Genesis 8:21

Hebrew Bible

19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth went out of the ark in their groups. 20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done. 22 “While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Amos 5:21

Hebrew Bible

19 Disaster will be inescapable, as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake. 20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light—gloomy blackness, not bright light? 21 “I absolutely despise your festivals! I will not smell58 your religious assemblies. 22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. 23 Take away from me your noisy songs; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.

 Notes and References

"... God sends the couple from the garden out of fear that Adam might send forth his hand and take from the tree of life (3:22). Is Noah's sending forth his hand in some way redemptive, just as his obedience might counteract Adam's disobedience? Or is this some sign that Noah too, has inherited the desire to grasp? The third, and perhaps most unexpected appearance of the verb comes in Noah's next, great, possibly independent action. His magnificent, hyperbolically excessive, sacrifice ascends to God who smells 'the restful smell'. While readers are accustomed to God hearing and seeing, the sense of smell is a rare anthropomorphism (The only other uses: Leviticus 26:31; Amos 5:21 where God refuses to smell the sacrifices) that has proved uncomfortable for many.1000 Has God nostrils? How could he appreciate the stench of the abattoir? Yet, it appears rather more complementary than the Babylonian swarming of the deities like flies ..."

Harper, Elizabeth Ann It's all in the Name: Reading the Flood Narrative through the Lens of Genesis 5:29 (p. 201) Durham University, 2013

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