Genesis 6
Lexham English Bible
Prelude to the Flood
6 And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, daughters were born to them. 2 Then[a] the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose. 3 And Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not abide with humankind forever in that he is also flesh. And his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God went into the daughters of humankind, and they bore children to them.
5 And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind was great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was always[b] only evil. 6 And Yahweh regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.[c] 7 And Yahweh said, “I will destroy humankind whom I created from upon the face of the earth, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven,[d] for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.
9 These are the generations[e] of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, without defect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 And the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood; you must make the ark with rooms, then[f] you must cover it with pitch, inside and outside. 15 And this is how you must make it: the length of the ark, three hundred cubits; its width fifty cubits; its height, thirty cubits. 16 You must make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above.[g] And as for the door of the ark, you must put it in its side. You must make it with a lower, second, and a third deck.
17 And I, behold, I am about to bring the flood waters over the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under the heaven;[h] everything that is on the earth shall perish. 18 And I will establish my covenant with you, and you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you. 19 And of every living thing, from all flesh, you must bring two from every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 From the birds according to their[i] kind, and from the animals according to their[j] kind, from every creeping thing on the ground according to its[k] kind—two from every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. 21 And as for you, take for yourself from every kind of food that is eaten. And you must gather it to yourself. And it shall be for you and for them for food.” 22 And Noah did according to all that God commanded him; thus he did.
Footnotes
- Genesis 6:2 Or “And”
- Genesis 6:5 Literally “every day”
- Genesis 6:6 Literally “he was grieved to his heart”
- Genesis 6:7 Or “the sky”
- Genesis 6:9 Or “family records”
- Genesis 6:14 Or “and”
- Genesis 6:16 Literally “to one cubit you must finish it from above”
- Genesis 6:17 Or “the sky”
- Genesis 6:20 Or “its”
- Genesis 6:20 Or “its”
- Genesis 6:20 Or “their”
Genesis 6
New Catholic Bible
Death and Resurrection of God’s Work[a]
Chapter 6
Widespread Perversion.[b]1 When men began to multiply upon the earth, and they began to have daughters, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married as many of them as they wanted. 3 The Lord therefore said, “My spirit will not remain in them forever, for they are flesh and the length of their lives will be one hundred and twenty years.”
4 There were giants upon the earth at this time, as well as afterward. They were the children of the sons of God who married the daughters of men. These were the heroes of times past, men of renown.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of men upon the earth was great, and that every plan that their hearts conceived was nothing but evil. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made man upon the earth and his heart was grieved. 7 The Lord said, “I will obliterate man, whom I created, from the earth. Together with man I will eliminate all the cattle and reptiles and the birds of the air, for I regret having made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord.
Salvation through the Righteous.[c] 9 This is the story of Noah. Noah was a just and blameless man at that time and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 But the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and filled with violence. 12 God saw that the earth was corrupt, for every person on the earth was perverse in what he did.
13 God therefore said to Noah, “I have decided to end everything, for they have filled the earth with their violence. Behold, I will destroy the entire creation. 14 Build an ark[d] of gopher wood and divide the ark into compartments and caulk it with bitumen inside and out. 15 This is how you shall make it: the ark will be three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high. 16 Make a roof on the ark one cubit high.[e] Place a door in the side of the ark. Make it with three decks: lower, middle, and higher.
17 “Behold, I will send a flood. The waters shall cover the earth to destroy the life of everything under the skies that has the breath of life in it. Everything on the earth shall perish. 18 But I will establish a covenant with you.
“Go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife, and the wives of your sons. 19 Bring into the ark two of everything that lives, of all flesh. Bring a male and female of each species into the ark to save them. 20 Bring two birds of each species, two animals of each species, and two reptiles of each species with you to save them. 21 As for you, gather every type of food and take it with you. It shall nourish both you and them.”
22 Noah did all of this, exactly as God had commanded him.
Footnotes
- Genesis 6:1 The entire biblical tradition presents the flood as an historical event (Wis 10:4; Sir 44:17-18; Mt 24:37-39; 1 Pet 3:20; etc.), but apart from popular texts no information was available for describing the material event.
It is from these popular texts that the external elements of the story come: the structure of the ark, the duration and extent of the flood, and so on, which are not part of the historico-religious message of the writer but serve in the composition of a vivid story. As a result, the Yahwist and Elohist traditions could differ in marginal aspects that are more picturesque in the one and more detailed in the other.
Humankind is renewed in the person of Noah. In the Christian tradition he is a figure of Christ, the one true righteous man, who remained untouched by the spread of sin and then, rising unharmed from death, became the source of resurrection for humankind. - Genesis 6:1 The passage is from the Yahwist tradition. The writer seems to be using two fragments of ancient popular traditions (vv. 1-2, 4). The striking element in this chapter is the fact that human beings have gone so far in personal disintegration that they are no longer capable of thinking anything but evil (v. 5), so that any hope of recovery is morally impossible.
The tragic anthropomorphism seen in the divine regret highlights the power of evil, which is capable of destroying the work of the Creator; but the annihilation planned is the decision of the supreme Good, which is always the sole judge of its own plans (see Jer 18:1-12) and cannot allow the definitive victory of evil. - Genesis 6:9 The first part of the following passage (6:9-22) is from the Priestly tradition and links up with the end of chapter 5. First, in three verses (6:11-13), it uses the language of corruption and violence to summarize the entire history of sin and the decree of condemnation, both of which have been described in a more diffuse way in the Yahwist tradition. This is followed by the order to build the ark, which is found only in the Priestly version, and finally the announcement of the flood with the command to enter the ark. This passage from the Priestly tradition is followed by a repetition of the command to enter the ark and of the announcement of the flood from the Yahwist tradition (7:1-5). Note the difference of the two traditions when it comes to the number of animals brought into the ark: the Yahwist account, more popular in character, presupposes that in those very ancient times a distinction was already made between clean and unclean animals, whereas in fact the distinction was of later origin and codified in the Mosaic Law.
The New Testament praises the faith of Noah (Heb 11:7) and speaks of the harm done his contemporaries by their unbelief, because they were unable to accept the impulse to conversion that came from him as he was building the ark (1 Pet 3:20). - Genesis 6:14 Ark, in Hebrew teba, is probably connected with the Egyptian, teb(t), basket, sarcophagus, and perhaps with the Akkadian, tabu, the processional boat of the gods, or with Akkadian, elippu tibitu, a kind of boat. The same word is used in Ex 2:3, 5 for the basket in which Moses was saved.
- Genesis 6:16 A cubit was about 50 cm or one and a half feet. The ark was about 156 meters long, 26 meters wide, and 15 meters high (440 x 72 x 44 feet). It was a floating parallelepiped of about 55,000 or 60,000 cubic meters (82,000 or 90,000 cubic feet).
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