On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 393 



term of the threat to signify the destruction not only of man 

 and of all the animals which co-existed with him, but likewise 

 of the earth itself which they had hitherto inhabited. 



Nor ought this interpretation to embarrass, or in any way 

 to surprise us; for let us remember that the earth had re- 

 ceived the Curse of God from the moment of the first act of 

 disobedience committed upon it ; and " that which is cursed 

 of Him shall be cut off;" for it is to be noticed that the curse 

 was not pronounced upon man, but upon the earth on his 

 account. And 'although its productions were immediately 

 affected, yet the full consequence of the curse does not ap- 

 pear to have been limited to that immediate and actual 

 affliction. Even at the birth of Noah, that malediction seems 

 to have carried forward the minds of the pious to some crisis 

 by which it was to be terminated. On that occasion, his 

 father was led (no doubt by some inspired warning) to 

 exclaim, (i This child shall comfort us concerning our work 

 and toil of our hands, because of the earth which the Lord 

 hath cursed ;" so our common version ; but the Alexandrian 

 interpreters render it with a very observable difference, and 

 with a closer conformity to the Hebrew : — ee This child shall 

 relieve us from our toil, and from the distress of our hands, 

 and from the earth which the Lord hath cursed;" in which 

 word iC us" we are not to understand themselves personally, 

 but their race. And after the retreat of the waters of the 

 deluge, God did not revoke the curse which he had formerly 

 pronounced, because it had been fully executed in <c cutting 

 off the cursed thing;" but he declared that he would not 

 again pronounce a curse, i. e. pronounce a second curse upon 

 the earth ; that is, upon the new earth which he had pro- 

 vided to succeed that which had been cursed and cut off; 

 ov TTpoadrjcrh} £Ti KaTapacrQai rr\v yjjv, ff non addam male- 

 dicere cursus terrain ;" which implies that the curse was 

 terminated by the deluge.* 



* Comp. Est. p. 256. et seq. 



