Second month—seventeenth day, &c.— The sacred historian is exact in pointing out the period of this awful event; which came to pass on the seventeenth day of the second month of that year, which was the six hundredth of Noah's life. Now, before the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, the second month was Marchesvan, which begins about the middle of our October, and ends about the middle of November: so that the seventeenth day of the second month, according to the generality of expositors, is about the beginning of our November: the sixth of November, says Mr. Locke.
The fountains of the great deep broken up— In the original account of the disposal of the water, we are told, that all which was created was either carried aloft in clouds, or gathered together in the great communicating receptacle, called sea. See ch. 1: And, agreeable to this account, we are informed, that the deluge was occasioned by the union of the water from above and below: the fountains of the great deep were broken up: and the windows, or flood-gates, of heaven were opened. Thus the waters again prevailed over the face of the earth, as at the beginning they covered the chaotic mass. The original word for the windows of heaven, or flood-gates, as the margin of our Bibles has it, is ארבת aruboth, which properly signifies openings, cracks, or fissures of any kind, as will appear by referring to Exodus 7:19 and Malachi 3:10.
REFLECTIONS.—Two secondary causes are here assigned for the deluge; the deeps were broken up, and the windows of heaven opened. When God pleases to avenge his quarrel, all creatures above, below, around us, are ready instruments for his judgments.
(1.) The fountains of the great deep were broken up. The earth is founded upon the floods; its bowels contain enough to destroy it, if God lets loose the waters from their prisons. (2.) The windows of heaven were opened: the clouds poured down incessant torrents forty days and nights. Learn here, 1. The greatest blessings may quickly be made the heaviest judgments. 2. To look beyond second causes to the first. If floods deluge, or earthquakes swallow up, there is one who gives each element its commission, and each judgment its orders. 3. That there are in the earth, as in the heavens above, storehouses of fire, as well as water; and that this world is doomed one day to experience their fatal influence. Be it our care, then, to secure a covert from the impending storm in Him who is the only refuge; and then, When thou passest through the waters, they shall not overflow thee; and when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt. Isaiah 43:2.