Evil Spreads in the World

Genesis 6

When humanity began to multiply on the surface of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives. YHWH said, “My Spirit will not strive with humans forever, because they are flesh; so their days will be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to daughters of men and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

YHWH saw that the wickedness of humanity was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the human heart was continually only evil. YHWH was sorry that ʜᴇ had made man on the earth, and it grieved ʜɪᴍ in ʜɪꜱ heart. YHWH said, “I will destroy humanity whom I have created from the surface of the ground—humans, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in YHWH’s eyes.

Noah, the Ark, and the Flood

This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and indeed it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Watch, I will destroy them and the earth.

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You are to make rooms in the ark and seal it inside and outside with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark is to be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.+6:15 A cubit is about 18 inches, making the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. You are to make a roof in the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top. Set the door of the ark in its side. You are to make it with lower, second, and third levels. I will bring the flood of waters on this earth to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. But I will establish my covenant with you. Come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring two of every sort of every living creature of flesh into the ark, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive. Take with you some of all food that is edible, and gather it together. It will be for food for you and for them.”

Thus Noah did all that God commanded him, indeed he did.