Genesis 8:20 - Exposition

And Noah builded an altar . Mizbeach, a place for slaying sacrifices, from zabach, to slaughter animals ( Genesis 31:54 ), to slay in sacrifice (Le Genesis 9:4 ; 1 Samuel 1:4 ), as θυσιαστη ì ριον , from θυ ì ειν , is the first altar mentioned in history. The English term (from altus , high) signifies a high place, because the altar was commonly a raised structure or mound of earth or stones ( Exodus 20:24 ). Keil thinks that altars were not required prior to the Flood, the Divine presence being still visibly among men at the gate of Eden, "so that they could turn their offerings and their hearts towards that abode." Poole, Clarke, Bush, and Inglis hold that the antediluvian sacrifices presupposed an altar. Unto the Lord . Jehovah, the God of salvation. And took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl . Vide Genesis 7:2 . "Seldom has there been a more liberal offering in proportion to the means of the giver. His whole stock of clean animals, wherewith to fill the world, was seven pairs of each" (Inglis). And offered . By Divine appointment, since his service was accepted; and "all religious services which are not perfumed with the odor of faith are of an ill savor before God (Calvin); but "God is peculiarly well pleased with free-will offerings, and surely, if ever an occasion existed for the exercise of grateful and adoring sentiments, the present was one" (Bush). Burnt offerings . 'ōlōth, literally, things that ascend, from 'ālāh , to go up, alluding not to the elevation of the victims on the altar, but to the ascension of the smoke of the burnt offerings to heaven (cf. 20:40 ; Jeremiah 48:15 ; Amos 4:10 ). On the altar.