Genesis 6:5–7 stands among the most sobering passages in the Bible. Before the narrative of the flood unfolds, Scripture presents a divine assessment of humanity that is as penetrating as it is devastating: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5, ESV). The passage proceeds to tell us that “the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6, ESV), followed by the divine declaration of judgment: “So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land’” (Genesis 6:7, ESV).
These three verses compress an entire Biblical anthropology and theology of sin into a compact unit. They address the nature of humanity after the Fall, the reality of God’s holy sorrow over sin, and the justice of divine judgment that follows when human wickedness reaches a catastrophic fullness. They also set the stage for the Gospel, for it is within the stark darkness of Genesis 6 that divine mercy shines, not because humanity improves itself, but because God preserves a remnant through Noah and proceeds in covenantal grace. As the next verse adds, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8, ESV). In what follows, we will first situate Genesis 6:5–7 within its literary and canonical context, then offer an exegetical analysis with attention to key Hebrew terms, and finally explore the theological implications for a Biblical understanding of human nature, divine grief, judgment, and mercy.
Literary and Canonical Context
The flood narrative does not emerge in isolation. It is the fruit of a narrative arc that begins with creation, descends into rebellion, and unfolds through the multiplication of sin. In Genesis 1 God repeatedly “saw” that creation was good, culminating in the climactic declaration, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, ESV). The language of divine sight returns in Genesis 6:5, but the assessment could not be more different. Where God once saw goodness and harmonious order, He now sees wickedness and disorder. The contrast is intentional. Genesis 6:5–7 functions as a moral antiphon to Genesis 1:31. The world that God originally called “very good” has, through human sin, become a theater of moral chaos.
Between creation and flood, Genesis narrates the Fall in Genesis 3 and the first murder in Genesis 4, followed by an intensifying pattern of violence and corruption. The genealogies in Genesis 5 emphasize the transmission of life through begetting. Yet, each life terminates with the refrain “and he died,” reminding us that sin has introduced death into the human story. Genesis 6:1–4 presents troubling signs of boundary transgression, whether one interprets the “sons of God” as angelic beings or as tyrannical rulers. Whatever the precise identity of the actors, the point is clear. The world has become permeated by hubris and corruption. Within this mounting crisis, Genesis 6:5–7 delivers God’s verdict and intention with an economy of words and a profundity of meaning.
Exegesis of Genesis 6:5–7
Genesis 6:5: The Extent and Depth of Human Wickedness
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (ESV).
Several features of this verse demand close attention. First, the verb “saw” reintroduces the motif of divine evaluation. God does not guess, speculate, or infer. God sees. Divine assessment is neither rash nor superficial. It is comprehensive and true. The content of what God sees is summarized with the phrase “the wickedness of man was great in the earth.”
The Hebrew behind “wickedness” is רָעָה (raʿah) in its construct form רַעַת, indicating the wickedness that belongs to, or characterizes, “man” (hā’ādām). The adjective “great” is רַבָּה (rabbāh), signifying not only intensity but abundance. Wickedness has become prolific. The land teems with moral disorder. The phrase “in the earth” (בָּאָרֶץ, bāʾāretz) recalls the creation mandate given to humanity to fill the earth with image-bearing goodness (Genesis 1:28). Instead of an earth filled with righteousness, God sees an earth saturated with evil.
The next clause intensifies the assessment by piling up terms of universality and inwardness: “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The phrase “every intention” renders וְכָל־יֵצֶר (weḵol-yēṣer). The noun יֵצֶר (yēṣer) refers to the inclination, frame, or shaping of something. It is the internal bent of the person, the underlying disposition that generates plans and purposes. This term appears again after the flood when God acknowledges the ongoing reality of sin: “for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21, ESV). The term translated “thoughts” is מַחְשְׁבֹת (maḥšĕḇōt), plans or devices, often used of the mind’s designs. The center of this activity is “his heart” (לִבּוֹ, libbō). In Hebrew anthropology the heart is not merely the seat of emotions. It is the center of cognition, volition, and affection. To speak of the heart is to speak of the whole person in his internal orientation and deliberate commitments.
The text emphasizes totality with three universalizing terms. First is “every” (כָּל, kol). Second is “only” (רַק, raq). Third is “continually” (כָּל־הַיּוֹם, kol-hayyōm), literally “all the day.” The syntax resembles a triple universal. Every inclination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil all the time. The point is not that every human action is as wicked as it could possibly be in every moment. It is instead that the controlling bent of human nature, apart from grace, tilts away from God. The directionality of the heart is consistently and pervasively toward evil. This is an early Biblical articulation of what later theology will describe as total depravity, not meaning that humans are as bad as possible at all times. Still, that sin has invaded every faculty and dimension of human existence. No sphere remains untainted. Thought, intention, and desire are infected.
This diagnosis is entirely consistent with the broader canonical witness. Jeremiah writes, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV). The Psalmist laments, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt” (Psalm 14:2–3, ESV), a text that Paul cites in his sweeping indictment of Jew and Gentile alike in Romans 3:9–18. Paul later summarizes humanity’s plight with the theological exposition, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, ESV). Genesis 6:5 provides the narrative ground-level view of this reality. Humanity in aggregate has become morally disordered at the deepest motivational level.
Genesis 6:6: Divine Regret and Grief
“And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (ESV).
If verse 5 penetrates the human heart, verse 6 opens a window into the heart of God. Two verbs communicate the divine response to human wickedness. The first is “regretted,” translating the Niphal form of נָחַם (nāḥam), וַיִּנָּחֶם (wayyinnāḥem). The semantic range of nāḥam includes regret, relent, and be moved to pity. It can also carry the sense of change in course relative to a stated action or impending judgment. The second verb is וַיִּתְעַצֵּב (wayyitʿaṣṣēb), from the root עָצַב (ʿāṣab), meaning to be pained or grieved. The text adds the intimate prepositional phrase “to his heart” (אֶל־לִבּוֹ, ʾel-libbō). God’s response is not detached. It is deeply personal.
How should we understand language of divine regret and grief in light of God’s omniscience and immutability that Scripture elsewhere affirms, for example, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19, ESV), and, “the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret” (1 Samuel 15:29, ESV). The same chapter in 1 Samuel also says, “And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:35, ESV). The Biblical writers are not contradicting themselves. Instead, they are speaking of God truly in terms of different aspects of His relation to the world.
When Scripture says that God “regretted,” it is not claiming that God was surprised by human sin or that He failed to foresee the outcome of His creative act. Genesis has already shown that God knows the end from the beginning. The language of regret communicates God’s real moral and relational opposition to sin and His consistent resolve to act against it. It is perfectly consistent for God to decree history from eternity and also to engage within history in a way that is congruent with His holy character, expressing real displeasure toward what is contrary to His goodness. The wording is anthropopathic, meaning it attributes to God emotive language fitting to His covenantal dealings with creatures. It communicates that God is not indifferent to evil. He is not a distant spectator. Human sin grieves God. This is not a weakness in God. It is the necessary corollary of His goodness. Holiness loves what is good, and therefore holiness hates what destroys the good.
The phrase “it grieved him to his heart” underscores the depth of this reality. God’s heart, in Biblical idiom, speaks of His inner disposition and covenantal resolve. When the text says that God was grieved “to his heart,” it tells us that divine grief is not superficial. It is real and profound. Genesis 6:6 guards us against two opposite errors. On one side is the idea that God is capricious, manipulated by events. On the other hand, the idea is that God is impassive, meaning indifferent. Scripture rejects both caricatures. God is unwavering in His character and purposes, and precisely because He is unwaveringly good, He is moved in holy grief by human wickedness.
Genesis 6:7: The Justice of Divine Judgment
“So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (ESV).
The verb translated “blot out” is אֶמְחֶה (ʾemḥeh), from מָחָה (māḥāh), meaning to wipe away or erase. The imagery evokes the removal of writing from a tablet or the wiping of a dish, a thorough and decisive act. The judgment is comprehensive in scope, affecting “man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens.” The breadth recalls the interwoven nature of creation. Human sin devastates not only human communities but the wider creation over which humanity was given stewardship. When the head of creation rebels, the creation itself suffers. Paul captures this groaning of creation later in Romans 8:19–22.
The phrase “from the face of the land” (מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, mēʿal pĕnê hāʾădāmāh) introduces a profound wordplay. Humanity is ʾādām, made from the ʾădāmāh. The very ground that received human commission will become the stage of human removal. What we see in the flood judgment is a decreative act that answers the disorder introduced by sin. In creation, God separated the waters and brought life-giving order. In the flood, God permits the waters to overwhelm again, undoing creaturely life, not as a capricious act, but as a judicial act aimed at purging radical corruption.
The declaration closes with a reiteration of divine sorrow, “for I am sorry that I have made them.” When read with verse 6, this repetition underscores that the judgment arises not from cruelty but from holy grief. God’s justice is not a denial of His compassion. It is the expression of His goodness within a world that has enthroned violence and rebellion.
Key Hebrew Terms and Their Theological Weight
To deepen the exegesis, it is fruitful to gather the central Hebrew terms that structure the passage and to reflect on their theological significance.
רַבָּה (rabbāh), “great”: This term describes the magnitude of human wickedness. It is a word often used for multiplication or growth. The irony is that what was meant to multiply for blessing, namely the image-bearing human family, has instead multiplied wickedness.
יֵצֶר (yēṣer), “intention, inclination”: This word captures the formative tendency of the heart. The issue in Genesis 6:5 is not a series of isolated acts, but a corrupted inner frame. Later, Genesis 8:21 confirms that the yēṣer problem persists after the flood. Salvation must therefore address the inner person.
מַחְשְׁבוֹת (maḥšĕḇōt), “thoughts, plans”: Sin is rational as well as sensual. It involves the mind’s designs. There is deliberation in evil, not simply impulse. This anticipates the New Testament emphasis on the renewal of the mind in Christ.
לֵב (lēb), “heart”: The heart in Scripture is the control center of human existence. Genesis 6:5 reminds us that sin is not superficial. It corrupts the very wellspring of life.
רַק (raq), “only” and כָּל־הַיּוֹם (kol-hayyōm), “continually”: These universal quantifiers communicate the pervasiveness and habituality of sin. They do not deny the presence of common grace or the possibility of natural affection, but they insist that without grace the gravitational pull of the heart is persistently away from God.
נָחַם (nāḥam), “regret, relent”: When used of God, the term communicates a shift in God’s relational stance toward humanity in history, never a change in God’s eternal character. It preserves the truth that God is personally engaged with His world.
עָצַב (ʿāṣab), “grieve”: This verb gives moral shape to divine reaction. God’s grief is the counterpart to His love. Because He loves His good creation and His image bearers, their sin grieves Him.
מָחָה (māḥāh), “blot out”: The verb signifies an act of judgment that removes corruption. In the larger canonical sweep, this verb also appears in contexts of forgiveness, where sin itself is blotted out. Thus God can blot out sinners in judgment, or blot out sins in mercy. The Gospel will show how these meet in the cross of Christ.
These terms, taken together, form a theological grammar of sin and judgment that is foundational for the rest of Scripture.
The Nature of Humanity According to Genesis 6:5–7
Genesis 6:5–7 articulates a number of truths about the nature of humanity.
First, humanity is a moral agent whose inner life drives outward behavior. The text focuses on intention, thought, and heart. Human beings do not merely stumble into evil. They conceive it in the inner person. Jesus will later echo this diagnosis, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19, ESV). The alignment between Genesis and Jesus is striking. The Bible does not flatter human nature.
Second, human depravity is pervasive. The chain of terms “every,” “only,” and “continually” indicates that sin infiltrates the whole person and the whole of life. This does not obliterate the image of God or the potential for civil good under God’s common grace, but it does mean that spiritual disposition without grace is turned against God. Paul states the matter unsparingly: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” (Ephesians 2:1–2, ESV). Death here is moral and spiritual. It is separation from God and bondage to sin.
Third, human wickedness has social and cosmic ramifications. Genesis 6 describes a world filled with violence and corruption. Sin disintegrates communities and desecrates creation. The flood narrative is a global judgment precisely because the corruption is comprehensive. This anticipates the New Testament’s cosmic Christology, in which redemption reconciles all things to God through the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:20).
Fourth, the passage prepares us for the necessity of regeneration. If the heart is corrupt at the level of its yēṣer, then external constraint cannot heal the disease. Divine grace must give a new heart. Later prophets promise exactly this. God says through Ezekiel, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26, ESV). The Gospel announces the fulfillment of that promise in union with Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Divine Sorrow and the Goodness of God
Verse 6 speaks of God’s regret and grief. For some readers, such language raises philosophical questions. Yet to sidestep the text is to miss a profound revelation. The God of the Bible is the living God who loves righteousness and justice. Because He loves, He grieves when what He loves is destroyed by sin. Because He is holy, He must oppose evil. Divine grief is not a confession of impotence. It is the manifestation of moral perfection engaging a fallen world. When Genesis says God was grieved “to his heart,” it informs Christian worship and prayer. We approach a God who is infinitely perfect and, precisely because of that, is not indifferent to human sufferings and rebellions. This reality underlies the pathos of the prophets and culminates in Christ, who weeps over Jerusalem and whose obedience unto death is the supreme revelation of divine love in history.
Judgment as the Strange Work of Love
It is sometimes said that judgment is God’s strange work. While the phrase is extra-Biblical in this form, the truth it conveys is Biblical. God’s proper work is to bless and to give life. Yet because God is good, He must judge evil. Genesis 6:7 articulates this necessity without apology. God will blot out. The flood is not divine petulance but holy adjudication. That the judgment takes the form of decreation shows that sin is anti-creation. When human beings sever themselves from God, the source of life and order, the fabric of creation unravels.
At the same time, the narrative refuses to end with judgment alone. Genesis 6:8 interrupts with mercy: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (ESV). The Hebrew word for “favor” is חֵן (ḥēn), often rendered “grace.” The ESV preserves the relational dynamic by translating “favor,” yet the theological concept is the same. Noah is not the architect of his own salvation. He receives favor. He is preserved by grace in the midst of judgment. The arc of Scripture will move continually along this line. Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20, ESV). The flood, therefore, functions both as a warning and as a pointer to a greater salvation.
Noah as Type and the Ark as Prelude to Christ
Noah appears in Genesis 6:9 as “a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (ESV). The language of walking with God echoes the intimacy of Enoch in Genesis 5:22–24. Hebrews 11:7 reflects on Noah’s faith, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household” (ESV). Faith hears, trusts, and obeys. Noah’s righteousness is not sinless perfection. It is covenantal fidelity characterized by trust in God’s word and obedience to His command.
The New Testament reads the flood typologically. Peter writes of those “who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared” (1 Peter 3:20, ESV), and then adds, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21, ESV). The waters that judge the world carry Noah to a new creation. In Christ, judgment and salvation meet at the cross, where sin is condemned in His flesh and sinners are carried through judgment into life. Christ is the true Ark. To enter into Him by faith is to be secured from the wrath to come and to be planted in a renewed world.
The Rainbow and the Covenant of Preservation
After the flood, God places His bow in the cloud and declares, “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13, ESV). God continues, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature” (Genesis 9:16, ESV). The imagery is rich. The bow is the weapon hung up. The covenant is universal in scope, a commitment to preserve the world’s stability as the theater for God’s redemptive purpose culminating in Christ. The covenant of preservation is not salvation itself. It is the stage upon which salvation unfolds through Abraham, Israel, David, and the New Covenant in Christ. The rainbow, therefore, does not deny human depravity. Rather, it acknowledges it, and promises that God will sustain a world in which grace can triumph without another universal deluge. The Gospel will address the yēṣer of the heart not by water that washes the earth, but by the blood of Christ that cleanses the conscience.
Biblical Anthropology: Sin, Image, and Need for Renewal
Genesis 6:5–7 must be read in light of the doctrine of the image of God in Genesis 1:26–27. Humanity retains dignity as the image bearer even after the Fall. This is confirmed explicitly in Genesis 9:6, where the prohibition against murder is grounded in the imago Dei. The doctrine of total depravity does not nullify the image. Instead, it describes the corruption of the image’s exercise. Human rationality, creativity, relationality, and dominion remain, but they are bent away from God. The heart’s yēṣer perverts good capacities toward evil ends.
Consequently, the remedy must reach into the heart. The prophets articulate this in the form of a promise. Jeremiah speaks of a New Covenant in which God will write His law on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33). Ezekiel promises a new heart and a new spirit, and the indwelling Spirit of God who enables obedience (Ezekiel 36:26–27). The Gospel fulfills these promises as Christ dies and rises to secure forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit. Paul captures the transformation in terms of new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). The pervasiveness of sin in Genesis 6 is matched and overcome by the pervasiveness of grace in Christ. This is not to minimize the seriousness of sin, but to magnify the power of salvation.
The Days of Noah and the Call to Watchfulness
Jesus employs the days of Noah as a paradigm of the last days. “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37, ESV). He describes ordinary life continuing as usual until the flood came and swept them all away. The point is not that ordinary life is sinful. The point is that indifference to God’s warning is suicidal. The heart that dismisses God’s word is already under judgment because it prefers autonomy over worship. Genesis 6:5–7 teaches us to take the state of the heart seriously. Jesus calls His disciples to watchfulness, repentance, and faith. The ark stands open in the Gospel. Christ invites all to enter by faith, to cast themselves upon His mercy, and to walk with God as Noah did, not in sinless perfection, but in persevering trust.
Pastoral and Ecclesial Implications
For the Church, Genesis 6:5–7 provides both diagnosis and mission. The diagnosis is that, apart from grace, human nature is radically inclined to evil. Therefore, no mere technique of cultural improvement can heal the world’s deepest wounds. Education, technology, and policy have their place in God’s common grace, but they cannot regenerate the heart. The Church must never confuse the fruit of the Gospel with the root. The mission is to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who alone can cleanse the conscience and renew the heart by the Spirit. The Church is called to live as a community that embodies the reversal of Genesis 6:5. Where Genesis speaks of intentions bent toward evil, the Church is to be a people whose minds are renewed by the word, whose hearts are circumcised by the Spirit, and whose lives show the fruit of righteousness.
For pastors and teachers, the lexical and theological details of Genesis 6:5–7 offer rich material for preaching and discipleship. One might, for instance, help congregations understand the Hebrew yēṣer as the heart’s frame, thus inviting believers to pray for the Spirit to reshape their inner inclinations. One might teach that God’s grief is not a sign of His fragility but a sign of His holiness. One might emphasize that judgment is real and must be proclaimed with sober love, always pointing to the Ark who is Christ. In practical terms, this passage calls for practices of confession, accountability, and repentance within the fellowship of the Church. Because sin is pervasive, vigilance is necessary. Because grace is greater, hope is unshakable.
Entering the Ark
Genesis 6 invites personal examination. The verse’s triple universal is meant to sweep away self-justification. If every intention of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually, then who can stand before God by merit. The answer is no one. This is why the Gospel is good news. God has made a way in Christ. The proper response to Genesis 6 is not despair but repentance and faith. The Psalmist models the posture: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10, ESV). For those who feel overwhelmed by their own failures, Noah’s story teaches that God provides refuge. The Ark is open. Christ receives sinners. For those who live in a season of calm, the rainbow’s covenant summons to gratitude and faithfulness, not complacency. The God who preserves the world is moving history toward the consummation in Christ. The call is to persevere in obedience, to build what God commands, and to trust Him in what we do not yet see.
Addressing a Common Misunderstanding
Some readers stumble over the severity of the flood judgment. They ask how divine goodness can coexist with such a comprehensive judgment. Genesis 6:5–7 answers by presenting the moral logic of judgment. Judgment is not the denial of love. It is love’s response to what destroys the beloved. If a surgeon removes a malignant tumor, it is an act of love, not cruelty. Likewise, when God confronts a world that is saturated with violence and wickedness, His judgment is the necessary purification of a creation intended for blessing. The flood is severe because sin is severe. That God preserves Noah and his family shows that judgment is never God’s final word for those who trust Him. The ultimate resolution appears at the cross, where judgment falls on Christ so that mercy might fall on sinners. In Christ, God’s justice and mercy embrace without contradiction.
The Continuity of the Human Condition
A final observation further illuminates humanity's nature. After the waters subside and Noah offers a sacrifice, God declares, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21, ESV). The diagnosis of the heart remains. The flood has not eradicated sin from human nature. It has purged the earth of a particular generation’s corruption and reset creation under covenantal preservation, but the inner problem persists. This confirms that salvation must be deeper than external cleansing. It must involve substitution, reconciliation, and recreation. The whole arc of Scripture from Abraham to Christ is God’s answer to the abiding problem identified in Genesis 6:5. The Gospel does not ignore the depth of sin. It meets it with a depth of grace that is greater still.
Concluding Exhortation
Genesis 6:5–7 is a mirror that exposes and a window that reveals. As a mirror, it exposes the inclination of the heart, not to shame for shame’s sake, but to compel us to seek God’s mercy. As a window, it reveals the heart of God, grieved by sin, steadfast in holiness, and resolute to judge evil and to preserve a path for redemption. The passage summons us to three responses.
First, cultivate a sober view of the human heart. Resist the cultural liturgy that insists that human beings are essentially good and merely need better conditions to flourish. The Bible acknowledges the value of better conditions but insists that the fundamental problem is the heart’s yēṣer. Prayer, Scripture, and the fellowship of the Church are means God uses to reshape our inclinations by the Spirit.
Second, embrace the Ark who is Christ. Enter by faith. Rest in His righteousness. Walk with God in obedience. Noah’s obedience was the outflow of faith. So too for believers. True faith works through love. True hope perseveres in the face of scoffing and delay. The promise is sure, for the One who promised is faithful.
Third, live as a sign of the rainbow covenant. In a world that still groans under sin, embody gratitude, patience, and witness. Tell the world that judgment is real and that mercy is available. Proclaim the Gospel with clarity and compassion. Build communities of righteousness and peace that, by the Spirit, foreshadow the new creation.
In the end, the terror of Genesis 6:5–7 cannot be separated from its hope. The God who sees wickedness also sees the righteous by faith. The God who grieves over sin also gives grace. The God who announces judgment also provides refuge. This is the heart of the Biblical narrative. It is the foundation for a Christian anthropology that tells the truth about human nature and the even greater truth about divine mercy. Therefore, let every reader take to heart the divine assessment and let every reader hear the divine invitation. The Ark stands open in Christ. Enter, and live.
Selected ESV Texts Cited
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5, ESV).
“And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6, ESV).
“So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land’” (Genesis 6:7, ESV).
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8, ESV).
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, ESV).
“I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13, ESV).
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).
“They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt” (Psalm 14:3, ESV; cf. Romans 3:10–12, ESV).
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12, ESV).
“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark” (Hebrews 11:7, ESV).
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21, ESV).
“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20, ESV).
May the Church hear in Genesis 6 the truth about the human heart and, hearing, flee to the mercy of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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