Comentário sobre Gênesis 6:9

These are the generations of Noah. Noah etc. The text wants to praise Noah for having been whole from his beginning until his end. And this is why it is said, "These are the generations of Noah. Noah..." This intends to emphasize [Noah's wholeness] from his beginning until his end, he was of one value and of singularly similar acts. And an explanation for this reason that the text says "A righteous man he was in his generations" is that he was as such in generations when people are not seen as righteous--throughout all of this, as if in all of his generations, both in the generation of his youth and in the generation of his old age. Throughout them all, he was of one character. He was a righteous man in all of the generations that passed over him. And the text says "complete" (tamim), for he was not like some of the righteous people who have erred and in the end changed course and turned over (towards righteousness). Rather, he had always been 'complete,' for he had no blemish or perversion. And, if you were to say, "How is it possible for him to have had this [quality]?" Then, say that the reason for this is "Noah walked with God." This is to say, that he never had any dealing with a human creature, but he would spend all day alone [i.e., with God]. And for this, he had the power to be saved from those [humans] and did not sin at all. Proof has been brought for his isolation, for the whole world had engaged in sexually illicit actions, and that is how they had many sons and daughters, and, as such, it says, "It was when the human species began to increase." Indeed, Noah did not produce offspring until he had reached 600 years of age, and all that he produced was three sons and nothing more, and all of this is to teach about his isolation. And for this, the text doubly mentioned their generations here, for the text said indeed, "in all of the world," and this is why the text said, "the land became corrupt etc."

אלה תולדת נח נח איש צדיק THESE ARE THE PROGENY OF NOAH: NOAH WAS A RIGHTEOUS MAN — Since the text mentions him it sings his praise, in accordance with what is said, (Proverbs 10:7) “The mention of the righteous shall be for a blessing.” Another explanation is: since after stating “These are the progeny of Noah”, it does not at once mention the names of his children but declares that he “was a righteous man”, Scripture thereby teaches you that the real progeny of righteous people are their good deeds (Genesis Rabbah 30:6).

THESE ARE ‘TOLDOTH’ NOAH. Commentators¹Ibn Ezra and R’dak. These commentators felt the difficulty in explaining toldoth to mean “progeny” or “generations” since it further states, And Noah begot three sons. have explained the word toldoth to mean “his experiences” [or “his events”] much the same as the sense of: what a day ‘yeiled’ (may bring forth).²Proverbs 27:1.
In this way the word toldoth refers to the entire section [since all the events of the flood are occurrences in the life of Noah]. But this does not appear to me to be correct since the external events in the life of a person, [over which he has no control], are not his toldoth.
The correct interpretation is that the word toldoth here retains its literal meaning of “progeny,” just as, These are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) the sons of Noah;³Genesis 10:1. And these are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) Ishmael.⁴Ibid., 25:12. Thus Scripture is saying, “These are the progeny of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Scripture however repeats, And Noah begot three sons,⁵Verse 10. because [at the end of the first verse] it interrupted by saying, Noah was a righteous man, and whole-hearted, in order to inform us why He commanded him concerning the ark. And even though Scripture has already stated above, And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth,⁶Above, 5:32. it returns to mention them a second time in order to relate that Noah was unlike all his ancestors who begot daughters and sons. This is the meaning of the words, three sons;⁵Verse 10. Scripture mentions their number in order to say that these three alone were his progeny, and they were saved by his merit, and by them was the whole earth overspread.⁷Genesis 9:19.