The first sentence in this parashah says that “Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with Elohim.” By itself that statement proves that Noah did not deserve punishment along with “all flesh (that) had corrupted their way on the earth.” The earth was corrupt and filled with violence. Certainly it could not be allowed to remain that way! Considering how corrupt and filled with violence the earth is now, in our day, imagine what it would be like if something had not been done to slow that down near the beginning. Elohim could have just destroyed everything and everyone and been done with the whole mess, but He wanted a family of people that could live with Him forever so He had to save at least some of them and teach them how they should live. He wants us to walk with Him, doing things His way according to the family rules. If we do that we can qualify to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and enquire in His temple.” Because Adam sinned and disqualified all of us automatically, each one of us has to individually qualify for the Resurrection after which we will “always be with the Lord.” You will recall from the previous parashah that YHWH and Yeshua made a legal way for us to do so.

Notice that Scripture does not tell us that Noah’s sons’ wives were righteous and perfect in their generations. There is controversy on this point, but the door is open for interesting interpretations regarding the corruption and violence that was on the earth then and is on the earth now. It could be that one of the sons’ wives was a descendant of Nephilim and that the noteworthy corruption and violence was carried forward through her. If this is true, we know it was not Shem’s wife (or Noah’s)—because Yeshua came through his line. We introduced the idea of Nephilim in Parashah B’reisheet; they were the children of fallen spirit beings (probably angels) and human women—hybrids that were not meant to exist. That is certainly an example of corruption! The flood was a way of getting rid of them all; however one of the wives could have carried Nephilim genes which would allow them to repopulate just as Noah and his sons were told to do. In contrast, Noah “was perfect in His generations.” That could be telling us that he himself did not carry any Nephilim genes.

The ark Noah was instructed to build was not like the cute little tub you see pictures of everywhere with animals sticking out of it. That could not have survived the extreme turbulence of the flood. Elohim gave Noah specific instructions which when completed made the ark’s length-to-width scale 6 to 1 and the length to height scale 10 to 1. (Shipbuilders today use a 6 to 1 ratio to build ships that can withstand huge storms at sea.) The ark had three stories with lots of rooms in it for Noah’s family and for all the animals—built to suit their needs—with enough food for everyone and everything, a door for them to enter through, and a lookout window on top through which a raven and a dove were released to check out the environment when the flood was over and the waters had receded.

Elohim brought to the ark all the animals He wanted to save from the flood (Genesis 6:20), so they could repopulate the earth. He selected the animals just as He selected Noah, carefully and with knowledge of their genes in order to minimize Nephilim resurgence. There are hybrids and abominable creatures living today that could in part be their descendants, but could also be the results of scientific experiments. We believe both. Elohim had repopulation in mind, of course, so He brought the animals in pairs—a male and a female of each—with seven pairs of each kind of clean animal. There needed to be lots more clean animals than unclean animals because they were to be food for Noah’s family and also for sacrifices to Elohim. In fact, the first thing Noah did when he got off the ark was to sacrifice “of every clean beast and of every clean bird.” This brings up the question about the difference between clean and unclean, and how Noah knew about that since the Levitical priesthood did not arise until Levi’s day. It’s a simple answer: Adam and Eve understood the whole clean/unclean concept and taught it to their children. Remember that Cain and Abel made sacrifices, and “Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock.” They knew which animals were acceptable and which were not—from the beginning.

This parashah gives us details about when things happened during the flood. “In the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the 2nd month, the 17th day of the month” the flood started. It rained (and water came up from below) so much for 40 days and nights that the water rose to at least 15 cubits above the tops of the mountains before it began to recede. “At the end of 150 days the waters had abated” enough so the ark rested on Mount Ararat “in the 7th month, the 17th day of the month.” The waters receded rapidly until in “the 10th month, on the 1st day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.” They left the ark “in the 2nd month, on the 27th day of the month” when Elohim told them to. There is a discrepancy of 10 days between Masoretic and Septuagint versions of the Bible. If Noah went in on II/17 and came out on II/27 of the following year, then he was in there for one year and ten days. But if the Septuagint is correct and he went in on II/27 and came out on II/27 then he was in there for exactly one year, which seems like a Yah thing.