Genesis 6

Genesis 6 is the chapter where the world the first chapters built unravels. The cracks introduced in Genesis 3 — sin, alienation, the curse on the ground — have multiplied through five generations into something the text describes in stark terms: “And God 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.” The chapter narrates the divine response and the small line of preservation through which the world will be saved.

It opens with one of the most cryptic passages in the Hebrew Bible. “When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים bene ha-elohim Hebrew 'sons of God.' The phrase is interpretively contested across the Christian, Jewish, and Latter-day Saint traditions — see the LangNotes section below for the three principal readings. The same phrase recurs in Job 1:6 and 2:1 (where it clearly refers to angelic beings) and in Job 38:7 (where the morning stars and the sons of God sing together at creation). saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” The result, the text says, is the Nephilim נְפִילִים nephilim Hebrew 'Nephilim' — from the root naphal (to fall); often translated 'giants.' The Septuagint renders it gigantes. The same word recurs in Numbers 13:33 in the spies' report from Canaan. — “mighty men which were of old, men of renown” — and the heightened corruption that follows. The four verses are dense, allusive, and have been read three quite different ways across two thousand years of interpretation (see the notes below).

Whatever the precise nature of the corruption, the chapter is unambiguous about its scale. “Every imagination of the thoughts of [the human] heart was only evil continually.” The earth is “filled with violence חָמָס chamas Hebrew 'violence, lawlessness, ruthless aggression.' The word names not merely physical violence but a systemic moral disorder — outrage against right. It is the dominant pre-flood sin in 6:11, 13. ” — the Hebrew chamas, naming not merely physical brutality but a systemic disorder, an offense against right. The chapter places the divine response in language as anthropomorphic as anywhere in the Old Testament: God “repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” Whatever theological care is required around the language of divine repentance, the text does not soften the picture. God is heartbroken.

Against this dark canvas one figure stands out: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” The Hebrew word for grace (chen) is the same word later used of God’s favor on Moses (Exodus 33:17↗) and a network of other figures across the Old Testament; it names unmerited favor, and the text is deliberate in placing it just here. Noah is then named in the same iterative-walking formula that Enoch carries in chapter 5: “Noah was a just man… and Noah walked with God.” The link is no accident. The chapter’s two patriarchs who walk with God — Enoch and Noah — bracket the world’s deepest fall: Enoch translated out of it, Noah preserved through it.

The chapter then turns practical. God gives Noah the dimensions of the ark תֵּבָה tevah Hebrew 'ark.' The Hebrew word occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible — here for Noah's ark and in Exodus 2 for the basket carrying the infant Moses on the Nile. Both are vessels of salvation through water; the verbal echo links the two narratives. : roughly 450 feet long, 75 wide, 45 high (300 by 50 by 30 cubits) — a barge-like wooden vessel, three stories tall, with a single door. The instructions are detailed but not narrative; the chapter does not yet narrate the building. It is enough that the work is begun. The waterproofing material is pitch כֹּפֶר kopher Hebrew 'pitch' — the bituminous material used to waterproof the ark. The Hebrew shares a root with kippur (כִּפֻּר, 'atonement') — both come from the verbal kaphar (to cover, to expiate). The pitch that 'covers' the ark and the atonement that 'covers' sin share a Hebrew family. , kopher — a word that shares its root with kippur, atonement: the same Hebrew family covers both “pitch on the wood” and the cover over sin.

And the chapter ends with the word that will govern the next several chapters: “But with thee will I establish my covenant בְּרִית berith Hebrew 'covenant' — the structural term in Hebrew Bible theology. Genesis 6:18 is the first appearance of berith in Genesis; the Noahic covenant will be formally established in 9:8-17, and through the rest of Scripture the word will name God's covenants with Abraham, Israel, David, and the new covenant in Christ. .” This is the first occurrence of berith in Genesis. The formal Noahic covenant is still three chapters away, but the word stands here as anchor. The world is about to be unmade, but covenant has been promised. God’s relation to humanity is not finished.

The Latter-day Saint canon brings the chapter into a fuller frame in Moses 8↗. Noah is not silent in the LDS account; he preaches repentance to his generation — “Believe, and repent of your sins, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Moses 8:24↗) — and the people answer him with mockery and rejection, much as the prophets in Lehi’s Jerusalem will answer Lehi (cf. 1 Nephi 1:18–20↗). Noah’s righteousness in the LDS reading is not silence in the corner; it is the long, faithful labor of a prophet whose message his generation refused.