Parashat Noach — Noah (rest, comfort)
נֹחַ
Noach (נֹחַ) means "noah (rest, comfort)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Genesis 6:9-11:32 Read →
Haftarah Isaiah 54:1-55:5 Read →
B'rit Chadashah 1 Peter 3:18-22 Read →
What Happens in Noach
The earth that God made good has become corrupt and filled with chamas — violence — and every intent of man's heart is only evil continually. But Noach is a righteous man, blameless in his generation: Noach walked with God. YHVH announces the end of all flesh and gives Noach the strangest building project in history: an ark of gopher wood, three hundred cubits long, sealed with pitch inside and out, with rooms for his family and every kind of living creature. The chapter's quiet refrain carries the whole story: Noach did according to all that God commanded him. For decades he builds toward a judgment no one else believes is coming.
In Noach's six hundredth year the fountains of the great deep burst open and the windows of heaven pour down. Yet the text is careful to say who shuts the door: and YHVH closed it behind him. Forty days of rain, one hundred fifty days of prevailing waters, and every living thing outside the ark is blotted out while the ark rides above the judgment. Then God remembers Noach — covenant language, not forgetfulness — and a wind passes over the earth as it did at creation, for this is a new beginning. The raven goes forth, then the dove, until she returns with a freshly plucked olive leaf.
On dry ground Noach's first act is worship: an altar, and offerings whose aroma is soothing to YHVH. God blesses Noach with the words first spoken to Adam — be fruitful and multiply — permits meat but forbids blood, establishes the sanctity of human life made in God's image, and cuts a covenant with all flesh, hanging His bow in the clouds as its everlasting sign. Yet the new world carries the old nature: Noach plants a vineyard and is found drunk and uncovered, and Ham's dishonor divides his sons' destinies. At Babel, unified mankind bakes bricks to build a tower and make a name for themselves lest they be scattered; YHVH comes down, confuses their language, and scatters them anyway. The portion closes tracing Shem's line, generation by generation, down to Terach and his son Avram — the man through whom the scattered families of the earth will be blessed.
Main Themes
Judgment and preservation through the flood Walking with God in a corrupt generation The rainbow covenant with all flesh Human pride at Babel and the scattering of nations The line of promise narrowing toward Avraham
Key Events
· Noach builds the ark in obedience
· The flood destroys all flesh outside the ark
· The dove, the olive leaf, and the dry ground
· The covenant of the rainbow
· Noach's vineyard and the sin of Ham
· The tower of Babel and the confusion of languages
Key People
Noach Shem Ham Yaphet (Japheth) Nimrod Terach Avram
Key Verses
Genesis 6:9 Read →
“This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.”
Genesis 9:13 Read →
“I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.”
Genesis 11:9 Read →
“Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. From there, the LORD scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.”
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