Chapter 6.9 – 6.22: In a Corrupt World, Only Noah Will Be Saved
6:9 introduces us to Noah: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.” In contrast to the surrounding corruption and lawlessness, Noah alone found favor with the Lord. As Dennis Prager notes, “It is extremely difficult to be decent when living among indecent people. Few people have the moral courage to reject their environment.”
God reveals to Noah His plan to bring a flood upon the earth. The remainder of the chapter details God’s instructions: how to build the ark, which animals to bring aboard, and the food necessary to sustain them until the waters subside. Though Noah was considered righteous, it’s important to note that he doesn’t question God’s decision or plead for mercy on behalf of others—as we’ll soon see Abraham do. His righteousness is faithful and obedient, but not compassionate toward others in the same way.
Chapter 7: Rain for 40 Days and 40 Nights
God commands Noah to enter the ark with his family and the animals. After seven days, the floodwaters begin: rain falls for forty days and forty nights, covering even the highest mountains. The number forty in Judaism often signifies a divinely ordained period of transformation — forty days of rain to cleanse the earth, just as later there will be forty days on Sinai for Torah, and forty years in the wilderness for Israel’s refinement.
In Parshat Noach, the flood lasts almost exactly a year—from the seventeenth day of the second month to the twenty-seventh day the next year. It’s not just a timeline, but a rhythm of renewal. The world itself enters a womb of water, hidden and waiting while the Lord reshapes His work. I often think about how much change and growth can happen over the course of a single year—both in myself as a mother and in my small children. The day-to-day can feel so tough and repetitive, but when we step back and see how far we’ve come in a year, it’s nothing short of monumental.
Chapter 8: Gods Promise
After the floodwaters recede, Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices. 8.21 The Lord smelled the pleasing odor and the Lord said to Himself, “Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth; Jonathan Sacks comments that one thing God did not consider doing was taking back the gift of free will. Even though that would have ended evil on earth, free will is what most distinguishes us from animals. Instead of taking back our free will, God sets a new course: explicit moral laws will be revealed to Noah and his descendants to guide human behavior.
I really enjoyed an essay from Dennis Pragers book, entitled The Belief People Are Basically Good is Foolish and Dangerous. The Torah makes clear — as this verse states plainly (8.21) — that people are not inherently good. Prager asks: Why, despite the evidence, do some still believe man is basically good? He suggests three answers:
- Many people who don’t believe in God and religion have to believe in man or they will have nothing to believe in.
- Rejection of the Bible as people’s primary source of wisdom. Bible-based Jews and Christians do not believe people are basically good because the Bible says they’re not.
- Naïveté resulting from living in a good society.
Chapter 9: God Lays Our The Noahide Laws
9.3-4 Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses. I give you all these. You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it. Here is another example of the Bible and God being greatly concerned with preventing animal suffering and human treatment of animals. While yes, we are permitted to eat meat, we must not consume the blood of an animal. Hence the blood, which is the symbol of life, must be drained and returned to the universe.
9.5 But for your own lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning of human life, of every man for that of his fellow man. God outlaws murder for all mankind. Clearly, conscience alone wasn’t enough to prevent man from acting violently, as God just destroyed mankind except for Noah and his family. Soon, we will see that this isn’t enough either, God will try a third time with the revelation of the Ten Commandments, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The death penalty for murder is so important that it is the only law in the Torah repeated in each of its five books. It was actually really surprising to learn that only 27 of our states have capital punishment.
9.15 I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. We are reminded again, that God will not destroy mankind — at least not by flood. James Baldwin said: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, ‘No more water, the fire next time.” I think if you were to just read this verse, then yes, that would make sense. However, remembering 8.21, God clearly states Never again will I doom the earth because of man.
9.20-9.21 Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and he uncovered himself within his tent. Just interesting that the history of alcohol consumption and drunkenness have been around since post-flood. Abraham Twerski notes of Noah’s foolish wine making: “we may be the unwitting recipients of Divine blessings (just as Noah had upon exiting the ark), but unless we use wise judgment and engage in truly constructive behavior, we may foolishly squander these precious blessings, much to our own detriment.”
Dennis Prager’s Essay: When Good People Have Bad Children
In Chapter 9 of Genesis, we have another universally applicable lesson: parents can and often do have a great deal of influence on the children they raise. But not always. Nothing is as humbling as being a parent. We learn sooner or later we are not only gods, we are only people who can do our best in raising our children. What ultimately ensues is simply not in our hands.
Every family described in the book of Genesis is what we would today call “dysfunctional.” This is the Torah’s gift to every human being who has dysfunctional relatives. The Torah is telling us, “This is –unfortunately — normal.”
Parents need to give their children goodness lessons: otherwise, their being models of goodness will likely mean little. How does one give a child “goodness lessons” ?
- Emphasizing character above all other qualities, by reserving their highest praise of their children for when their children do kind acts.
- Parents need to constantly emphasize goodness, integrity, and honesty.
- Children need moral discipline, and the earlier it begins, the more likely it will work.
- Grounding their moral teachings in the Bible can only help. Having children recognize that there is a God who expects them to be decent is a particularly powerful impetus to good behavior.
Making good people is the single most important thing society and parents must do.
Chapter 10: The Table of Nations — Shem, Ham, and Japheth
Genesis 10, often called the Table of Nations, lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons — Shem, Ham, and Japheth — after the Flood. The Torah divides the post-Flood world into seventy nations, showing how humanity spread across the earth and where different peoples settled.
This chapter highlights that God is the God of all nations and that He cares about every people, not just Israel. Remarkably, this universal perspective is unique compared to other religious literature from the same period.
Chapter 11: Tower of Babel + Hello Abram
11.4 And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; To make a name for oneself can sound admirable, but here it reflects pride — a desire for glory apart from God. As the Persian proverb reminds us, “After the game is over, the pawn and the king go into the same box.”
Aside from seeking fame, commentators offer several other theories about why the people built the tower: to challenge God, to make themselves divine, to control or supervise the world, or to keep humanity concentrated in one place.
As displeased as the Lord was with the direction of this project, He responds not with destruction but dispersion — confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. It’s a strange story, but Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar (author of Or HaChaim) notes that the Tower of Babel is easily understood by those who have witnessed the consequences of congested urban life.
11.10-11.26 Goes through the lineage of Shem through Abram. Interestingly, there are ten generations from Adam to Noah, and there are another ten generations from Shem to Abraham.
11.30 Now Sarai (Sarah) was barren, she had no child. Women who give birth after many long years of infertility is a recurring theme in Genesis, and Dennis Prager believes it’s to underscore the fact that the people of Israel came into existence through repeated divine intervention. God intervened, and all our barren matriarchs (Sarai, Rebecca, and Rachel) eventually gave brith to children.
Takeaway from the Week
- Honor the waiting seasons of life, growth often requires hidden time.
- Choose character over comfort, just as Noah was righteous, we meed to model patience, resilience, and our actions to our children.
- Raising good and decent children is the single most important thing society and parents must do.
- Trust God’s plan even when you can’t see dry land 🌈.