And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
God remembered Noah. The word remember, besides describing an act of memory, is frequently used in Scripture to convey the accessory ideas of care and kindness in cases where, after a delay or suspension, there was a manifestation or a renewal of the divine favour (cf. Genesis 19:29; Genesis 30:22; Luke 1:72). In the anthropomorphic style of this narrative God is represented as wholly occupied with the 'strange work of judgment;' but at length, when the inundation had accomplished its mission, as taking a careful interest in Noah and his companions in the ark, by providing, according to His promise, for their deliverance from the deluge.
Every living thing ... in the ark - a beautiful illustration of Matthew 10:29.
Made a wind to pass over. Though the Divine Will could have dried up the liquid mass in an instant, the agency of a wind was employed (Psalms 104:4) probably a hot wind-the Samiel, which, by a process of evaporation, would again absorb one portion of the waters into the atmosphere, while the other would be gradually drained off by outlets beneath, as seems to be intimated by the words in Genesis 8:3. "The rain from heaven" is not to be considered as an additional cause of the flood, hitherto omitted. It is merely stated in the style of the Hebrew Scriptures, as exegetical of "the windows of heaven."