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Genesis 4:4
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Genesis 12:7,8
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him…

Genesis 13:4
Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

clean beast.

Genesis 7:2
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts thatare not clean by two, the male and his female.

Leviticus 11:1-47
And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, …

burnt.

Leviticus 1:1-17
And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, …

And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird,
Noah's selection of clean animals and birds for sacrifice indicates an understanding of distinctions between clean and unclean animals, which would later be codified in Levitical law (Leviticus 11). This suggests an early awareness of God's standards for acceptable worship. The clean animals were those suitable for sacrifice and consumption, highlighting the importance of purity in offerings to God. This act of taking from every kind of clean animal underscores the completeness and totality of Noah's offering, symbolizing a comprehensive act of worship and gratitude.

he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
The burnt offering, or "olah" in Hebrew, was a sacrifice that was completely consumed by fire, symbolizing total dedication and surrender to God. This type of offering was later formalized in the Levitical sacrificial system (Leviticus 1) and was a common form of worship in ancient Israel. The act of offering burnt offerings signifies Noah's complete devotion and acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. It also prefigures the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who offered Himself wholly to God for the atonement of humanity's sins. The burnt offering represents a foreshadowing of Christ's perfect and complete sacrifice on the cross.

- The word “Then” anchors the verse in time—immediately after Noah, his family, and the animals stepped off the ark (Genesis 8:15-19).

- It highlights Noah’s first priority after deliverance: worship, not settlement or survival tactics.

- Scripture often records worship as the believer’s first response to God’s salvation (Exodus 15:1;Luke 17:15-16).

- An altar is a place set apart for meeting with God. By building it, Noah publicly acknowledged that the rescue was God’s work, not his own (Hebrews 11:7).

- Earlier altars appear with Abel’s sacrifice (Genesis 4:4) and will reappear with Abram (Genesis 12:7). The pattern shows that righteous people express gratitude through tangible acts of worship.

- The focus is personal: “the LORD” (YHWH), the covenant-keeping God who spoke with Noah (Genesis 6:13; 8:1).

- Noah directs worship to the only true God, rejecting any notion that survival came from fate or human ingenuity (Deuteronomy 6:13).

- This sets a precedent for exclusive devotion, later codified in the first commandment (Exodus 20:2-3).

- God had told Noah to bring seven pairs of each clean species onto the ark (Genesis 7:2-3), ensuring both post-flood reproduction and sacrifice.

- “Clean” distinguishes animals acceptable for worship long before Mosaic law (Leviticus 11 codifies it later).

- Noah offers from all the clean kinds, not just a token. His gift is generous, mirroring David’s attitude: “I will not offer… that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

- A burnt offering is wholly consumed by fire, symbolizing total consecration and atonement (Leviticus 1:3-9).

- By burning the entire animal, Noah acknowledges sin’s seriousness and God’s holiness—an echo of Abel’s earlier accepted offering (Genesis 4:4).

- The fragrance “pleased the LORD” (Genesis 8:21), foreshadowing Christ, “who loved us and gave Himself up… a fragrant offering” (Ephesians 5:2).

- For believers today, the burnt offering points to presenting our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).

Genesis 8:20 pictures Noah’s immediate, wholehearted response to God’s salvation: he worships the LORD with costly, comprehensive sacrifices from every clean creature, acknowledging sin’s price and God’s grace. The altar proclaims gratitude, atonement, and dedication—foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice of Christ and modeling how redeemed people respond with total devotion.

"I sent them forth to the four winds; I sacrificed a sacrifice;

I built an altar on the peak of the mountain."

This extreme antiquity of sections ascribed to the Jehovist, and supposed to be an after-thought, is seriously detrimental to the whole theory.

One result of the flood was to sweep away all traces of the earthly paradise and of the subsequent abode of Adam; and it is probable also that Noah was removed far away from his previous home by the floating of the ark. Thus to him and his family it was a new earth, with no holy places, no spots hallowed by the past history of man. He therefore determines to consecrate the earth to Jehovah, who had been the object of the worship of his family since the days of Enos, and therefore builds an altar, the first mentioned in the Bible. By so doing he provided for future generations a central spot and sanctuary, round which their religious ideas would group themselves. The animals offered were probably the seventh of all clean kinds (see Note onGenesis 7:2). With Noah's burnt offerings we must not connect any of the later Levitical ideas. Apparently it was a simple thank-offering, the dominant thought of which was the hallowing man's future life by commencing it with worship. It thus contained within it the presage that a better state of things had now begun. Subsequently the thank-offering became a feast, at which the offerer and his family partook of the victim as Jehovah's guests; and as God during this sacrifice gave Noah permission to eat flesh (Genesis 9:3), it is probable that such was the case now, and that the eating of flesh was inaugurated in this solemn way. We have, however, previously seen reason to believe that the flesh of animals had occasionally been eaten before, though not as an ordinary article of diet.