 'judge,' i. e. contend in judgment, as the word implies Eccl. 6. 10. As if he should say, 'My Spirit shall not perpetually keep up the process of judgment, reproof, conviction, and condemnation.' This passage should be viewed in connection with. 1 Pet. 3. 18-20, as this was doubtless the Holy Spirit of Christ, by which he through the instrumentality of the patriarchs, especially Noah, preached to the disobedient spirits of the old world. For that he also is flesh,' i. e. these also, even my peculiar professing people have become carnal and corrupt.

What is the import of the term 'flesh' in other parts of the Scripture? John 3. 6; Rom. 8. 4-13; Gal. 5. 16-24.

What is the danger incident to those who persist in resisting the strivings of the Spirit? Heb. 10. 29–31.

How long a time of forbearance was allowed, and what was to follow? I Pet. 3. 19, 20. This period was to be terminated by the flood.

From what year of Noah's life is this period to be dated? Gen. 7. 6.

What remarkable inhabitants were there on earth in those days, and of what marriages were they the fruit? v. 4.

6

'Giants,' Heb. Nephilim,' i. e. fallers. These were apostates fallen from God and the true religion, and by violence and cruelty falling upon their fellow-men, injuring their persons and invading their rights; usurpers, oppressors, tyrants, monsters of wickedness and lust, as well as of enormous stature. They are otherwise and elsewhere termed Anakim, Rephaim, Gibborim: thus Nimrod, Gen. 10. 8, is called Gibbor; i. e. a mighty one, a giant. By the Greeks, this class of men are termed Gigantes, from two words, signifying to be born of the earth; a term from which we learn both the origin and the import of the English word 'giant.' The giants of the ancient mythology are fabled to have sprung from the earth, from some broken traditions respecting these antediluvian apos tates, who in the sense of being earthly, sensual, vile, despising heavenly things, might be justly denominated earth-born.' There are more frequent allusions to them in the original Scriptures than are obvious in our translation, or any other. Thus, Prov. 9. 18, speaking of the young man enticed into the abodes of the adulterous woman,' He knoweth not that the dead (Heb. the giants, the Rephaim') are there;' i. e. he does not consider that it was by this sin that the renowned rebels before the flood perished, and that he is in danger of meeting the same fate. Prov. 21. 16, He that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead, (Heb. of the giants ;') i. e. shall be in imminent peril of being joined to that wretched society. Prov. 2. 18, The house of the strange woman inclineth unto death, (Heb. 'unto the giants.") Again, Job 26. 5, Dead things, (Heb. the giants,' Rephaim) are formed under the

เ

waters and the inhabitants thereof.' This conveys no intelligible meaning. It is probably more correctly rendered by the Lat. Vulgate, The giants groan (Heb. shake, or tremble') under the waters with the inhabitants thereof.' The clue to this is to be found in the fact, that it was this class of men, who were buried in the waters of the deluge, and whose spirits, i. e. shades, manes, were supposed, in popular estimation, to be imprisoned in the caverns of the earth. It was to these spirits that Christ by his Holy Spirit preached during their life time, 1 Fet. 3. 19. Farmer supposes that the Apostle James, in saying, The devils (Gr. demons,' i. e. spirits of dead men) believe and tremble,' alludes to this very passage of Job. The conceit of the Grecian poets, that earthquakes were occasioned by the attempts of the giants to shake off the mountains that were heaped upon them, owes its origin to the same source, viz. the traditions respecting the fate of the antediluvian rebels, who after death were held to be incarcerated for their crimes in the subterranean regions of the earth. It is supposed by some that no other than these apostate sons of God' are intended by the sacred writer in the term 'angels,' 2. Pet. 5. 4, who are often styled Elohim,'

And also after that when,' &c, Heb. 'And even after it was so that the sons of God went in,' &c. This implies that the result of such marriages disappointed previous expectation; that although the 'sons of God' might have flattered themselves with the idea of exerting a predominant influence of a religious kind upon their wives, and of begetting and rearing up a godly seed, yet the experiment was unsuccessful; the influence of ungodly mothers prevailed with their offspring, and thus the race of giants' was perpetuated.

What character did these men anciently sustain? v. 4.

'Men of renown,' Heb. Men of name,' i. e. men who, in the estimation of the world, had performed great

exploits, and thus emblazoned their fame. Much to the discredit of humanity, such characters have been the principal theme of historic record and of worldly admiration in all ages. The contrary phrase occurs, Job 30. 8, Base men; Heb. men of no name.' The expression names of men,' Rev. 11. 13, Gr. is probably put by a rhetorical figure for 'men of name.'

What is to be inferred as to the propriety of these unequal yokings, from the fact of their being followed in these instances by such an ungodly progeny? Mal. 2. 15.

How is the wickedness of man described, and how is the Most High said to have been affected by it? v. 5, 6.

Every imagination,' Heb. the whole imagination," i. e. every thing imagined.- Continually,' Heb 'every day.' Gr. And every one mindeth in his heart carefully for evils all days.'

What are we to understand by God's 'rez penting'?

As it is said, 1 Sam. 15. 29, The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent;' it is obvious that the mutability common to mortals cannot be predicated of him. By his repenting therefore is meant merely a change in .his dispensations towards his creatures, in view of some previous change in their conduct towards him. In such cases he acts as men act when they repent, and the term is accordingly applied to him in accommodation to our limited faculties. Thus the Jews have a familiar saying; The Law speaketh according to the language of the sons of Adam.'

What solemn and fearful purpose did he accordingly adopt? v. 7.

Heb. From man unto beast,' i. c. beginning with man I will extend the destruction unto beasts.

Why was the brute creation to be involved in this destruction? Comp. Gen. 1. 28, with Rom. 8. 20.

Who was to be excepted from the general overthrow, and why? v. 8.

To what is grace' opposed in the Scriptures? Rom. 11. 6, and 4. 4.

**At this place, v. 8, ends, in the Heb. Scriptures, the first Parashâ, or great section of the Law, i. e. the portion appointed to be read on the Sabbath in the Jewish synagogues, Acts 15. 21. The five books of Moses were divided by the Jews into fifty-four sections, because in their intercalated years, by a month being added, there were fifty-four Sabbaths; but in other years they reduced them to fifty-two by joining two together. Thus the reading of the whole Law was completed in the course of a year, In the time of the Maccabees, who restored the reading of the Law after it had been suspended by the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, a corresponding number of sections from the Prophets were read in connection, the Law forming the first Lesson, and the Prophets the second. This was practised in the times of the Apostles, as may be seen, Acts 13. 15. Of this usago the Hebrew doctors write, It is a common custom throughout all Israel that they finish wholly the Law in one year; beginning on the Sabbath which is after the Feast of Tabernacles at the first section of Genesis, (thence called Bereshith ;') on the second Sabbath at These are the generations of Noah,' ch. 6. 9; on the third, at The Lord said unto Abraham,' ch. 12. 1; so they read and go on in this order till they have ended the Law at the Feast of Tabernacles.'

What is the character given of Noah, v. 9 ? Generations,' Heb. births,' i. e. events, occurrences,