Increasing Corruption on Earth

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah and the Flood

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.
21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Study tools for Genesis 6
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    Commentary
  • a 6:2 - 6:3 God announces that because of the immoral nature of people, their 'days shall be 120 years'. There are two possible interpretations of this number of years: either the lives of human beings will no longer exceed 120 years, or the coming of the flood is anticipated in 120 years. While the latter interpretation is simpler, the former interpretation is appealing, and would be true as a generalization even though some of those who live after the flood (e.g., Abraham) enjoy lives in excess of 120 years.
  • b 6:4 - 6:4 Or 'giants'
  • c 6:7 - 6:8 Noah is distinguished from the rest of humanity. Apart from Noah, the only other person in the OT who is described as finding 'favor in the eyes of the Lord' is Moses, in Ex. 33:17 (and possibly Abraham; cf. Gen. 18:3). Placed on a par with Moses, Noah is rescued from the looming annihilation.
  • d 6:14 - 6:14 An unknown kind of tree; transliterated from Hebrew
  • e 6:15 - 6:15 A 'cubit' was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
  • f 6:16 - 6:16 Or 'skylight'
  • g 6:16 - 6:17 'Everything that is on the earth shall die'. Although God intends the flood to destroy every person and his remarks have a strong universal emphasis, this in itself does not necessarily mean that the flood had to cover the whole earth. Since the geographical perspective of ancient people was more limited than that of contemporary readers, it is possible that the flood, while universal from their viewpoint, did not cover the entire globe. Indeed, Genesis implies that prior to the Tower of Babel incident (see 11:1–9), people had not yet spread throughout the earth. Many interpreters, therefore, argue that a huge regional flood may have been all that was necessary for God to destroy all human beings. The expression “all the earth” (7:3; cf. 8:9, “the whole earth”) does not exclude such a possibility: later, “all the earth” came to Joseph to buy grain (41:57), with “all the earth” clearly referring to the eastern Mediterranean seaboard. In support of the view that the flood covered all the earth, other interpreters point out that the text says that “all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered” (7:19) and that the water was “fifteen cubits” above the tops of the mountains. If “the mountains of Ararat” (8:4) refers to the range that includes present-day Mount Ararat in Turkey (elevation 16,854 feet or 5,137 m), the amount of water necessary to cover it would be at least 16,854 feet above sea level.
  • h 6:17 - 6:18–22 God indicates that he will establish a 'covenant' with Noah (see notes on 9:9–11; 9:12–17). By taking into the ark two of 'every living thing', including birds, animals, and creeping things, Noah displays the caring oversight that people were expected to have for other living creatures.
  • i 6:14 - 6:15 In modern measurements, the ark would have been around 450 feet (140 m) long, 75 feet (23 m) wide, and 45 feet (14 m) high, yielding a displacement of about 43,000 tons (about 39 million kg). The inside capacity would have been 1.4 million cubic feet (39,644 cubic m), with an approximate total deck area of 95,700 square feet (8,891 square m).
  • j 6:13 - 6:13 Hebrew 'The end of all flesh has come before me'
  • k 6:3 - 6:3 Or 'My Spirit shall not contend with'
  • l 6:12 - 6:13–17 In a long speech, God gives Noah directions for the construction of an 'ark' (v. 14) that will be sufficiently large to house his family and a wide variety of other living creatures.
  • m 6:5 - 6:6–7 'the Lord regretted . . . it grieved him to his heart'. The Hebrew verb rendered “regretted” (Hb. nakham) is sometimes translated “repent,” and sometimes as “feel sorrow, be grieved.” God is grieved over his creation, which he at first saw as very good (1:31) but which is now filled with sin (see notes on 1 Sam. 15:11; 15:29; Jonah 3:10). The destruction of 'man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens' suggests that this will be a reversal of God’s creative work. The resulting flood reflects this, for the dry land is submerged under water, subsequently to reappear, as in Gen. 1:9. 'from the face of the land'. On the extent of the flood, see note on 6:17.
  • n 6:3 - 6:4 'Nephilim'. The meaning of this term is uncertain. It occurs elsewhere in the OT only in Num. 13:33, where it denotes a group living in Canaan. If both passages refer to the same people, then the Israelite spies (Num. 13:33) are expressing their fears of the Canaanites by likening them to the ancient 'men of renown'. Although in Hebrew Nepilim means “fallen ones,” the earliest Greek translators rendered it gigantes, “giants.” This idea may have been mistakenly deduced from Num. 13:33; one must be cautious about reading it back into the present passage. The Nephilim were 'mighty men' or warriors and, as such, may well have contributed to the violence that filled the earth (see Gen. 6:13).
  • o 6:3 - Or My Spirit shall not contend with
  • p 6:4 - Or giants
  • q 6:13 - Hebrew The end of all flesh has come before me
  • r 6:14 - An unknown kind of tree; transliterated from Hebrew
  • s 6:15 - A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
  • t 6:16 - Or skylight
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