Thus also said God to Noe, and to his sons with him,9 Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you:10 And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth.11 I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth.12 And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.13 I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me, and between the earth.14 And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds:15 And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.
God's purpose, therefore, was to eliminate all apprehension from Noah's thinking and for him to be quite assured that this would not happen again. He said, remember, "Just as I brought on the deluge out of love, so as to put a stop to their wickedness and prevent their going to further extremes, so in this case too it is out of my love that I promise never to do it again, so that you may live free of all dread and in this way see your present life to its close." Hence he said, "Behold, I make my covenant," that is, I form an agreement. Just as in human affairs when someone makes a promise he forms an agreement and gives a firm guarantee, so too the good Lord said, "Behold, I make my covenant." God did not say that this massive disaster might come again to those who sin. Rather he said, "Behold, I make my covenant with you and your offspring after you." See the Lord's loving kindness: not only with your generation, he says, do I form my agreement, but also in regard to all those coming after you I give this firm guarantee.
Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause. Shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths.5 Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour; and on thee have I waited all the day long.6 Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compassion; and thy mercies that are from the beginning of the world.7 The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. According to thy mercy remember thou me: for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.8 The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way.9 He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways.
Now the ways of the Lord are, we may say, certain courses taken in a good life, guided by Christ, who says, "I am the way, and the truth and the life." The way, then, is the surpassing power of God, for Christ is our way, and a good way, too, is he, a way that has opened the kingdom of heaven to believers. Moreover, the ways of the Lord are straight, as it is written: "Make your ways known to me, O Lord." Chastity is a way, faith is a way, abstinence is a way. There is, indeed, a way of virtue, and there is a way of wickedness; for it is written, "And see if there is any way of wickedness in me."
Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit,†19 In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison:20 Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.21 Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.†22 Who is on the right hand of God, swallowing down death, that we might be made heirs of life everlasting: being gone into heaven, the angels and powers and virtues being made subject to him.
Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him. Noah preached repentance, and as many as listened to him were saved. Jonah proclaimed destruction to the Ninevites; [Jonah 3] but they, repenting of their sins, propitiated God by prayer, and obtained salvation, although they were aliens [to the covenant] of God.
And immediately the Spirit drove him out into the desert.13 And he was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan; and he was with beasts, and the angels ministered to him.14 And after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,15 And saying: The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel.
(Hom in Matt. xiii) Because all that Christ did and suffered was for our teaching, He began after His baptism to dwell in the wilderness, and fought against the devil, that every baptized person might patiently sustain greater temptations after His baptism, nor be troubled, as if this which happened to Him was contrary to His expectation, but might bear up against all things, and come off conqueror. For although God allows that we should be tempted for many other reasons, yet for this cause also He allows it, that we may know, that man when tempted is placed in a station of greater honour. For the Devil approaches not save where he has beheld one set in a place of greater honour; and therefore it is said, And immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And the reason why He does not simply say, that He went into the wilderness, but was driven, is, that thou mayest understand that it was done according to the word of Divine Providence. By which also He shews, that no man should thrust himself into temptation, but that those who from some other state are as it were driven into temptation, remain conquerors.
(in Mat. Hom. xiii) But the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness, because He designed to provoke the devil to tempt Him, and thus gave Him an opportunity not only by hunger, but also by the place. For then most of all does the devil thrust himself in, when he sees men remaining solitary.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)