Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
SEDRA 2: NO'ACH (Genesis 6:9-9:29)
ELOHIM VERSION (6:9-6:22)
Before we start the text... several Greek and Akkadian legends are worth comparing here. The Akkadian, also current among Hurrians and Beney Chet (Hittites), was that of Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim (Graves 116). Along with this myth there seem to be historical memories of the great flood of 3200 BCE, noted by Sir Leonard Woolley; and also elements of the autumnal New Year vintage feasts of Babylonia, Assyria and Kena'an, where the ark was a crescent-shaped moon-ship containing sacrificial animals, much like the pageant wagons of today's Macy's Parade or the mediaeval May King parades in Europe. The feast took place at the New Moon nearest the autumn equinox, with libations of new wine to encourage the winter rains: whence the moveable feast of Rosh Ha Shana - because this is, in fact, another Creation myth.
A Midrash informs us that Ya'akov (Jacob) spent fourteen years in the ancient Semitic centres of learning, the schools of Shem and Ever; there he received the ancient traditions which record the primaeval tales of the Tanach, amongst them this flood legend. The Midrash also tells us that No'ach spent the years building his ark as a preacher of repentance, like John the Baptist later; this echoes the Babylonian version in which Utnapishtim (see the note on this name a few paragraphs below) does the same, and may well provide us with an alternative version of Yonah (Jonah). The source of all these is the Mesopotamian deity Oannes, himself a form of the serpent-deity and Lord of the Earth Enki - click here for more detail.
In the Babylonian version of Atra-Hasis the flood lasts six days and nights; Enki sends out a dove on the seventh day, which comes back the same day, and immediately he sends out a raven which does not come back. They leave the ship that same day, making the whole story last just one week (or really seven days, which is not quite the same thing mythologically). This version was written down, in cuneiform, by the time of Av-Raham, whereas most Bible scholars reckon that the Bible version post-dates Mosheh, in written form anyway (it is held that there was no writing in Yisra-El before David's time; a statement that is hard to credit, unless it is intended simply to mean no writing in the Yehudit, which is to say the Ugaritic alphabet. The Egyptians were using hieroglyphs and the Babylonians cuneiform, and war and trade were constant through the region – so there would have been some familiarity with writing, even if it was only tax demands and despotic edicts).
The Greek version of the myth is told by Robert Graves on 117/8 of his "Greek Myths"; and was probably imported to Greece from Kena'an, rather than the other way around.
Ararat is also referred to in 2 Kings 19:37 and Isaiah 37:38 (interestingly the two texts are identical), and is probably the land of Urartu, on Lake Van; the Mount being Judi (pronounced, I believe, Chudi, the "ch" as in both the navel and chancel ends of "church").
Flood stories are known from India, Burma, China and Malaya as well as Kena'an and Mesopotamia; also Australia and the Pacific Islands and among the AmerIndians. The Greek equivalent is the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, a particularly interesting connection as Deucalion was a son of Prometheus, and Prometheus was a son of Iapetus, who is the Beney Yisra-El Yaphet, son of No'ach, making Deucalion No'ach's great-grandson!
Indeed, so universal are these Flood stories - and in both senses: found everywhere; and describing a flood that drowned the Earth in its entirety - we have to assume that this is the oldest story in the human world, born of the memories of those who came out of the Ice Age.
The theme is always a) Humankind offends the gods; b) punishment by universal flood; c) one Man chosen to survive and repopulate.
The first account of the Babylonian flood was written by Berossus, a priest of Marduk or Bel in Babylon, writing in Greek in 275 BCE; it was dedicated to Antiochus 1 (279-261 BCE) and entitled "Babyloniaca" or "Chaldiaca". It told in three books the entire history of Babylonia from its origins to its "liberation" by Alexander of Macedon. Berossus' book is now lost, but known through quotations in Alexander Polyhistor, Abydenus, Eusebius, Syncellus, Josephus and the Armenian Moses of Khoren (the link on Berossus' name, above, will take you to several of these, and to several other accounts of the Flood).
No'ach's equivalent in the Babylonian epic is Utnapishtim (which appears to connect to the Yehudit root NEPHESH = "soul" or "spirit", through the Hitpa'el form, LEHITNAPESH – להתנפש, with the sense of "restoration of the soul" or "regeneration of the spirit", which of course is what this Creation myth is ultimately about. The Akkadian version calls him Atra-Hasis ("exceedingly wise") as well, whence Berossus names him Xisuthros. In fact this is from the Sumerian Zi-u-sudra, meaning "life of long days". In the Sumerian king list Zi-u-sudra is the last antediluvian king; son of King Ubar-Tutu he reigned for 36,000 years. His capital was at Shuruppak, modern Fara, 95 miles south-east of Baghdad and 40 north-west of Ur.
Gilgamesh (in Sumerian Bilga-mes) appears as the 28th post-diluvian king, ruler of Uruk for 126 years. Uruk is Biblical Erech (Genesis 10:10). Gilgamesh later became deified (an oracular king turned god, à la Grec), and is credited with building the walls of Uruk and the temple at Nippur (the holy city). Some texts say he was a son of the goddess Nin-sun and her husband Lugal-banda, but the king list makes him a son of a Lillu-demon (Yehudit Lilit?), a sort of incubus just like Merlin. Aelian, Rome 2nd century CE, tells how Seuechoros king of Babylon heard prophesies that his grandson would deprive him of his realm, and kept his daughter confined in the Akropolis so that she would never know a man. But a spirit made her pregnant. Her guards hurled the boy to his death, but an eagle saved him, and placed him in an orchard; the gardener brought him up to be Gilgamos. This echoes some of King Sargon's origins, and the myth of Etana who flew into Heaven on an eagle. In the king-list Gilgamesh is the grandson of Seuechoros, who in Sumerian was En-merkar.
The King list has En-merkar, Lugul-banda a shepherd, Dumuzi a fisherman, and Gilgamesh. The latter three were all later deified as husband of the goddess Nin-sun. Dumuzi = Tammuz. Gilgamesh became one of the infernal judges.
Babylonia = southern Iraq from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf; the capital from the 11th century BCE was Bavel (Babylon). Southern Babylon was Sumer, northern was Akkad. Southern Akkadians spoke Babylonian, a dialect of Akkadian; northern Akkadians spoke what would become Assyrian, the language of Assyria or Mesopotamia, and the source of modern Arabic. Akkadian is a Semitic language, linked to Yehudit, Arabic,Aramaic etc. The root of Sumerian is unknown (though the links suggest that it was probably Beney Chet (Hittite).
The 5 royal cities of Sumer were Eridu, Bad-Tibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak; each with its own god or goddess.
If Av-Raham had indeed come from Babylon (Genesis 11:24ff), and his departure was because of the destruction of the city, then he would have left at the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2170-2062 BCE).
In the Sumerian version En-Lil, angry with man, decides to punish him by flood. Inanna wails in protest. Enki decides to save king Zi-u-sudra; speaking through the reed wall of his house (he is the wind) he tells him to build a boat for his family. The flood lasts seven days and nights; then Utu the sun-god appears and brings back light. Zi-u-sudra prostrates himself before Utu and sacrifices an ox and a sheep. The gods recompense him by immortalising him, making him live in Dilmun - at once the Island of the Dead and the place where the sun-god rises - though it was also probably ancient Bahrein.
The Akkadian version was written (we know from the colophon on the clay tablet of the third section, now in the British Museum) by Ellit-Aya, a junior scribe of King Ammi-saduqa (saduqa reflects the Yehudit Tsedek as in Malki-Tsedek - "just" or "righteous", just like No'ach), in 1692 BCE, 439 lines (of which only 50 are left), written on the 28th day of the month Shabat (Yehudit Shevat: usual links to Shiv'a, Lishbo'a, the number 7 etc). It begins "Inuma ilu awilum – when the man of god..." (the title, like Yehudit book titles, taken from the opening words). Note that Ilu = god = El.
The second section of the Epic of Atram-Hasis (western scholars have variant spellings of the name, but it is the same Atra-Hasis) was written by the same scribe in the month of Ayyar (Yehudit Iyyar) of the same year. It had 390 lines, making the whole thing 1245 lines, allowing us to work out that the lost Tablet 1 must have had 416. 170 in total are left.
Tablet 1: the gods create the world; the mother-goddess Mami, also called Nin-hursanga and Ninhursag (Lady of the Mountain) and Nin-tu (Lady who gives birth) creates Lullu (the male equivalent of Lilit), the first man to "bear the yoke of the world". A minor god is slain (possibly a variant of Havel/Abel?); his flesh and blood are mixed with clay to fashion the first man (cf Adam); Man founds cities and establishes kingship.
Tablet 2: the world has too many people and is too noisy, upsetting En-Lil. He calls an assembly of the gods and decrees famine, drought, other plagues, in order to reduce the problem. When these fail he decrees a flood. Some gods opposed the decision, since how would the gods fare without human sacrifices? Enki persuades En-Lil to let him manage the flood, and secretly tells Atra-Hasis, pious king of Shuruppak.
Tablet 3: Enki cannot tell men the secrets of the gods, so he tells the reed wall instead. Enki gives explicit instructions on the building of the ship; Atra-Hasis goes aboard with his family and possessions plus beasts of the field and survives.
The third flood story is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. 12 cantos entitled "He who saw everything" (again from the opening words). The book recounts tales of Gilgamesh and his faithful friend Enkidu (is this the same as the god Enki?). Enkidu is killed, Gilgamesh devastated, and pursues eternal life. He goes to see Utnapishtim, the only known immortal man, in his home beyond the Waters of Death where he has lived since the Flood. Utnapishtim tells his secret by recounting the story of the Flood. No mention of why the flood. Utnapishtim is told by Ea that the flood will hit Shuruppak. Same reed-hut speaking. Utnapishtim's ship was 120 cubits per side (200 feet) – which makes it rectangular, like No'ach's, and who ever heard of a rectangular ship: could it actually float, let alone sail? click here. It was divided into seven storeys, each with seven compartments (making it less a wooden ship than a holy Ark!). It was made of bitumen pitch, with oil to seal it. A door, one window and a rudder; a boatman went with. The whole was in fact a cube (the very first mosque built by Muhammad was in a town named Quba - odd coincidence that!), which is perfect, but strange, since it couldn't float (was it really a temple?) 3,000 feet (5 stadia) long and 2 stadia (1,200 feet) high - the Biblical ark was 300 cubits in length by 50 wide and 30 high = 450 feet by 75 by 45 which is better proportioned for sailing.
Utnapishtim took silver and gold, cattle and beasts of the field, plus wild creatures of the field, and craftsmen, like the Atra-hasis version. His boatman was named Puzur-Amurri. Adad the storm god rumbled. Shullat and Hanish - other gods, probably wind-gods - led the onslaught; Irragal wrenched out the bollards; the chaos god Ninurta and the fire god Anunnaki joined in and the boat rose to the heaven of Anu. Ishtar cried at her lost progeny. Seven days of flood ensued. The Ark rested on Mount Nisir above the Tigris. Utnapishtim waited seven more days, then sent out birds to reconnoitre: first a dove, then a swallow, finally a raven which did not return. Sacrifices of thanksgiving were held as they disembarked. Ishtar tried to prevent En-Lil from sharing the sacrifice. En-Lil was at first angry, but the gods rebuked him. He goes on board the ship, makes Utnapishtim and his wife kneel before him, and bestows on them immortality and a dwelling place beyond the waters of death. Utnapishtim then tells Gilgamesh of a plant which gives eternal life. Gilgamesh eventually finds it, but while bathing in a stream a serpent steals it (yes, the wicked serpent again!).
Shitim or shitah wood, whence the ark was constructed, was probably the (waterproof) wild acacia, which was also used for Osher's (Osiris') ark and Mosheh's Ark of the Covenant. Wild acacia is a host tree of the loranthus, a form of mistletoe, whose flaming buds are suggested as a possible for the burning bush.
And now the Yehudit version:-
*
6:9 ELEH TOLDOT NO'ACH NO'ACH ISH TSADIK TAMIM HAYAH BE DOROTAV ET HA ELOHIM HIT'HALECH NO'ACH
אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים הִתְהַלֶּךְ נֹחַ
KJ (King James translation): These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
BN (BibleNet translation): This is the story of No'ach. No'ach was the most righteous and whole-hearted man in his generation; No'ach followed the path of Ha Elohim.
TOLDOT: does indeed mean "generations", and we have seen the word used for genealogical tables previously, but it is also used to mean "story", as in "history", and that is clearly the intention here.
Note the change from Ha to plain Elohim.
Samech break
6:13 VA YOMER ELOHIM LE NO'ACH KETS KOL BASAR BA LEPHANAI KI MAL'AH HA ARETS CHAMAS MI PENEYHEM VE HINENI MASHCHIYTAM ET HA ARETS
HINENI: The first of many appearances of this word in the Tanach. Literally "here I am", it is usually the answer given to the deity when a human hears the still small voice, though on more than one occasion it is the announcement of his presence by the deity himself, as here.
MASHCHIYTAM: This is the great paradox of the god of the Beney Yisra-El, repeated in most religions in fact: based on the ideals of peace, mercy, justice and compassion, but prepared to withhold all four, even to do the opposite, if it is necessary to bring Humankind to faith in, and obedience to, a god of peace, mercy, justice and compassion. Most human despots and dictators operate in the same manner, ruling their personal empire, the Democratic Free People's Republic of Me. However, it is also more complex than that, because this tale is cosmic mythology, not human politics.
In the Hindu trimurti, Brahma is the Creator of Life, Vishnu the Sustainer of Life, and Shiva its Destroyer, an effective means of containing the three modes of existence. In the monotheistic cult of Judaism, however, all modes of existence are contained within the same One deity, each mode being seen as contiguous and consecutive with every other; so there has to be destruction in order for there to be a sustainable creation, even within the confines of the same tale.
I used the word "paradox" at the beginning of this note, and hopefully that paradox, which is implicit in the use of the present participle MASHCHIYTAM, is also clear from my translation. The deity is going to destroy the destroyers because he hates the fact of destruction!
6:14 ASEH LECHA TEVAT ATSEY GOPHER KINIM TA'ASEH ET HA TEVAH VE CHAPHARTA OTAH MI BAYIT U MI CHUTZ BA KOPHER
ISH TSADIK (איש צדיק): There is no evidence for this of course, so we have to take the author's word for it, which makes for poor literature but good mythology. The only other person who is described as such is Iyov (Job); it seems therefore to be not just a description of character but a warning of trouble ahead: the moral is, if anyone ever calls you just and upright, be prepared for floods and whirlwinds, and quite probably plagues of boils!
TSADIK (צדיק) = "just, righteous"; used of a judge or king; from TSADAK (צדק) = "to be right, straight". The same root also gives TSEDAKAH, which is the word used for making a charitable donation, but really just means "justice".
TAMIM (תמים): "perfect, complete"; also "whole, entire"; also "blameless, sound of conduct" - from root TAMAM (תמם). Worth exploring the difference between this and SHALEM (שלם).
ET HA ELOHIM...NO'ACH (את האלהים התהלך נח): to live a life based on the precepts of the cult of Elohim; which of course he could not have done, because those precepts will not be given until Mosheh's time, and even the Seven No'achide Laws will not be deduced from the story of No'ach until after his death. But when they are given, they will be rooted in the same word: HALACHAH.
Note that the text again gives Ha Elohim, not Elohim = the gods.
The notion of No'ach "walking with Ha Elohim" echoes Metu-Shelach in Genesis 5:22; however, as a famous Midrash points out, Av-Raham walked before the deity, not with him, making Av-Raham superior (the Midrash, of course, is questionable. "Before" in Yehudit is LIPHNEY, which does not actually mean "in front of", but rather more suggests a subordinate coming "before" his king, and this would likely involve genuflection if not the full prostration which Genesis 17:3 describes in Av-Raham's case; so the evidence may actually be that Av-Raham was inferior to both No'ach and Metu-Shelach!)
6:10 VA YOLED NO'ACH SHELOSHAH VANIM ET SHEM ET CHAM VE ET YAPHET
6:10 VA YOLED NO'ACH SHELOSHAH VANIM ET SHEM ET CHAM VE ET YAPHET
וַיּוֹלֶד נֹחַ שְׁלֹשָׁה בָנִים אֶת שֵׁם אֶת חָם וְאֶת יָפֶת
KJ: And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
BN: And No'ach fathered three sons, Shem, Cham and Yaphet.
There is no reference to who No'ach married, but Midrashim suggest that it was Na'amah, Chanoch's daughter: the only woman since Ishtar to have remained pre-nuptially chaste in that corrupt generation, and thus the only woman worthy of marrying a man who was himself "perfect". The same Midrash has their three sons later married to the three daughters of Eli-Achim, Metu-Shelach's son – though no such son of Metu-Shelach is actually named in the Tanach.
ET SHEM, ET CHAM VE ET YAPHET (את שם את חם ואת יפת): for the explanation of "ET" see my notes to Genesis 5:32.
6:11 VA TISHACHET HA ARETS LIPHNEY HA ELOHIM VA TIMAL'E HA ARETS CHAMAS
KJ: The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
BN: And the Earth was corrupt before Ha Elohim, and the Earth was filled with violence.
TISHACHET (ותשחת): The style and language is reminiscent of the tale of Sedom and Amorah (Sodom and Gomorrah) later, only we are never actually told what the people had done that was so wrong. Bearing in mind that the Guild of Prophets was very much in its golden age at the time that this was written down, it can be assumed that the scribes left it to the imagination of the people, or their memories of the most recent public chastisements, to know what sin and corruption was implied. Retrospectively, the message is, you people are evil today; not so bad as in No'ach's time, but not much less; so beware, or there will be another flood. The positive side of the message will come at the end of the tale, with the rainbow confirming that the end of the world is not necessarily the end of the world.
ET SHEM, ET CHAM VE ET YAPHET (את שם את חם ואת יפת): for the explanation of "ET" see my notes to Genesis 5:32.
6:11 VA TISHACHET HA ARETS LIPHNEY HA ELOHIM VA TIMAL'E HA ARETS CHAMAS
וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ חָמָס
KJ: The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
BN: And the Earth was corrupt before Ha Elohim, and the Earth was filled with violence.
TISHACHET (ותשחת): The style and language is reminiscent of the tale of Sedom and Amorah (Sodom and Gomorrah) later, only we are never actually told what the people had done that was so wrong. Bearing in mind that the Guild of Prophets was very much in its golden age at the time that this was written down, it can be assumed that the scribes left it to the imagination of the people, or their memories of the most recent public chastisements, to know what sin and corruption was implied. Retrospectively, the message is, you people are evil today; not so bad as in No'ach's time, but not much less; so beware, or there will be another flood. The positive side of the message will come at the end of the tale, with the rainbow confirming that the end of the world is not necessarily the end of the world.
TISHACHET: usually reckoned, and translated that way, to come from the root SHACHAT (שחת) = "to destroy" (whence Shechitah, the kosher slaughtering of animals); in the Hitpa'el form = "to be corrupt", "to act wickedly", but much more likely it comes from SHU'ACH (שוח) = "to sink into the mire". Is there an intended pun, or are we missing a key layer of meaning: by the use of SHACHAT, there is a sense that the world was already "destroyed" morally before Elohim sent the Flood to destroy it physically.
CHAMAS: The word for "violence", then, and yes, it is the same name as in the Gaza Strip today (click here).
6:12 VA YAR ELOHIM ET HA ARETS VE HINEH NISHCHATAH KI HISHCHIT KOL BASAR ET DARKO AL HA ARETS
6:12 VA YAR ELOHIM ET HA ARETS VE HINEH NISHCHATAH KI HISHCHIT KOL BASAR ET DARKO AL HA ARETS
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה נִשְׁחָתָה כִּי הִשְׁחִית כָּל בָּשָׂר אֶת דַּרְכּוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
BN: And Elohim saw the Earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the Earth.
Is this because humankind were worshipping other gods than Elohim? Or simply because humans were doing what humans always do? How does this compare with the argument for the destruction of the Cities of the Plain? How does this support an argument for Intelligent Design?
Note the change from Ha to plain Elohim.
Samech break
6:13 VA YOMER ELOHIM LE NO'ACH KETS KOL BASAR BA LEPHANAI KI MAL'AH HA ARETS CHAMAS MI PENEYHEM VE HINENI MASHCHIYTAM ET HA ARETS
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים לְנֹחַ קֵץ כָּל בָּשָׂר בָּא לְפָנַי כִּי מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ חָמָס מִפְּנֵיהֶם וְהִנְנִי מַשְׁחִיתָם אֶת הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
BN: And Elohim said to No'ach, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the Earth is filled with violence through them; and now here am I, destroying them with the Earth...
KETS: See the two earlier occasions when the word was used (Genesis 3:18 and 4:3), as KOTS then, but the root is identical; on both occasions I questioned the translation, and this usage now helps understand why.
HINENI: The first of many appearances of this word in the Tanach. Literally "here I am", it is usually the answer given to the deity when a human hears the still small voice, though on more than one occasion it is the announcement of his presence by the deity himself, as here.
MASHCHIYTAM: This is the great paradox of the god of the Beney Yisra-El, repeated in most religions in fact: based on the ideals of peace, mercy, justice and compassion, but prepared to withhold all four, even to do the opposite, if it is necessary to bring Humankind to faith in, and obedience to, a god of peace, mercy, justice and compassion. Most human despots and dictators operate in the same manner, ruling their personal empire, the Democratic Free People's Republic of Me. However, it is also more complex than that, because this tale is cosmic mythology, not human politics.
In the Hindu trimurti, Brahma is the Creator of Life, Vishnu the Sustainer of Life, and Shiva its Destroyer, an effective means of containing the three modes of existence. In the monotheistic cult of Judaism, however, all modes of existence are contained within the same One deity, each mode being seen as contiguous and consecutive with every other; so there has to be destruction in order for there to be a sustainable creation, even within the confines of the same tale.
I used the word "paradox" at the beginning of this note, and hopefully that paradox, which is implicit in the use of the present participle MASHCHIYTAM, is also clear from my translation. The deity is going to destroy the destroyers because he hates the fact of destruction!
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ תֵּבַת עֲצֵי גֹפֶר קִנִּים תַּעֲשֶׂה אֶת הַתֵּבָה וְכָפַרְתָּ אֹתָהּ מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ בַּכֹּפֶר
KJ: Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
BN: "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make it with cabins, and seal it within and without with pitch...
TEVAT (תבת): from TEVAH (תבה) = "a chest" or "ark", in the shape of a coffer; it is also the name of the vessel in which Mosheh was supposed to have been set afloat among the bulrushes (Exodus 2:5). The root is unknown, but clearly it refers to the sun-god or sun-king who was transported across the sea of Heaven in his boat, the sun, each day. Equivalent myths can be found throughout the world; cf for example the Greek tales of Helios and Phaeton. The night-time equivalent, the return of the sun from his death in the western sky so that he can be resurrected on the eastern horizon the following morning, can be found, inter alia, in the Egyptian "Am-Tuat" and "Book of the Gates".
ATSAY GOPHER...CHAPHARTA (עצי גפר קנים תעשה את התבה וכפרת): the words GOPHER (גפר) and KOPHER (כפר), which are both used here, are probably connected, or may even be the same word varied or mis-spelled. KOPHER (כפר) = "to cover, pitch, overspread", from which Gesenius deduces GOPHER (גפר) to refer to some kind of resinous tree used for making the pitch which would be used to cover roofs, as in the case of the ark; in this case the possibilities are pine, fir, cypress and cedar.
There is a clear connection between the names of KOPHER (כפר) = "pitch", and KOPHER (כפר) = "the cypress tree", so that we can reasonably claim that the ship was made of cypress wood.
KAPORET (כפרת), from the same root, was the material used for the cover of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:17) and BEIT HA KAPORET (בית הכפרת) was the name of the innermost recess of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was later placed.
Nor is it any coincidence that, from the same root, comes KIPURIM (כפרים) = "atonements", whence YOM HA KIPURIM (ים הכפרים) or YOM KIPUR (יום כפור) the Day of Atonement (usually rendered as YOM KIPPUR). These connections render No'ach's Ark a kind of primitive Ark of the Covenant, certainly a holy vessel, and most definitely the HMS Atonement. Osher's (Osiris') funeral boat was made of acacia. What was Arthur's made of? (Alas we don't know, but it's a great story to read anyway; click here for one of many versions).
KINIM (קנים): Literally "nests" (which is itself a lovely idea; though I do wonder if those nests would have included one for an albatross, and what Samuel Taylor Coleridge on his version of the HMS Atonement would have thought of that), but used here to mean "rooms" or "cabins". Again one cannot ignore root links, which here take us to the name Kayin. We also cannot avoid asking how many of these nests? In the Utnapishtim version, above, there were seven storeys and seven cabins per storey, and the Flood lasted seven days and nights - as there will be seven colours to the rainbow at the end of this version.
6:15 VE ZEH ASHER TA'ASEH OTAH SHELOSH ME'OT AMAH ORECH HA TEVAH CHAMISHIM AMAH RACHBA U SHELOSHIM AMAH KOMATAH
KJ: And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
BN: "And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits...
As noted already, Utnapishtim's ship was 120 cubits per side (about 200 feet). It was made of bitumen pitch, with oil to seal it, and divided into seven storeys each with seven compartments. A door, one window and a rudder; a boatman went with. The whole was a cube, which is perfect, but strange, since it could not float (was it really a temple?) 3,000 feet (5 stadia) long and 2 stadia (1,200 feet) high. The Biblical ark was 300 cubits in length by 50 wide and 30 high = 450 feet by 75 by 45 which is better proportioned for sailing. See below.
AMAH (אמה): A problematic word as, without pointing, it connects to the roots EM (אם) and AMAH (אמה) which give "mother", "handmaid", "female slave" and a host of others that have absolutely nothing to do with this root, which is correctly AMMAH (אמה), the Mem being given a Dagesh Chazak in pointed texts to suggest that a second Mem (מ) has been dropped, itself inferring that the word is probably not Yehudit by origin.
AMMAH (אמה, or אממה) = "the forearm", the "mother-of-the-arm", called a "cubit" or an "ell" (Deuteronomy 3:11). One cubit, literally measured along the forearm, was equivalent to six palms of outstretched fingers (roughly eighteen inches), though Yechezke-El (Ezekiel) reckons it as seven palms, which concurs with both Babylonian and Egyptian measures. A very imprecise system of measurement, as it entirely depends upon how long a person's hand and arm are, and no two arms are ever the same length.
Midrashim suggest that No'ach spent fifty-two years building the Ark (one year for each week in a single year? - mythological time requires these sorts of precise number), working at the slowest possible pace in order to stall Elohim (is this the same as governmental excuses for not dealing with global warming?). This leaves open a question as to why he didn't spend the time warning people about this most "inconvenient truth"; or if he did, why they failed to listen (which of course is obvious). Does this once again connect the No'ach story to the Jonah story – Yonah in Yehudit being the same dove that No'ach would later send out of the Ark to confirm that Elohim had forgiven Humankind, unplugged the waters, and was preparing gourds for shelters? (The S.T. Coleridge poem referenced earlier certainly assumes that the No'ach and Yonah tales were variants of the same myth, as does Hermann Melville in "Moby-Dick". The allusion to the gourd can be found in Jonah 4:6 ff). There is definitely an essay to be written on No'ach and Yonah as two versions of the same story. And then re-examine the canonical gospels, where Simon Peter turns out to be bar Yonah (John, whose name is also Jonah-Oannes, 21:15!).
6:16 TSOHAR TA'ASEH LA TEVAH VE EL AMAH TECHALENA MI LEMA'LA U PHETACH HA TEVAH BE TSIDAH TASIM TACHTIM SHENIYIM U SHELISHIM TA'AS'EHA
ATSAY GOPHER...CHAPHARTA (עצי גפר קנים תעשה את התבה וכפרת): the words GOPHER (גפר) and KOPHER (כפר), which are both used here, are probably connected, or may even be the same word varied or mis-spelled. KOPHER (כפר) = "to cover, pitch, overspread", from which Gesenius deduces GOPHER (גפר) to refer to some kind of resinous tree used for making the pitch which would be used to cover roofs, as in the case of the ark; in this case the possibilities are pine, fir, cypress and cedar.
There is a clear connection between the names of KOPHER (כפר) = "pitch", and KOPHER (כפר) = "the cypress tree", so that we can reasonably claim that the ship was made of cypress wood.
KAPORET (כפרת), from the same root, was the material used for the cover of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:17) and BEIT HA KAPORET (בית הכפרת) was the name of the innermost recess of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was later placed.
Nor is it any coincidence that, from the same root, comes KIPURIM (כפרים) = "atonements", whence YOM HA KIPURIM (ים הכפרים) or YOM KIPUR (יום כפור) the Day of Atonement (usually rendered as YOM KIPPUR). These connections render No'ach's Ark a kind of primitive Ark of the Covenant, certainly a holy vessel, and most definitely the HMS Atonement. Osher's (Osiris') funeral boat was made of acacia. What was Arthur's made of? (Alas we don't know, but it's a great story to read anyway; click here for one of many versions).
KINIM (קנים): Literally "nests" (which is itself a lovely idea; though I do wonder if those nests would have included one for an albatross, and what Samuel Taylor Coleridge on his version of the HMS Atonement would have thought of that), but used here to mean "rooms" or "cabins". Again one cannot ignore root links, which here take us to the name Kayin. We also cannot avoid asking how many of these nests? In the Utnapishtim version, above, there were seven storeys and seven cabins per storey, and the Flood lasted seven days and nights - as there will be seven colours to the rainbow at the end of this version.
6:15 VE ZEH ASHER TA'ASEH OTAH SHELOSH ME'OT AMAH ORECH HA TEVAH CHAMISHIM AMAH RACHBA U SHELOSHIM AMAH KOMATAH
וְזֶה אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה אֹתָהּ שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה אֹרֶךְ הַתֵּבָה חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה רָחְבָּהּ וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אַמָּה קוֹמָתָהּ
KJ: And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
BN: "And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits...
As noted already, Utnapishtim's ship was 120 cubits per side (about 200 feet). It was made of bitumen pitch, with oil to seal it, and divided into seven storeys each with seven compartments. A door, one window and a rudder; a boatman went with. The whole was a cube, which is perfect, but strange, since it could not float (was it really a temple?) 3,000 feet (5 stadia) long and 2 stadia (1,200 feet) high. The Biblical ark was 300 cubits in length by 50 wide and 30 high = 450 feet by 75 by 45 which is better proportioned for sailing. See below.
AMAH (אמה): A problematic word as, without pointing, it connects to the roots EM (אם) and AMAH (אמה) which give "mother", "handmaid", "female slave" and a host of others that have absolutely nothing to do with this root, which is correctly AMMAH (אמה), the Mem being given a Dagesh Chazak in pointed texts to suggest that a second Mem (מ) has been dropped, itself inferring that the word is probably not Yehudit by origin.
AMMAH (אמה, or אממה) = "the forearm", the "mother-of-the-arm", called a "cubit" or an "ell" (Deuteronomy 3:11). One cubit, literally measured along the forearm, was equivalent to six palms of outstretched fingers (roughly eighteen inches), though Yechezke-El (Ezekiel) reckons it as seven palms, which concurs with both Babylonian and Egyptian measures. A very imprecise system of measurement, as it entirely depends upon how long a person's hand and arm are, and no two arms are ever the same length.
Midrashim suggest that No'ach spent fifty-two years building the Ark (one year for each week in a single year? - mythological time requires these sorts of precise number), working at the slowest possible pace in order to stall Elohim (is this the same as governmental excuses for not dealing with global warming?). This leaves open a question as to why he didn't spend the time warning people about this most "inconvenient truth"; or if he did, why they failed to listen (which of course is obvious). Does this once again connect the No'ach story to the Jonah story – Yonah in Yehudit being the same dove that No'ach would later send out of the Ark to confirm that Elohim had forgiven Humankind, unplugged the waters, and was preparing gourds for shelters? (The S.T. Coleridge poem referenced earlier certainly assumes that the No'ach and Yonah tales were variants of the same myth, as does Hermann Melville in "Moby-Dick". The allusion to the gourd can be found in Jonah 4:6 ff). There is definitely an essay to be written on No'ach and Yonah as two versions of the same story. And then re-examine the canonical gospels, where Simon Peter turns out to be bar Yonah (John, whose name is also Jonah-Oannes, 21:15!).
6:16 TSOHAR TA'ASEH LA TEVAH VE EL AMAH TECHALENA MI LEMA'LA U PHETACH HA TEVAH BE TSIDAH TASIM TACHTIM SHENIYIM U SHELISHIM TA'AS'EHA
צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה וְאֶל אַמָּה תְּכַלֶנָּה מִלְמַעְלָה וּפֶתַח הַתֵּבָה בְּצִדָּהּ תָּשִׂים תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּם וּשְׁלִשִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ
KJ: A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
BN: "You shall make a sky-light for the ark; finish it a cubit from the roof; then set a door in the side of the ark; it shall have lower, second and third storeys...
TSOHAR (צהר): literally = "to shine" or, as a noun, "light, brightness" - thereby the poetic variant "windows" used in the King James, though its positioning makes clear it was a skylight, not a window. TSAHARAYIM (צהריים) is used for noon and ACHAREY HA TSAHARAYIM (אחרי הצהריים) = "afternoon", presumably because these are the optimum hours of sunshine. Which adds weight to the notion that this is all based on an earlier sun-god myth; the ark being the sun and the Tsohar the window in the RAKIY'A, the "firmament" of the sky, through which light comes down to Earth; it is also for this reason that this translation does not render TSOHAR as "windows", but insists on the skylight in the roof.
Note that Utnapishtim's ark had seven storeys, No'ach's only three; but then the number seven is key to all of the Utnapishtim version, and No'ach's deity is Elohim, not YHVH; we can assume that a YHVH version of this tale would likely have had seven storeys, and probably lasted 7 or 7x7 days, because seven is always YHVH's sacred number, but never Elohim's.
Funny coincidence of word-play, that when Lot and his daughters escape from their version of the destruction of the world, they flee to a skylight in the mountains named Tso'ar (צוֹעַר) (Genesis 19:22 ff).
There is also a coincidence of word-play in the Zohar, "The Book of Splendour", the skylight into the world of mystical Judaism, though it too is spelled differently, coming from a diffeent root; in this case זֹהַר.
6:17 VA ANI HINENI MEVI ET HA MABUL MAYIM AL HA ARETS LESHACHET KOL BASAR ASHER BO RU'ACH CHAYIM MI TACHAT HA SHEMAYIM KOL ASHER BA ARETZ YIGVA
6:17 VA ANI HINENI MEVI ET HA MABUL MAYIM AL HA ARETS LESHACHET KOL BASAR ASHER BO RU'ACH CHAYIM MI TACHAT HA SHEMAYIM KOL ASHER BA ARETZ YIGVA
וַאֲנִי הִנְנִי מֵבִיא אֶת הַמַּבּוּל מַיִם עַל הָאָרֶץ לְשַׁחֵת כָּל בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ רוּחַ חַיִּים מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ יִגְוָע
KJ: And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
BN: "And here am I, bringing the flood-waters down to the Earth, to destroy all flesh underneath the heavens in which there is a breath of life; everything that is on Earth shall perish...
HINENI: The second time this word has appeared in this tale. See 6:13. (There will eventually be an essay in TheBibleNet on the word.)
HA MABUL (המבול): Most interesting of all about this name is that its root is YAVAL (יבל), for which see YAVAL and YUVAL and TUVAL and the notes to Genesis 4:20 ff. It cannot be a coincidence, surely. The word is practically never used except in the No'ach story; the only other occasion being in Psalm 29:10, where most translators do not even translate it to mean "flood", but come up with all sorts of strange and incorrect variants such as "strength" and "majesty". The normal word for a flood of water, such as from a burst pipe or an overflowing stream, is SHETIPHAH (שתיפה) from SHATAPH (שתף) = "to flow, pour".
HA SHAMAYIM: As noted previously, the Yisra-Elite cult did not include a concept of Heaven, though it did include "heavens" as a synonym for "skies".
YIGVA (יגוע): From the root GAVA (גוע) = "to expire". But the statement is false, or at least self-contradictory. "All flesh underneath the heavens in which there is a breath of life" must include creatures of the sea and the air, but in fact it is only those creatures who are land-bound that a flood will destroy; doves, ravens and whales, for example, will survive.
Nevertheless, this draws attention to one of the problems that we will encounter throughout the Tanach: mythological tales exist to explain the workings of the universe; to add a second layer, by trying to force them to become chronologically historical, can undermine the mythological explanation and distort it; to add a third layer, that of Prophetic moralising, risks undermining it still further. So, here, the superimposed moral that the melting of the ice caps and the flood of global warming was a consequence of human behaviour, undermines the mythology with a falsehood: as noted previously, the animals and trees and plants which are also wiped out by the flood must now be regarded, at best, as "collateral damage", at worst as a total lack of mercy, compassion or sense of justice by the Elohim, and thereby a breach of the not-yet-made covenant. However...
6:18 VA HAKIMOTI ET BERIYTI ITACH U VA'TA EL HA TEVAH ATAH U VANEYCHA VE ISHTECHA U NESHEY VANEYCHA ITACH
6:18 VA HAKIMOTI ET BERIYTI ITACH U VA'TA EL HA TEVAH ATAH U VANEYCHA VE ISHTECHA U NESHEY VANEYCHA ITACH
וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת בְּרִיתִי אִתָּךְ וּבָאתָ אֶל הַתֵּבָה אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּנְשֵׁי בָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ
KJ: But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
BN: "But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you...
ET BERITI (את-ברתי): The notion of the legal covenant, whether between men and men, or men and gods, needs some explanation, especially as this will be the first of several... from the root BARAT (ברת) = "to cut, hew", it was the custom for each party to a covenant to make a cut in the flesh of an animal that would then be cooked and eaten in a joint banquet to solemnise the agreement (cf Genesis 31:54); whence the term BERIT MELACH (ברית מלח) which appears to have been a joint eating of salt for the same reason (reflected to this day in the custom of putting salt on the Friday night challah and eating it communally; though modern Jews have provided an alternate, preferred meaning); Joshua 9:6 uses the term for a covenant between nations, in the sense of a treaty; 1 Samuel 18:3 and 23:18 use it as a token of Blutsbrüderschaft between David and Yehonatan (Jonathan). The practice of circumcision, which is the symbol of the covenant between the Beney Yisra-El and YHVH, is likewise a cutting of the skin, in this case the foreskin; the implication of the rite being a link to fertility, and we can therefore recognise that it pre-dates Yahadut as a cult.
In Jewish theology the covenant is central, and this is the first instance of it. Most Jews tend to remember the No'achic covenant as being the sign of the rainbow after the flood and Elohim's promise not to do it again (can a rainbow be understood as a cut made in the living flesh of the Rakiy'a? - see my note to Genesis 1:6-9). In fact, this verse is the first reference, and it is pre-flood. Elohim swears to save two of every kind, plus No'ach's family; yet there is no reciprocal agreement by No'ach, which leads one to doubt the validity of this reference: the god of the Beney Yisra-El always demands more than he gives!
6:19 U MI KOL HA CHAY MI KOL BASAR SHENAYIM MI KOL TAVIY EL HA TEVAH LEHACHAYOT ITACH ZACHAR U NEKEVAH YIHEYU
6:19 U MI KOL HA CHAY MI KOL BASAR SHENAYIM MI KOL TAVIY EL HA TEVAH LEHACHAYOT ITACH ZACHAR U NEKEVAH YIHEYU
וּמִכָּל הָחַי מִכָּל בָּשָׂר שְׁנַיִם מִכֹּל תָּבִיא אֶל הַתֵּבָה לְהַחֲיֹת אִתָּךְ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה יִהְיוּ
KJ: And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
BN: "And of every living thing, of every creature, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female...
Two of every kind. The YHVH version will give the figures quite differently, but this is probably the correct one, with the other, later version simply having lost some of the figures, or preferred to replace them with ones more closely fitting YHVHist theology. In addition, according to one spectacularly stupid Midrash, the giant Og and the monster Reem survived, the latter by resting his nose on the Ark's poop, where No'ach fed it daily, the latter, who was "Hiya's son" - a variant, probably, of Chavah/Eve, and interestingly much closer to the original Beney Chet (Hittite) pronunciation; though here masculinised - by the woman who had since married Cham and who begged No'ach to keep Og's head above the Flood-level by letting him cling to a rope-ladder. No'ach fed him through a port-hole. The giant Og will recur as King Og of Bashan in the tale of the prophet Bil'am (Balaam) in Numbers 22.
What is not clear is how he is going to feed and water the animals (the feeding especially: the moral dilemma of needing fresh meat, which then requires further animals than the two-by-two), how he is going to keep them clean, and especially how he is going to stop these animals from feasting on each other. Maybe this is why Elohim told him to make Kinim, and in fact this is the world's first zoological garden. An inadequate half-answer to all this will be found in verse 21.
6:20 ME HA OPH LE MIYNEHU U MIN HA BEHEMAH LE MIYNAH MI KOL REMES HA ADAMAH LE MIYNEHU SHENAYIM MI KOL YAVO'U ELEYCHA LEHACHAYOT
6:20 ME HA OPH LE MIYNEHU U MIN HA BEHEMAH LE MIYNAH MI KOL REMES HA ADAMAH LE MIYNEHU SHENAYIM MI KOL YAVO'U ELEYCHA LEHACHAYOT
מֵהָעוֹף לְמִינֵהוּ וּמִן הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ מִכֹּל רֶמֶשׂ הָאֲדָמָה לְמִינֵהוּ שְׁנַיִם מִכֹּל יָבֹאוּ אֵלֶיךָ לְהַחֲיוֹת
KJ: Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
BN: "Of every species of fowl, and of every species of land-creature, of every every species of reptile, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive...
OPH: "Fowl" usually infers any type of winged creature, from pet budgie to Bald Eagle, but in the context of this flood - see my note to YIGVA in verse 17 - it is only the land-locked fowl that are actually in danger.
REMES HA ADAMAH: Why all this "creeping thing after its kind"? Why can the translators not just say "species of reptiles"? Perhaps because this was the idiom that did say it in their time? Perhaps to make allusion to the first Creation story, where precisely this terminology was used. The Flood story is, after all, a version of Creation, or at least re-Creation.
YAVO'U ELEYCHA: Translators like to describe No'ach gathering in these animals, but the text is very clear: they will come to you.
If the translators were correct, it would add a lovely naivety to the tale: how would Elohim actually expect No'ach to gather up all these creatures? Go catch a sperm whale, Ahab. Draw in Leviathan with a hook, Job. Find yourself a dragon, Arthur. No, those are not windmills, Don Quixote, they are angry vultures! Two of every kind, No'ach - including the yellow scorpion, the prairie lion, the electric eel, and the corporate rattlesnake! But no, it is Elohim who will be directing them to you, their raft.
6:21 VE ATAH KACH LECHA MI KOL MA'ACHAL ASHER YE'ACHEL VE ASAPHTA ELEYCHA VE HAYAH LECHA VE LAHEM LE ACHLAH
6:21 VE ATAH KACH LECHA MI KOL MA'ACHAL ASHER YE'ACHEL VE ASAPHTA ELEYCHA VE HAYAH LECHA VE LAHEM LE ACHLAH
וְאַתָּה קַח לְךָ מִכָּל מַאֲכָל אֲשֶׁר יֵאָכֵל וְאָסַפְתָּ אֵלֶיךָ וְהָיָה לְךָ וְלָהֶם לְאָכְלָה
KJ: And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
BN: "Then take for yourself from every type of edible food; gather it; it shall be for food for you, and for them."
Solving one of the questions from v19. Except - how much storage space would he have required. And no concept of refrigeration in those antediluvian times. Plenty of salt in the flooding seas to preserve the meat, I guess.
MA'ACHAL (מכל מאכל): This would appear to be the full initiation of carnivorism as divinely sanctioned and approved; until now, according to Genesis, Humankind was purely vegetarian. But of course, it inevitably adds to the number of creatures on the Ark, and creates an unfortunate hierarchy, given that the food in question, for almost every animal, is almost every other animal. Some interesting zoological gardening for No'ach too - did he have separate cages, water-tanks, sand-pits? What did he do when animals started breeding? (As noted previously, the Midrash tells us that breeding was actually suspended at this time; the page linked here lists almost all the No'achic references in the Midrashim).
6:22 VA YA'AS NO'ACH KE CHOL ASHER TSIVAH OTO ELOHIM KEN ASAH
KJ: Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
BN: So No'ach did everything that Elohim commanded him; so did he.
Samech break; end of Genesis 6; end of first fragment.
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Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
6:22 VA YA'AS NO'ACH KE CHOL ASHER TSIVAH OTO ELOHIM KEN ASAH
וַיַּעַשׂ נֹחַ כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים כֵּן עָשָׂה
KJ: Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
BN: So No'ach did everything that Elohim commanded him; so did he.
Samech break; end of Genesis 6; end of first fragment.
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