Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 6:1-8

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah." — Genesis 6:1-8 (ASV)

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.