SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:13
Mi arco pondré en las nubes, el cual será por señal de pacto entre mí y la tierra.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Genesis 9:13
Verse 13. I do set my bow in the cloud] On the origin and nature of the rainbow there had been a great variety of conjectures, till Anthony de Dominis, bishop of Spalatro, in a treatise of his published by Bartholus in 1611, partly suggested the true cause of this phenomenon, which was afterwards fully explained and demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton. To enter into this subject here in detail would be improper; and therefore the less informed reader must have recourse to treatises on Optics for its full explanation. To readers in general it may be sufficient to say that the rainbow is a mere natural effect of a natural cause: 1. It is never seen but in showery weather. 2. Nor then unless the sun shines. 3. It never appears in any part of the heavens but in that opposite to the sun. 4. It never appears greater than a semicircle, but often much less. 5. It is always double, there being what is called the superior and inferior, or primary and secondary rainbow. 6. These bows exhibit the seven prismatic colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. 7. The whole of this phenomenon depends on the rays of the sun falling on spherical drops of water, and being in their passage through them, refracted and reflected. The formation of the primary and secondary rainbow depends on the two following propositions; 1. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye of the spectator, after ONE reflection and TWO refractions, produce the primary rainbow. 2. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye of the spectator after TWO reflections and TWO refractions, produce the secondary rainbow. The illustration of these propositions must be sought in treatises on Optics, assisted by plates. From the well-known cause of this phenomenon It cannot be rationally supposed that there was no rainbow in the heavens before the time mentioned in the text, for as the rainbow is the natural effect of the sun's rays falling on drops of water, and of their being refracted and reflected by them, it must have appeared at different times from the creation of the sun and the atmosphere. Nor does the text intimate that the bow was now created for a sign to Noah and his posterity; but that what was formerly created, or rather that which was the necessary effect, in certain cases, of the creation of the sun and atmosphere, should now be considered by them as an unfailing token of their continual preservation from the waters of a deluge; therefore the text speaks of what had already been done, and not of what was now done, yttn ytq kashti nathatti, ""My bow I have given, or put in the cloud;"" as if he said: As surely as the rainbow is a necessary effect of sunshine in rain, and must continue such as long as the sun and atmosphere endure, so surely shall this earth be preserved from destruction by water; and its preservation shall be as necessary an effect of my promise as the rainbow is of the shining of the sun during a shower of rain.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-17 - As the old world was ruined, to be a monument of justice, so this worl remains to this day a monument of mercy. But sin, that drowned the ol world, will burn this. Articles of agreement among men are sealed, tha what is promised may be the more solemn, and the doing of what is covenanted the more sure to mutual satisfaction. The seal of thi covenant was the rainbow, which, it is likely, was seen in the cloud before, but was never a seal of the covenant till now it was made so The rainbow appears when we have most reason to fear the rai prevailing; God then shows this seal of the promise, that it shall no prevail. The thicker the cloud, the brighter the bow in the cloud Thus, as threatening afflictions abound, encouraging consolations muc more abound. The rainbow is the reflection of the beams of the su shining upon or through the drops of rain: all the glory of the seal of the covenant are derived from Christ, the Sun of righteousness. An he will shed a glory on the tears of his saints. A bow speaks terror but this has neither string nor arrow; and a bow alone will do littl hurt. It is a bow, but it is directed upward, not toward the earth; for the seals of the covenant were intended to comfort, not to terrify. A God looks upon the bow, that he may remember the covenant, so shoul we, that we may be mindful of the covenant with faith and thankfulness Without revelation this gracious assurance could not be known; an without faith it can be of no use to us; and thus it is as to the stil greater dangers to which all are exposed, and as to the new covenan with its blessings.
Original Hebrew
את 853 קשׁתי 7198 נתתי 5414 בענן 6051 והיתה 1961 לאות 226 ברית 1285 ביני 996 ובין 996 הארץ׃ 776
