Wickedness in the World

6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth^(A) and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God^(B) saw that the daughters^(C) of humans were beautiful,^(D) and they married^(E) any of them they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit^(F) will not contend with^[a] humans forever,^(G) for they are mortal^[b];^(H) their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

⁴ The Nephilim^(I) were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans^(J) and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.^(K)

⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,^(L) and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.^{(M) 6} The Lord regretted^(N) that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth^(O) the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.^(P)” ⁸ But Noah^(Q) found favor in the eyes of the Lord.^(R)

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year,^(A) the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month^(B) the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.^{(C) 17} Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”^(D)

¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.^{(E) 19} All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.