While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
While the earth remaineth. The year is here divided into six seasons, founded on an experience of the uniform course of nature in Eastern countries. The same arrangement, though not noticed in sacred Scripture, was afterward adopted by the Jews, as appears by a passage quoted from an old Rabbinical work by Lightfoot ('Horae Hebraicae'): 'Half of the month Tisri (September), all Marchesvan, and half of Kislef, are seed-time; half of Kislef, all Tebet, and half of Shebath are winter; the latter half of Shebath, all Adar, and half of Nisan are cold; the latter half of Nisan, all of Ijar, and half of Sivan are harvest; half of Sivan, all Tammuz, and half of Ab are summer; half of Ab, all of Elul, and half of Tisri are heat.' Other Oriental people also reckon six seasons, as the Hindus, the Arabians, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring regions. From this it appears, that although during the incessant rains of the deluge an almost total darkness prevailed, the distinction between "day and night" would be restored, and the character and succession of the seasons continue the same before as after that dispensation.
The ardent faith and devout feelings of Noah, which ascended to heaven with the smoke of his sacrifice, were highly acceptable to the divine object of his worship; and his typical offering, by which the earth was purified and consecrated as man's abode, was the occasion of the promise being made, that so long as the present economy of Providence subsists in the world, the course of nature shall not again be arrested, nor human life be universally destroyed. 'The old curse,' says Sherlock ('Use and Intent of Prophecy'), 'was fully executed and accomplished in the flood. In consequence of which discharge from the curse, a new blessing is immediately pronounced upon the earth.'