Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 6

1. דון dı̂yn “be down, strive, subdue, judge.” בשׁגם bāshagām “inasmuch, as also.” The rendering “in their error” requires the pointing בשׁגם b^eshāgām—and the plural form of the following pronoun. It is also unknown to the Septuagint.
2. נפילים n^epı̂lı̂ym “assailants, fellers, men of violence, tyrants.”

Having traced the line of descent from Adam through Seth, the seed of God, to Noah, the author proceeds to describe the general spread and growth of moral evil in the human race, and the determination of the Lord to wipe it away from the face of the earth.

There are two stages of evil set forth in Genesis 6:1-4: the one contained in these first four verses, and the other in the verses that follow. The former refers to the apostasy of the descendants of Seth, and its cause and consequences.

When humanity began to multiply, the separate families of Cain and Seth would come into contact. The daughters of the dynamic Cainites, distinguished by natural graces, artistic embellishments, and the charms of music and song—even though lacking the loftier qualities of being like-minded with God—would attract attention and prompt unholy alliances.

The phrase “sons of God” means an order of intelligent beings who “retain the purity of moral character” originally communicated, or subsequently restored, by their Creator.

They are called the sons of God because they have His spirit or disposition. The sons of God mentioned in Job 38:7 are an order of rational beings existing before the creation of man, and joining in the symphony of the universe when the earth and all things were called into being. Then all were holy, for all were designated the sons of God. Such, however, are not what is meant in the present passage.

For they were not created as a race, have no distinction of sex, and therefore no sexual desire; they neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matthew 22:30). It is contrary to the law of nature for different species even on earth to cohabit sexually; much more so for beings in the body and those who do not have a body of flesh. Moreover, we are here in the realm of humanity, not in the sphere of superhuman spirits; and the historian has not given the slightest intimation of the existence of spiritual beings different from man.

The sons of God, therefore, are those who are on the Lord’s side, who approach Him with appropriate and significant offerings, who call upon Him by His proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conduct. The figurative use of the word “son” to denote a variety of incidental, moral, as well as natural relations was not unfamiliar to the early speaker. Thus, Noah is called the son of five hundred years (Genesis 5:32).

Abraham calls Eliezer בן־ביתִי ben-bēytı̂y, son of my house (Genesis 15:3). The dying Rachel names her son Ben-oni, son of my sorrow, while his father called him Benjamin, son of your right hand (Genesis 35:18). An obvious parallel to the moral application is presented in the phrases “the seed of the woman” and “the seed of the serpent.”

The word “generations,” תולדות tôl^edot (Genesis 5:1), exhibits a similar freedom and elasticity of meaning, being applied to the whole doings of a rational being, and even to the physical changes of the material world (Genesis 2:4). The occasion for the present designation is provided by the remark of Eve on the birth of Seth.

God has given me another seed instead of Abel. Her son Seth she therefore regarded as the son of God. Accordingly, around the time of the birth of his son Enosh, the custom of calling upon the name of the Lord began, no doubt in the family circle of Adam, with whom Seth continued to dwell.

And Enoch, the seventh from Adam in the same line, exhibited the first striking example of a true believer walking with God in all the conduct of life. These descendants of Seth, among whom were also Lamech who spoke of the Lord, and Noah who walked with God, are therefore by a natural transition called the sons of God—the godlike in a moral sense, being born of the Spirit and walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Psalms 82:6; Hosea 2:1).

Some take “the daughters of man” to be the daughters of the Cainites only. But it is sufficient to understand by this phrase, the daughters of man in general, without any distinction of a moral or spiritual kind, and therefore including both Cainite and Sethite females.

And they took them wives of all whom they chose. The evil described here is that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. The godly took wives from all—that is, from ungodly as well as godly families, without any discrimination.

Whom they chose, not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers.

Up to this time they may have been consistent as the sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a corresponding laxity of principle.

The first inlet of sin prepares the way for the floodgates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the degeneracy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace.

Genesis 6:3 states: My Spirit—in contrast to the spirit of disobedience which, by the fall, gained entrance into the soul of man. Shall not strive with man forever. To strive (דון dı̂yn) is to keep down, rule, judge, or strive with a man by moral force.

From this passage we learn that the Lord by His Spirit strives with man up to a certain point. In this short negative sentence, the bright light of God’s free and tender mercy to the apostate human race shines forth.

He sends His Spirit to illuminate the darkened mind, to reason with the conscience, to prompt and strengthen holy resolve, and to bring back the heart, the confidence, the affection to God. He brings about the blessed result of repentance toward God in some, who are thus proven to be born of God.

But it is a solemn thought that with others He will not strive perpetually. There is a certain point beyond which He will not go, for sufficient reasons known fully to Himself, and partly to us. Two of these we are to notice for our instruction:

1. He will not touch the free agency of His rational creatures. He can put no force on the volitions of men. An involuntary or compulsory faith, hope, love, or obedience is a contradiction in terms; and anything that could bear such a name can have no moral validity whatsoever.
2. After giving ample warning, instruction, and invitation, He will, as a just judgment on the unbelieving and the impenitent, withdraw His Spirit and let them alone.

The antediluvian world was fast approaching this point of final perversity and abandonment.

Inasmuch as he is also flesh—in contrast to spirit, the breath of life which the Almighty breathed into his nostrils. These two parts of man’s complex being were originally in true and happy adjustment, the corporeal being the fitting organ and complement of the spiritual as it is in him.

But now by the fall, the flesh has gained the upper hand, and the spirit is in the bondage of corruption. The fact that he is flesh as well as spirit has therefore emerged into sad prominence. The doctrine of the carnal mind in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 8) is merely the outgrowth of the thought expressed in this passage.

His days shall be a hundred and twenty years.— “His days” are the days of humanity, not the individual, but the race, with whom the Lord still strives. Hence, they refer to the duration not of an individual's life, but of the race's existence.

From this we learn that the narrative here reverts to a point in time before the birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (recorded at the end of the preceding passage), as there were only a hundred years from their birth to the deluge.

This is according to the now well-known method of Scripture when it has two lines of events to carry forward. The former narrative refers to the godly portion of mankind; this one to the ungodly remnant.

Not forever will the Lord strive with humanity; but His long-suffering will still continue for one hundred and twenty years. Meanwhile, He does not leave Himself or His clemency without a witness. He sent Noah with the message of warning, who preached by his voice, by his walking with God, and also by his long labor and perseverance in building the ark. The doomed race, however, filled up the measure of their iniquity, and when the set number of years was completed, the overwhelming flood came.

Genesis 6:4 describes two classes of men with strong hands and strong wills. The giants, the well-known men of great stature, physical force, and violent will, who were enabled by these qualities to claim and secure supremacy over their fellow human beings. Had been in the land in those days.

In the days when those intermarriages were beginning to take place, warriors were asserting the claim of might. Violence and plunder were becoming rampant in the land. And after that, the progeny of the mixed marriages were the second and subsequent class of leading men.

“The sons of God” are here contrasted with the “nephilim, or giants,” who appear therefore to have belonged to the Cainites. The offspring of these unhallowed unions were the heroes, the valiant men, the mighty men, the men of renown. They were probably more refined in manners and exalted in thought than their predecessors of pure Cainite descent. “Men of name,” whose names are often in people’s mouths, because they either deserved or required to be named frequently on account of their influential or representative character.

Being distinguished from the common herd by prominent qualities or memorable exploits, they were also frequently marked out by a special name or surname, derived from such a trait of character or deed of notoriety. Of old (מעולם mē'ôlām). This has been sometimes explained “of the world,” in the sense of αἰών aiōn; but the meaning is unsuitable for the present passage. The phrase uniformly means “of old,” covering a more or less extensive length of time. This note of time implies a writer probably after the deluge, who could speak of antediluvian affairs as having happened long ago.

It is remarkable that we have no hint of any kind of government in the antediluvian world. It is open to us to suppose that the patriarchal polity would make its appearance, as it is an order based upon natural relations. But it is possible that God Himself, being still present and manifest, was recognized as the governor. To Him offerings were brought, and He dealt with Cain on his first and second transgression.

In that case, the lawless violence of the strong and willful is to be regarded as rebellion, not only against patriarchal rule but also against divine supremacy. A notice of civil law and government would not, of course, affect the authority of the book. However, the absence of such notice favors its divine origin. It is obvious that higher things than these occupy the attention of the sacred writer.

In Genesis 6:5-8, we are to understand that the 120 years of respite have ended. The iniquity of the human race is now complete, and the Lord's determination is therefore announced, with a statement of the reasons for it and a glance at the individual who is to be excepted from the general destruction.

Genesis 6:5 begins: And God saw.— The course of the primeval world was a great experiment proceeding before the eye of God and of all intelligent observers, manifesting the thorough depravity and full-grown degeneracy of the fallen human race when left to the bent of its perverted inclinations.

Every imagination (יצר yētser). Here the object of thought is distinguished from the thought itself. This is a distinction not generally or constantly recognized by philosophers of mind, though of essential importance in the theory of the mind. The thought itself is a real phase or attitude of mind; the form, idea, species, or object of thought may have material, real content, or it may not.

“Only evil every day.” This is an unlimited condemnation of the state and process of the carnal man. The reason is obvious.

Homage to God, to truth, to right, to love, does not reign in his heart; and the imaginations or purposes that are not regulated by this, however excellent and praiseworthy in other respects, are destitute of the primary and essential principle of moral good. This is now made palpable to the eye of observation by the almost universal predominance of the ungodly spirit. This accordingly forms the basis for the divine action.

Genesis 6:6 states: And it repented the Lord that He had made man.— The Scripture is frank and unreserved—some people would say imprudent or heedless of misinterpretation—in its statements of truth. Repentance ascribed to the Lord seems to imply wavering or a change of purpose in the Eternal Self-existent One.

But the sublime declaration of the inspired word is, God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).

Indeed, every act recorded here—the observation, the resolve, the exception—seems, equally with repentance, to conflict with the unchangeableness of God. To go to the root of the matter, every act of the divine will, of creative power, or of interference with the order of nature, seems at variance with an unchanging purpose. But, the following points should be considered:

1. Man has a finite mind and a limited sphere of observation and therefore is not able to conceive or express thoughts or acts exactly as they are in God, but only as they are in himself.
2. God is a spirit, and therefore has the attributes of personality, freedom, and holiness; and the passage before us is designed to present these in all the reality of their action, and thereby to distinguish the freedom of the eternal mind from the fatalism of inert matter.
3. These statements represent real processes of the Divine Spirit, analogous at least to those of the human.
4. To verify this representation, it is not necessary that we should be able to understand for ourselves in all its practical detail that sublime harmony which exists between the liberty and the immutability of God. That change of state which is essential to will, liberty, and activity, may be, for all we know, and from what we know must be, in profound unison with the eternity of the divine purpose.

Genesis 6:7 declares: I will wipe away man from the face of the soil.— The decision is made to sweep away the existing human race. Previously, individuals had departed this life. Adam himself had long since paid the debt of nature. These solemn testimonies to the universal doom had not made any beneficial or lasting impression on the survivors. But now a general and violent destruction is to overtake the entire race—a standing monument of divine wrath against sin to all future generations of the only family saved.

From man to cattle, creeper and fowl of the sky.— These classes of living creatures, being intermingled with humanity, are involved in the same ruin with him. This is consistent with the curse laid upon the serpent, which was the unconscious instrument of the tempter. It is an instance of a law which runs through the whole course of nature, as we observe that it is the method of divine government to allow for a time the suffering inflicted on an inferior animal, or even on a fellow creature, by selfish passion. It has an appearance to some minds of harshness and unfairness.

But we must remember that these living creatures are not moral, and, therefore, the violent termination of their organic life is not a punishment; that the pain incidental to this, being apart from guilt, is in itself a beneficial provision for the preservation of life; and that it was not intended that the life of animals should be perpetual. The return of the land to a state of desolation by the destruction of animal and vegetable life, however, has its lesson for humanity, for whom ultimately all of this beauty and fertility were designed, and from whom it is now withdrawn, along with all the glories it foreshadows, as part of the punishment of his guilt. The tenant has become unworthy of the tabernacle, and accordingly he is dispossessed, and it is taken down and removed.

Genesis 6:8 states: And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.— Noah and his family are the only exceptions to this sweeping destruction. Until now, we have encountered distant and indirect intimations of divine favor, and significant deeds of regard and acceptance. Now for the first time, grace itself finds a voice to express its name.

Grace has its source in the divine heart. The stream has been flowing forth to Adam, Eve, Abel, Enoch, and others, we hope, unknown to fame. By the time it reaches Noah, it has found a name by which it is recognized among people to this day.

It is opposed to works as a source of blessing. Where grace comes, merit cannot be. Hence, we learn even from the case of Noah that original sin asserts its presence in the whole race of Adam.

This completes the circle of saving doctrine concerning God that originates from antediluvian times. He intimates that the seed of the woman, an individual pre-eminently so called, will bruise the serpent’s head. He clothes our first parents with coats of skin—a pledge and an emblem of the better, the moral clothing of the soul. He regards Abel and his offering. He accepts him who in faith does well. He translates Enoch, who walked with Him.

His Spirit, we learn, has been striving with antediluvian humanity. Here are the Spirit of God and the seed of the woman. Here are clothing, regarding, accepting, translating. Here, then, is salvation provided and applied—begun, continued, and completed. And last, though not least, grace comes into view, the eternal source of the whole.

On humanity's part, also, we have repenting, believing, confessing, offering, calling on the name of the Lord, and walking with God.

The two parts of the document that has now concluded are as distinct from each other as it is from the following one. They combine, in fact, to form the necessary preliminary to the fourth document. The genealogy brings us to the leading agent in the following narrative; the description of the corruption of the human race provides the reason for his actions. The third is therefore the prologue, as the fifth is the epilogue, to the fourth document, in which the main action lies.

• דור dôr “age, time from birth to death,” applied either to an individual or the whole contemporary race, running parallel with some leading individual. Hence, the “race” or “generation” living during that time.

• תבה tēbâh “chest, ark.” It is used only of this vessel of Noah’s construction, and of the little vessel in which Moses was put (Exodus 2:3), (Exodus 2:5). The root, according to Furst, means “to be hollow.” אבה 'ēbeh a cognate word, signifies “a reed;” κιβωτός kibōtos Septuagint. גפר goper hapax legomenon, perhaps “fir, cypress, resinous wood.” קן qēn “nest, room; related: prepare, rear up.”

• צהר tsohar “shining, light;” not the same as the חלון chalôn (Genesis 8:6), or the aperture through which Noah let out the raven.

• ברית bᵉrîyt “covenant; related: cut, eat, choose, decide.”

The close of the preceding document introduces the opening topic of this one. The same rule applies to all that have gone before. The generations of the skies and the land (Genesis 2:4) are introduced by the finishing of the skies and the land (Genesis 2:1); the generations of man in the line of Sheth (Genesis 5:1), by the birth of Sheth (Genesis 4:25); and now the generations of Noah, by the notice that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The narrative here also, as usual, reverts to a point of time before the stage of affairs described in the close of the preceding passage. Yet there is nothing here that seems to indicate a new author.

The previous paragraph is historical, and closely connected with the end of the fourth chapter; and it suitably prepares for the proceedings of Noah, under the divine direction, on the eve of the deluge. We have now a recapitulation of the agent and the occasion, and then the divine commission and its execution.

(Genesis 6:9–12)

Here are the man and the occasion.

(Genesis 6:9–10)

The generations of Noah. - In the third document we had the generations of man; now we are limited to Noah, because he is himself at peace with God, and is now the head and representative of those who are in the same blessed relation. The narrative, therefore, for the first time, formally confines itself to the portion of the human family in communion with God. Noah is here characterized by two new and important epithets - “just” and “perfect.” It is to be remembered that he had already found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Adam was created good; but by disobedience he became guilty, and all his race, Noah among the rest, became involved in that guilt. To be just is to be right in point of law, and thereby entitled to all the blessings of the acquitted and justified.

When applied to the guilty, this epithet implies pardon of sin among other benefits of grace. It also presupposes that spiritual change by which the soul returns from estrangement to reconciliation with God.

Hence, Noah is not only just, but perfect. This attribute of character signifies not only the turning from darkness to light, from error to truth, from wrong to right, but the stability of moral determination which arises from the struggle, the trial, the victory of good over evil, involved in it. The just is the right in law; the perfect is the tested in holiness.

“In his ages;” among the men of his age. This phrase indicates the contrast between Noah and the men of his day. It is probable, moreover, that he was of pure descent, and in that respect also distinguished from his contemporaries who were the offspring of promiscuous intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly.

“Noah walked with God,” like Henok. This is the natural consequence of his victory over sin, and his acceptance with God.

His sons are mentioned, as they are essentially connected with the following events.

(Genesis 6:11–12)

And the land was corrupt. - In contrast with Noah, the rest of the race were corrupt - entirely depraved by sin. It was filled with violence - with the outward exhibition of inward carnality. “And God saw this.” It was evident to Heaven. This is the ground of the following commission.

(Genesis 6:13–21)

The directions concerning the ark embrace the purpose to destroy the race of man (Genesis 6:13), the plan and specification of the ark (Genesis 6:14–16), the announcement of the deluge (Genesis 6:17), the arrangements for the preservation of Noah and his family, and certain kinds of animals (Genesis 6:18–21).

(Genesis 6:13)

The end of all flesh. - The end may mean either the point to which it tends, or the extermination of the race. The latter is the simpler. All flesh is to be understood of the whole race, although it does not preclude the exception of Noah and his family. This teaches us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all, when used in the sense of ordinary conversation. Is come before me, is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized. For the land is filled with violence. The reason. I will destroy them. The resolve. There is retribution here, for the words “corrupt” and “destroy” are the same in the original.

(Genesis 6:14–16)

The ark. - Reckoning the cubit at 1.8 feet, we find the length to be about 540, the breadth 90, and the height 54 feet. The construction of such a vessel implies great skill in carpentry. The lighting apparatus is not described so particularly that we can form any conception of it. It was probably in the roof. The roof may have been flat. And to a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The cubit is possibly the height of the parapet round the lighting and ventilating aperture.

The opening occupied, it may be, a considerable portion of the roof, and was covered during the rain with an awning מכסה mı̂ksēh — (Genesis 8:13). If, however, it was in the sides of the ark, the cubit was merely its height. It was then finished with a strong railing, which went round the whole ark, and over which the covering, mentioned above, hung down on every side. The door was in the side, and the stories were three.

In each were of course many “nests” or chambers, for animals and stores. It may be curious to a mechanical mind to frame the details of this structure from the general hints here given; but it would not serve any practical purpose. Only the animals necessary to man, or unusual to the region covered by the deluge, required to be included in the ark.

It seems likely that wild animals in general were not included. It is obvious, therefore, that we cannot calculate the number of animals preserved in the ark, or compare the space they would require with its recorded dimensions. We may rest assured that there was accommodation for all that needed to be there.

(Genesis 6:17)

The method of destruction is now specified. A water flood shall cover the land, in which all flesh shall perish. I, behold, I. This catastrophe is due to the interposition of the Creator. It does not come according to the ordinary laws of physics, but according to the higher law of ethics.

(Genesis 6:18–21)

The covenant with Noah. Here is the first appearance of a covenant between God and man in Scripture. A covenant is a solemn compact, tacit or express, between two parties, in which each is bound to perform his part. Hence, a covenant implies the moral faculty; and wherever the moral faculty exists, there must necessarily be a covenant. Consequently, between God and man there was of necessity a covenant from the very beginning, though the name does not appear.

At first it was a covenant of works, in regard to man; but now that works have failed, it can only be a covenant of grace to the penitent sinner.

My covenant. The word “my” points to its original establishment with Adam: My primeval covenant, which I am resolved not to abandon. Will I establish. Though Adam has failed, yet I will find means of maintaining my covenant of life with the seed of the woman. With thee. Though all flesh is to perish through breach of my covenant, yet I will uphold it with you.

Go into the ark. This is the means of safety. Some may say in their hearts, this is a clumsy way to save Noah.

But if he is to be saved, there must be some way. And it is not a sign of wisdom to prescribe the way to the All-wise. Rather let us reflect that the erection of this ark was a daily warning to a wicked race, a deepening lesson of reliance on God to Noah and his household, and a most salutary occupation for the progenitors of the future race of mankind. And thy sons, etc. Noah’s household share in the covenant.

(Genesis 6:19–20)

And of all the living. - For the sake of Noah, the animal species also shall be preserved, two of each, male and female. They are to come in pairs for propagation. The fowl, the cattle, the creeping thing or smaller animals, are to come. From this it appears that the wild animals are not included among the inmates of the ark. (See Genesis 7:2-3, Genesis 7:8.)

The word “all” is not to be pressed beyond the specification of the writer. As the deluge was universal only in respect to the human race, it was not necessary to include any animals but those that were near man, and within the range of the overwhelming waters. Fodder and other provisions for a year have to be stored.

(Genesis 6:22)

The obedience of Noah and the accomplishment of his task are here recorded. The building of so enormous a structure must have occupied many years.