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cubite, as Vitruuius Agricola and others do proue, or a foote and three quarters of a foote, which is the greatest cubite, that semeth to be mentioned in holie Scripture, called a mans cubite, or cubite of a mans hand. And so the Arke was at least in length 450. foote, in breadth 75. in height 45. or at most in length 525. foote, in breadth 87. and a halfe: in height 52. and a halfe. And either of these capacities was sufficient to receiue al the thinges here mentioned, considering the loftes & partions, that were in the whole arke.


CHAP. VII.

Noe with his familie, and paires of al kindes of beastes and foules, being entred into the arke, 12. it raineth fourtie daies and fourtie nights. 21. Al men and other liuing creatures on the earth, without the arke, are destroyed.

And our Lord said to him: Get thee in, thou and al thy house into the arke: for I haue sene thee iust[1] in my sight in this generation. 2Of al beasts that are[2] cleane, thou shalt take seauen, and seauen, male & female: 3but of the beasts that are vncleane two and two, male & female. Yea and of the foules also of the ayre seauen & seauen, male and female: that seede may be saued vpon the face of the whole earth. 4For yet a while, and after seauen dayes, I wil rayne vpon the earth fourtie dayes and fourtie nights: and I wil cleane destroy al substance, that I haue made, from the face of the earth. 5Noe therfore did al thinges, which our Lord had commanded him. 6And he was six hundred yeares old, when the waters of the floud flowed ouer the earth. 7And Noe entred and his sonnes, his wife and the wiues of of his sonnes with him into the arke, because of the waters of the floud. 8Of beasts also the cleane and the vncleane, & of foules, and of al that moueth vpon the earth, 9two & two went to Noe into the arke, male and female, as our Lord had commanded Noe. 10And after the seauen dayes were passed, the waters of the floud flowed ouer the earth. 11In the six hundred yeare of the life of Noe, in the second moneth, in the seauententh day of the moneth, al the fountaines of the[3] greate deapth were broken vp, and[4] the floud gates of heauen were opened: 12and the raine fel vpon the earth fourtie dayes and fourtie nights. 13In the verie point of that day entred Noe, and Sem, and Cham, & Iapheth his sonnes: and his wife, and the three wiues of his sonnes with them into the arke: 14they and euerie beast according to

  1. Noe was iust not only by the estimation of men, but in deede and before God.
  2. Obseruation of cleane and vncleanne beastes by tradition, before the law of Moyses.
  3. The Hebrew word Thehom signifieth a gulfe of water, from whence new fountaynes sprang, more abundantly then euer since or before.
  4. Arubbah signifieth great pipes or windowes, by which water fell downe in great abundance from the ayre, here called heauen, S. Hier. quest. Heb. S. Epiph, ad Io. Hierosolom. S. Chr. ho. 25. in Gen.