Genesis 8:14—See chapter 7; 11-14. From this, it appears that Noah was in the ark a complete solar year, or 365 days, for he entered it the 7th day of the 2nd month, in the 600th year of his life, and continued in it till the 27th day of the 2nd month, in the 601St year of his life, as we see above.
8:22. “While the earth remaineth” (Hebrews “as yet all the days of the earth”), Isaiah 54:8, “seedtime.” Most of the European nations divide the year into four distinct parts, called quarters or seasons, but there are six divisions in the text, which obtained in Palestine among the Hebrews, and exist among the Arabs to the present day. According to this gracious promise, the heavenly bodies have preserved their courses, the seasons their successions, and the earth its increase for the use of men.
The rainbow probably was not then visible for the first time, but that it was then set or appointed, or given as the token of the covenant. If it be objected that it would be but poor comfort to Noah and his posterity to see the rainbow if it had been visible before the flood, as a deluge followed notwithstanding, it may be replied that this objection is baseless, because it: supposes the comfort to lie in the sign of the rainbow, and not in the promise of which it was the pledge and the token. A rainbow could afford no consolation to them who lived before the flood, because no promise had been connected with it. But after it was made the sign or token of the promise, and reminds us of the promise which is an infallible security to all who believe the Scriptures, there is undoubtedly all imaginable comfort in it. It is not the thing itself, but the appointment of it for that specific purpose, which makes it the visible guarantee of a gracious promise, It is not the bow merely which assures us that the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, but its being set or appointed by God in the cloud as a visible token and pledge of this assurance to which the language refers.
8:25. Cursed, see ver. 21, Chapter 3:14. 4:11; 49:7, Deuteronomy 27:16. The nations, which God destroyed before Israel, were descended from Canaan, and so were the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians who were at length subjugated with dreadful destruction by the Greeks and Romans.
8:27 “enlarge” or “persuade” Japheth. Japheth denotes enlargement; and how wonderfully have his boundaries been enlarged! For not only Europe, but Asia Minor, part of Armenia, Iberia, the whole of the vast regions of Asia north of Taurus, and probably America, fall to the share of his property. “He shall dwell,” these words may mean either that God, or Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem. In either sense the prophecy has been literally fulfilled.
10:6. Ham signifies burnt or black, and this name was peculiarly significant of the negroes allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or descendents of Cush, were allotted the hot southern regions of Asia along the shores of the Persian Gulf; Lusiana or Chusistan, etc. To the sons of Canaan, Palestine and Syria; to the sons of Mizraim, Egypt and Libya, in Africa.