Genesis 6:6 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

NIV: The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

NASB: So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

CSB: the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

NLT: So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.

KJV: And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

NKJV: And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

The Bible rarely speaks of God experiencing "regret." The Hebrew word used here is yin'nā'hem, from the root word nacham. The word is exclusively about emotions: a feeling of pain, sadness, or unhappiness. The word does not imply that God feels He has made a mistake, or that He wishes to have done differently. It is possible to experience grief and "regret," as used here, without implying an error. Any parent who has held a crying, upset child as they receive a shot has experienced exactly that. Such a parent is "grieved" over the pain, but has no illusions that this was the wrong decision.

However, this verse does mean God is unhappy with the current state of man. This is a low point in the history of humanity. God is troubled. He is "grieved," or "pained," by the outcome of His act of creation. The men and women, however, do not grieve their own sin. They do not repent. God's grief stands in great contrast to that of His creatures, who blindly continue to indulge in every sinful thought, action, and word that begins in their hearts and minds.

Left alone, the evil of man will eventually overtake the entire race, and there will be no godly people left. There will be no line to produce the already-promised Messiah (Genesis 3:15). God will not let the earth go on like this indefinitely.

Genesis 6:1–8 introduces us to two mysterious groups: the ''sons of God'' and the Nephilim. Provoked by the wickedness of humanity and, perhaps, by the power of these two groups, God declares that He will reduce human lifespans to 120 years. Alternatively, this same remark might refer to God's plan to wipe out all of humanity in 120 years. In either case, this prediction is fulfilled. God will exercise His authority as Creator and execute justice by ending the world as it was. Human civilization will be forced to start again, through one man: Noah.

God sees. In the first chapter of Genesis, God saw that all He had made was good. Now, many generations after sin entered the world, God sees that all man has made is wickedness and evil. Human beings have used their power for violence and destruction. God declares His plan to wipe out all land-dwelling life on the face of the earth. He will however, preserve humanity and animal life for a new beginning through the one righteous man, Noah, and a huge life-giving structure called an ark.

The previous chapter traced the generations from Adam through his son Seth and all of the way to Noah. This chapter reveals that Noah will be the man through whom God will preserve humanity for a new beginning after wiping out all life on the face of the earth. God tells Noah to build an enormous structure, an ark, and prepare to welcome representatives of all of the animals on earth. Noah does exactly that, setting the stage for the cataclysmic judgment of God to come in chapter 7.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.