This post was originally written in December 2016.
5 God saw that the evil of humankind had become severe on the earth, and every thought their mind formed was only evil all day. 6 And Yahweh was sorry that he had made humankind, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 Yahweh said, I will wipe out humankind that I have created off the earth, from humans to livestock to beasts to birds of the sky, because I am sorry that I have created them. 8 But Yahweh looked favorably on Noah.
There are some abrupt transitions in Genesis 6, and readers tend to ‘fill in the gaps’ with speculation, whether they realize it or not. 1, 2, and 4 tell a story in which the minor deities or angels, the bny hʾlhym, have demigod children by human women. 3 interrupts with God denouncing humankind, in somewhat cloudy terms. 5 takes up the issue of human wickedness and God’s decision to destroy the world.
What the text doesn’t state explicitly is what the production of demigods has to do with the guilt of the human race. And as far as I can read, there is nothing in the account of the demigods that indicates willing human participation: the bny hʾlhym, beings more powerful than humans, simply took for themselves wives, whomever they chose. Perhaps the writer’s idea is that human wickedness lead to the divine-human mating, or perhaps the idea is that the demigods themselves were wicked. We are not told.
every thought their mind formed. Literally, every formation of thought of its (that is, humanity’s) mind.
was sorry: or, regretted, or changed his mind. This is the same verbal root used in Numbers 23:19 — God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Will he not do what he has said? Will he not establish what he has spoken?
But Yahweh looked favorably on Noah. Literally, and Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.