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Genesis 8:20-22

8:20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.¹ 8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma² and said³ to himself,⁴ “I will never again curse⁵ the ground because of humankind, even though⁶ the inclination of their minds⁷ is evil from childhood on.⁸ I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

8:22 “While the earth continues to exist,⁹

planting time¹⁰ and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

and day and night will not cease.”

¹sn Offered burnt offerings on the altar. F. D. Maurice includes a chapter on the sacrifice of Noah in The Doctrine of Sacrifice. The whole burnt offering, according to Leviticus 1, represented the worshiper’s complete surrender and dedication to the Lord. After the flood Noah could see that God was not only a God of wrath, but a God of redemption and restoration. The one who escaped the catastrophe could best express his gratitude and submission through sacrificial worship, acknowledging God as the sovereign of the universe.

²tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

³tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

⁴tn Heb “in his heart.”

⁵tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

⁶tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

⁷tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

⁸tn Heb “from his youth.”

⁹tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”

¹⁰tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.

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