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).
Genesis 6
1599 Geneva Bible
6 3 God threateneth to bring the flood. 5 Man altogether corrupt. 6 God repenteth that he made him. 18 Noah and his are preserved in the Ark, which he was commanded to make.
1 So when men began to be multiplied upon the earth, and there were daughters born unto them,
2 Then the [a]sons of God saw the daughters [b]of men that they were [c]fair, and they took them wives of all that they [d]liked.
3 Therefore the Lord said, My spirit shall not always [e]strive with man, because he is but flesh, and his days shall be an [f]hundred and twenty years.
4 There were [g]giants in the earth in those days: yea, and after that the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they had borne them children, these were mighty men, which in old time were men of [h]renown.
5 ¶ When the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his (A)heart were only evil [i]continually,
6 Then it [j]repented the Lord, that he had made man in the earth, and he was sorry in his heart.
7 Therefore the Lord said, I will destroy from the earth the man, whom I have created, from man [k]to beast, to the creeping thing, and to the fowl of the heaven: for I repent that I have made them.
8 But Noah [l]found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
9 ¶ These are the [m]generations of Noah: Noah was a just and upright man in his time: and Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God: for the earth was filled with [n]cruelty.
12 Then God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, [o]An end of all flesh is come before me: for the earth is filled with [p]cruelty [q]through them: and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 ¶ Make thee an Ark of [r]pine trees: thou shalt make [s]cabins in the Ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And [t]thus shalt thou make it: the length of the Ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
16 A window shalt thou make in the Ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door of the Ark shalt thou set in the side thereof: thou shalt make it with the [u]low, second, and third room.
17 And I, behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life under heaven: all that is in the earth shall perish.
18 But with thee will I [v]establish my covenant, and thou shalt go into the Ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh two of every sort shalt thou cause to come into the Ark, to keep them alive with thee: they shall be male and female.
20 Of the fowls, after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, that thou mayest keep them alive.
21 And take thou with thee of all meat that is eaten: and thou shalt gather it to thee, that it may be meat for thee and for them.
22 (B)Noah therefore did according unto all that God commanded him: even [w]so did he.
Footnotes
- Genesis 6:2 The children of the godly, which began to degenerate.
- Genesis 6:2 Those that came of wicked parents, as of Cain.
- Genesis 6:2 Having more respect to their beauty and to worldly considerations, than to their manners and godliness.
- Genesis 6:2 Or, had chosen.
- Genesis 6:3 Because man could not be won by God’s lenity and long sufferance whereby he strove to overcome him, he would no longer stay his vengeance.
- Genesis 6:3 Which term God gave man to repent before he would destroy the earth, 1 Pet. 3:20.
- Genesis 6:4 Or, tyrants.
- Genesis 6:4 Which usurped authority over others, and did degenerate from that simplicity, wherein their fathers lived.
- Genesis 6:5 Hebrew, every day.
- Genesis 6:6 God doth never repent, but he speaketh after our capacity, because he did destroy him, and in that as it were did disavow him to be his creature.
- Genesis 6:7 God declareth how much he detesteth sin, seeing the punishment thereof extendeth to the brute beasts.
- Genesis 6:8 God was merciful unto him.
- Genesis 6:9 Or, history.
- Genesis 6:11 Meaning, that all were given to the contempt of God, and oppression of their neighbors.
- Genesis 6:13 Or, I will destroy mankind.
- Genesis 6:13 Or, oppression and wickedness.
- Genesis 6:13 Hebrew, from the face of them.
- Genesis 6:14 Hebrew, Gopher.
- Genesis 6:14 Hebrew, nests.
- Genesis 6:15 Or, of this measure.
- Genesis 6:16 That is, of three heights, as appeareth in the figure.
- Genesis 6:18 To the intent that in this great enterprise and mockings of the whole world, thou mayest be confirmed, that thy faith fail not.
- Genesis 6:22 That is, he obeyed God’s commandment in all points without adding or diminishing.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
