And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
All Commentaries on Genesis 8:4 Go To Genesis 8
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
And the ark rested on the mountains of Armenia. The Hebrew word is Ararat, which also occurs in the 37th chap. of Isaias, and the 51st of Jeremias; for in these places our interpreter retained the Hebrew word, but in the 4th book of Kings, xix. 37, where the same history is related, it is translated by the land of the Armenians. (Estius)
Seventh month, of the year, not of the deluge, as appears from ver. 13 (Menochius).
Seven and twentieth. So also the Septuagint, but the Hebrew have the 17th. It is not easy to decide which is right. On the seventeenth the waters only began to decrease, and some hence argue for the Vulgate, as they say it is not probable the ark would stop that very day. (Calmet)
This, however, might be the only mean by which Noe could discern that the waters were abating. (Haydock)
The ark being about fourteen cubits sunk in the water, might soon touch the summit of the highest mountains, such as Mount Taurus, of which the Ararat, here mentioned in the Hebrew, a mountain of Armenia, forms a part, according to St. Jerome. The Armenians still boast that they have the remains of the ark. Berosus, the Pagan historian, says bitumen was taken from it as a preservative. (Josephus, Antiquities i. 3; Eusebius, præp. ix. 4.) The Chaldee has Cordu for Ararat, whence some have supposed, that the ark rested on the Cord yean or Gordiean mountains. The Armenians call the mountain near Erivan, Mesesonsar, or the mountain of the ark. (Calmet)
