Genesis6
World English Bible · Public Domain
1When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
2God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
3Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”
4The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
7Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
14Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
15This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
17I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
18But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
20Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.
21Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”
22Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Genesis 6.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The wickedness of the world which provoked God's wrath. (1–7). Noah finds grace. (8–11). Noah warned of the flood, The directions respecting the ark. (12–21). Noah's faith and obedience. (22).
vv1-7
The most remarkable thing concerning the old world, is the destroying of it by the deluge, or flood. We are told of the abounding iniquity of that wicked world: God's just wrath, and his holy resolution to punish it. In all ages there has been a peculiar curse of God upon marriages between professors of true religion and its avowed enemies. The evil example of the ungodly party corrupts or greatly hurts the other. Family religion is put an end to, and the children are trained up according to the worldly maxims of that parent who is without the fear of God. If we profess to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, we must not marry without his consent. He will never give his blessing, if we prefer beauty, wit, wealth, or worldly honours, to faith and holiness. The Spirit of God strove with men, by sending Enoch, Noah, and perhaps others, to preach to them; by waiting to be gracious, notwithstanding their rebellions; and by exciting alarm and convictions in their consciences. But the Lord declared that his Spirit should not thus strive with men always; he would leave them to be hardened in sin, and ripened for destruction. This he determined on, because man was flesh: not only frail and feeble, but carnal and depraved; having misused the noble powers of his soul to gratify his corrupt inclinations. God sees all the wickedness that is among the children of men; it cannot be hid from him now; and if it be not repented of, it shall be made known by him shortly. The wickedness of a people is great indeed, when noted sinners are men renowned among them. Very much sin was committed in all places, by all sorts of people. Any one might see that the wickedness of man was great: but God saw that every imagination, or purpose, of the thoughts of man's heart, was only evil continually. This was the bitter root, the corrupt spring. The heart was deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were corrupt; the habits and dispositions evil. Their designs and devices were wicked. They did evil deliberately, contriving how to do mischief. There was no good among them. God saw man's wickedness as one injured and wronged by it. He saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which grieves him, and makes him wish he had been childless. The words here used are remarkable; they are used after the manner of men, and do not mean that God can change, or be unhappy. Does God thus hate our sin? And shall not we be grieved to the heart for it? Oh that we may look on Him whom we have grieved, and mourn! God repented that he had made man; but we never find him repent that he redeemed man. God resolves to destroy man: the original word is very striking, ‘I will wipe off man from the earth,’ as dirt or filth is wiped off from a place which should be clean, and is thrown to the dunghill, the proper place for it. God speaks of man as his own creature, when he resolves upon his punishment. Those forfeit their lives who do not answer the end of their living. God speaks of resolution concerning men, after his Spirit had been long striving with them in vain. None are punished by the justice of God, but those who hate to be reformed by the grace of God.
vv8-11
Noah did not find favour in the eyes of men; they hated and persecuted him, because both by his life and preaching he condemned the world: but he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and this made him more truly honourable than the men of renown. Let this be our chief desire, let us labour that we may be accepted of him. When the rest of the world was wicked, Noah kept his integrity. God's good-will towards Noah produced this good work in him. He was a just man, that is, justified before God, by faith in the promised Seed. As such he was made holy, and had right principles; and was righteous in his conversation. He was not only honest, but devout; it was his constant care to do the will of God. God looks down upon those with an eye of favour, who sincerely look up to him with an eye of faith. It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it shows strong faith and resolution, to swim against the stream, and to appear for God when no one else appears for him; Noah did so. All kinds of sin were found among men. They corrupted God's worship. Sin fills the earth with violence, and this fully justified God's resolution to destroy the world. The contagion spread. When wickedness is become general, ruin is not far off; while there is a remnant of praying people in a nation, to empty the measure as it fills, judgments may be long kept off; but when all hands are at work to pull down the fences, by sin, and none stand in the gap to make up the breach, what can be expected but a flood of wrath?
vv12-21
God told Noah his purpose to destroy the wicked world by water. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, Ps 25:14. It is with all believers, enabling them to understand and apply the declarations and warnings of the written word. God chose to do it by a flood of waters, which should drown the world. As he chooses the rod with which he corrects his children, so he chooses the sword with which he cuts off his enemies. God established his covenant with Noah. This is the first place in the Bible where the word ‘covenant’ is found; it seems to mean, 1. The covenant of providence; that the course of nature shall be continued to the end of time. 2. The covenant of grace; that God would be a God to Noah, and that out of his seed God would take to himself a people. God directed Noah to make an ark. This ark was like the hulk of a ship, fitted to float upon the waters. It was very large, half the size of St. Paul's cathedral, and would hold more than eighteen of the largest ships now used. God could have secured Noah without putting him to any care, or pains, or trouble; but employed him in making that which was to be the means to preserve him, for the trial of his faith and obedience. Both the providence of God, and the grace of God, own and crown the obedient and diligent. God gave Noah particular orders how to make the ark, which could not therefore but be well fitted for the purpose. God promised Noah that he and his family should be kept alive in the ark. What we do in obedience to God, we and our families are likely to have the benefit of. The piety of parents gets their children good in this life, and furthers them in the way to eternal life, if they improve it.
Key Words
אָדָם: ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)
חָלַל: properly, to bore, i.e. (by implication) to wound, to dissolve; figuratively, to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an 'opening wedge'); to play (the flute)
רָבַב: properly, to cast together , i.e. increase, especially in number; to multiply by the myriad
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
אֲדָמָה: soil (from its general redness)
בַּת: a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)
יָלַד: to bear young; causatively, to beget; medically, to act as midwife; specifically, to show lineage
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
Cross References
Genesis 6Christ preached by the Spirit through Noah to the disobedient spirits now in prison.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
By faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
Supported by JFB
Explicitly names Noah's faith and fear of God in preparing the ark in obedience.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
God spared not the old world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Echoes verbatim Noah's complete obedience to all that the Lord commanded him.
Supported by JFB
Unequal yoking of believers with unbelievers echoes the corrupting intermarriages of the Sethites.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Israel is called God's son, identifying the 'sons of God' as his covenant people.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Jesus describes the days before the flood as characterized by marrying and giving in marriage.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallels Moses' complete, exact obedience in erecting the Tabernacle according to God's command.
Covenant believers are designated as 'the children of the Lord your God.'
Supported by Matthew Poole
God seeks a godly seed through marriage, which was violated by these corrupt unions.
Supported by Matthew Poole
God remembers that they are but flesh, a wind that passes away.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The same term (Nephilim/giants) is used to describe the imposing, terrifying inhabitants of Canaan.
Noah's walking with God directly mirrors the spiritual life of his ancestor Enoch.
They ate, drank, married, until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed them.
Links the gathering of food back to God's original provision of sustenance for life.
Connects Noah's mandate to gather food for the animals to God's original provision.
Confirms Noah entered the ark and shut the door exactly as God commanded him.
Supported by JFB
The Sethite line began to call upon the name of the Lord, becoming 'sons of God.'
Supported by Matthew Poole
Confirms post-flood that the imagination of man's heart remains evil from his youth.
Moses' ark of bulrushes uses the same Hebrew word for ark (tebah) and pitching.
Supported by JFB
The establishment of God's covenant with Noah prefigures his covenant with Abraham.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels Abraham's immediate, same-day obedience to God's covenant command of circumcision.