Corruption on the Earth
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God (b’nei ha-Elohim) saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair (beautiful, good, fine); and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive (rule, judge, plead) with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants (Nephilim) (man that is a bully or tyrant) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men (powerful, warrior, tyrant) which [were] of old, men of renown (men of honor, authority, fame).
Who were the ‘sons of God’? Who were these ‘men’ who fathered ‘mighty men…men of renown’. There are three primary views concerning the identity of the sons of God:
1) they were fallen angels
2) they were powerful human rulers
3) they were godly descendants of Seth who intermarried with wicked descendants of Cain
Giving weight to the first theory is the fact that in the Old Testament the phrase sons of God elsewhere refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). A potential problem with this is Matthew 22:30, which indicates that angels do not marry. The Bible gives no reason to believe that angels have a gender or the ability to reproduce. The other two views do not present this problem.
The weakness of views 2 and 3 is that ordinary human males marrying ordinary human females does not account for why the offspring were “giants” or “heroes of old, men of renown.”
As noted, the weakness of view 1 is that Jesus declares that angels “neither marry nor [are] given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30). However, the text does not say that angels cannot marry, only that they do not. Further, marriage is not the same as sexual relations. Jesus’ words do not rule out the possibility that angels could assume physical form and engage in sexual intercourse. Also, Matthew 22:30 refers to “angels in heaven,” not fallen angels, who do not care about God’s created order and who actively seek ways to disrupt God’s plan. The fact that God’s holy angels do not marry does not mean that demons cannot pervert sexuality in this world.
The first view seems to be the best interpretation. Whereas angels are spiritual beings (Hebrews 1:14), they can appear in human, physical form (Mark 16:5). The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with the two angels who were with Lot (Genesis 19:1–5). It is plausible that angels are capable of taking on human form, even to the point of replicating human sexuality. Why do the fallen angels not repeat this sin more often? It seems that God imprisoned the fallen angels who engaged in that particular evil as a warning to others not to do the same (see Jude 1:6).
Early Jewish texts like the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, and writings by Josephus and Philo are unanimous and prominent in identifying the “sons of God” (Hebrew: b’nei ha-Elohim) in Genesis 6 as fallen angels (Watchers) who mated with human women, creating giants (Nephilim), a tradition that explained pre-Flood corruption and evil on Earth, a view echoed in New Testament books like Jude and 2 Peter. Verse 4 tells us that giants were part of the population living on earth even before the ‘sons of God’ mated with humans. So the different species of humanoids living on earth at the time must have been diverse. The Genesis Apocryphon is a significant Dead Sea Scroll fragment (1Qapap) that retells and expands upon stories from the biblical book of Genesis, focusing on figures like Noah, Abraham, and Lamech, adding “secret” or hidden teachings (gnosis) and details not in the canonical text, written around the 2nd century BC as parabiblical literature. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 Enoch 6–7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. This by no means closes the debate; however, the view that Genesis 6:1–4 involves fallen angels mating with human females has a strong contextual, grammatical, and historical basis. https://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-God.html accessed 13 December 2025 13:30
The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, béne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Ge 6:2,4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” (Ge 6:1) suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men.
A symbolic interpretation comes from the words, ‘saw, good, took’ in verse 2. The word ‘tob’ (beautiful, good), in Ge 6:2 connects with a statement in Ge 3:6: “The woman saw (ra’ah רָאָה) tat the tree was good (tob טוֹב).” The couple in the garden fell into judgment because they took (same verb laqah לָקַח) the prerogative that belongs only to God — deciding what is good. Genesis 6:2, therefore, is presented as a re-enactment of the Fall in Genesis 3:6. (saw, good, took). The godly line, who were supposed to walk with God, see the daughters of humankind from the ungodly line and decide for themselves that they are good and they took them for themselves.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness (bad, evil, wretched) of man (was) great in the earth, and (that) every imagination (form, conception) of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
If Lamech and his comments about the killing of others (Genesis 4:23) is to be taken as the norm, it is obvious how corrupt, lawless and evil humans had become.
6 And it repented (be sorry, rue) the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved (worried, pained, angered) Him at His heart.
How bad must they have been that God was sorry He had created man. God must have seen there was no way to redeem man. May God never be sorry that He created me.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Noah’s Favor with God
8 But Noah found grace (favor, pleasant, precious) in the eyes of the LORD.
Even in those evil times God was on the lookout for those who revered and looked to Him.
9 These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just (just, righteous, lawful) man [and] perfect (walked with integrity, truth, and without blemish) in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.
We are told that Noah walked with God. The same words were used to describe Enoch (Gen.5:22). Enoch was taken by God without dying. Noah and his family was saved from a watery death by God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem (celebrated, distinguished, renown), Ham (hot, warm, black, dark, from a tropical habitat), and Japheth (expansion, him that persuades, beauty).
Genesis 10:21 calls Japheth ‘the elder”. It is strange to see him mentioned last in the list of sons. According to Jewish tradition he should be mentioned first. Genesis 9:24 calls Ham the ‘younger son’. So the lineage should read Japheth, Shem, Ham. Jewish scribes maintain that Shem was mentioned first because he was the most outstanding of the three. But it could be that hey just favored Shem as the ancestor of the Semites from whom they are derived.
According to “The Torah, A Woman’s Commentary”, Shem, Ham, and Japheth each represent a general linguistic or ethnic group in existence when the Torah was composed. According to 10:1–26, Shem is ancestor of the Semites to which Israel and the Arab peoples belong. Ham is ancestor of the African peoples and Japheth of the Greeks. Noah will later establish a hierarchy among them (9:24–27). CCAR Press and Women of Reform Judaism, 2008. Select Translation, Editors: Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss
Source: ccarpress.org
11 The earth also was corrupt (perverted, spoiled, ruined) before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Jewish scribes link the word ‘corrupt’ here with the same in Deuteronomy 4:16 where ‘corrupt’ is linked to the ‘making of graven images’. They link idolatry as part of the corruption that had taken over the earth.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
Preparing the Ark
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
The meaning of this verse is: And, behold, I will destroy them and destroy the earth. Ibn Ezra on Genesis 6:13: H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver. Menorah Pub., 1988-2004
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark (Tevah (תֵּבָה) refers to a floating vessel or basket (used for Noah’s Ark and Moses’ cradle)) and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this [is the fashion] which thou shalt make it [of]: The length of the ark [shall be] three hundred cubits (a biblical cubit varied, but generally represented the length from elbow to fingertip), the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; [with] lower, second, and third [stories] shalt thou make it.
Most scholars believe this to be the window through which Noah would later release the raven and the dove.
17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein [is] the breath of life, from under heaven; [and] every thing that [is] in the earth shall die.
In Genesis 1 that the earth was covered with water and out of the water the firmament was created and out of the firmament trees, animals and man were created. From water they came and with the flood God would use water to destroy them and their iniquity.
‘And I, behold, I’ – The emphasis on the 1st person seems to bring out the thought of the terrible necessity of this act of universal destruction brought upon the world by its Creator.
18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
But I will establish means I will keep my oath. However, the covenant alludes to the covenant that would be made at the time God set the rainbow in the sky.(Genesis 9:14)
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every [sort] shall come unto thee, to keep [them] alive.
21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather [it] to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.