The Law · Chapter 6 of 50

Genesis 6

Human wickedness fills the earth until every thought of the heart is only evil. God grieves that He made man and resolves to blot out life with a flood. Yet Noah, a just man who walks with God, finds grace in His eyes. God reveals His plan, commands him to build an ark of gopher wood, and promises to establish His covenant and preserve his family and pairs of every creature.

What happens in Genesis 6

As humanity multiplies, the sons of God take wives of the daughters of men, and God limits human days. Giants are in the earth in those days. God sees that wickedness is great and every imagination of the heart is only evil continually. It grieves Him at His heart, and He determines to destroy man and beast from the earth. But Noah finds grace with the LORD. The chapter names Noah a just and blameless man in his generations who walked with God, father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Because the earth is corrupt and filled with violence, God tells Noah the end of all flesh has come. He commands an ark of gopher wood, sealed with pitch, three hundred cubits long, with rooms, a window, a door, and three stories. God promises His covenant, and to bring Noah's household and two of every living thing safely through. Noah does all that God commands.

Genesis 6 in context

Genesis 6 turns from the genealogy of chapter 5 to the crisis that provokes the flood. Set early in the Law, it explains why judgment comes and how one family is spared. The passage wrestles honestly with human corruption and with God's grieved heart, introducing the ark and the first mention of covenant in Scripture, the means by which mercy will carry life through catastrophe.

Main themes of Genesis 6

Genesis 6 (KJV)

1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4There were giants 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 which were of old, men of renown. 5And 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. 6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And 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. 8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13And 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. 14Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16A 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. 17And, 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. 18But 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. 19And 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. 20Of 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. 21And 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. 22Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Verses to carry from Genesis 6

“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.”Genesis 6:5

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”Genesis 6:8

“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.”Genesis 6:18

Reflection

The flood begins in the heart, where imaginations run only toward evil. Yet the same chapter shows one man who found grace and simply obeyed. You cannot cleanse your own imagination, but you can walk with God today and do the next thing He asks, trusting that grace goes before obedience.

A prayer from Genesis 6