GENESIS 6 [†]When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2the 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, z “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, a 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[†] b The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every c intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6[†]And d the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it e grieved him to his heart. 7So 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 f found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9[^][†]These are the generations of Noah. g Noah was a righteous man, h blameless in his generation. Noah i walked with God. 10And 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. 12And God j saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, k for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13[†]And God said to Noah, l “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. 14Make 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. 16Make 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[†] m 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 n 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. 19And 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. 20Of 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. 21Also 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 o Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 6:1–8:22 A flood story, included in the Epic of Gilgamesh, has been found in the Mesopotamian literature. It has many similarities to the biblical account of the flood. A certain man named Utnapishtim built an ark, loaded it with animals, and survived a torrential rain. The relationship of the two accounts, if any, is uncertain, although the appearance of a flood story in Mesopotamia gives some support and confirmation to the historicity of the biblical event. That is, the existence of such stories elsewhere indicates that the Bible indeed preserves the memory of a momentous event, as does the Mesopotamian account. There are also key differences between the biblical and Mesopotamian stories, particularly in regard to what motivated God or the gods to bring the flood.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 6:1–8 The Wickedness of Humanity. The very specific list of descendants in ch. 5 is immediately followed by this short passage that explains why God sent a flood to punish the whole of humanity. But this passage concludes by recognizing that, in contrast to everyone else, Noah (introduced in 5:28–32) finds favor in God’s eyes.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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).
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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).
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.
GENESIS—NOTE ON 6:1–2 man began to multiply. The motif of multiplying is first introduced by God in 1:28, where it is presented in a very positive light and viewed as necessary to fulfill God’s plans for the earth. The present passage, however, reveals that this God-mandated task leads to increasing wickedness on the earth as the population expands. This problem is exacerbated by the coming together of the sons of God and the daughters of man (6:2). The identity of both groups is uncertain, and various solutions have been advocated, although none has gained universal support. Various scholars have proposed that the “sons of God” are (1) fallen angels (cf. Job 1:6; some, however, suggest that this contradicts Mark 12:25, though the reference in Mark is to angels in heaven; see also 2 Pet. 2:4–5; Jude 5–6); or (2) tyrannical human judges or kings (in the ungodly line of Lamech, possibly demon-possessed); or (3) followers of God among the male descendants of Seth (i.e., the godly line of Seth, but who married the ungodly daughters of Cain). Though it would be difficult to determine which of these three views may be correct, it is clear that the kind of relationship described here involved some form of grievous sexual perversion, wherein the “sons of God” saw and with impunity took any women (“daughters of man”) that they wanted. The sequence here in Gen. 6:2 (“saw … attractive [good] … took”) parallels the sequence of the fall in 3:6 (“saw … good … took”). In both cases, something good in God’s creation is used in disobedience and sinful rebellion against God, with tragic consequences. Only Noah stands apart from this sin. (See note on 1 Pet. 3:19.)
GENESIS—NOTE ON 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.