Genesis 6 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Primeval history, immediately before the flood
Location
The whole inhabited earth, with the ark under construction
Audience
Israelites familiar with older Mesopotamian flood stories told among their neighbours
Situation
The sons of God take human wives, God limits human lifespan and sees that human wickedness has filled the earth, and he resolves to wipe out what he has made. Noah alone finds favour, and he is given precise instructions for building a huge wooden vessel.
Key Background
The identity of the sons of God has been debated for over two thousand years, with the oldest interpretation taking them as divine beings and later readings taking them as the line of Seth, and the text itself leaves the matter compressed and strange. Older Babylonian flood accounts have the gods send a flood because humans are too noisy and disturb their sleep, while here the reason is moral, the earth being filled with violence. The ark's dimensions, roughly four hundred fifty feet long, describe a long floating box with no rudder or sail, since it is meant to survive rather than to sail anywhere.
When began to multiply across the face of the and daughters were born to them,
the of saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they wives for themselves from any they chose.
Then Yahweh said, "My will not in humans forever, since they are also Their days will be a and
The were on the earth in those days — and also afterward — when the sons of Elohim came to the daughters of humans and had children by them. These were the of ancient times, the of
Yahweh saw that human on the earth was extensive — every of their produced was nothing but corrupt, all the time.
Yahweh that he had made humans on the earth, and his heart was filled with
So Yahweh said, "I will the face of the ground the humans I created — humans, livestock, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky — because I regret that I made them."
But found in the eyes of Yahweh.
This is the of Noah. Noah was an man, among the people of his time. Noah with Elohim.
Noah fathered three sons: Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth had become in Elohim's sight, and the earth was filled with
Elohim looked at the earth, and it was completely corrupt — every living thing on earth had corrupted its of
So Elohim said to Noah, "The of all living things has come before me, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am about to them along with the earth.
Make yourself an out of Build rooms inside the and coat it inside and out with
This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be long, 75 wide, and 45 high.
Make a for the ark, leaving an 18-inch opening below the roofline. Put a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.
I am about to bring the — water over the earth — to destroy every living thing under the sky that has the of in it. Everything on earth will die.
But I will establish my with you. You will enter the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
You are to bring two of every living thing into the ark to keep them alive with you — male and female.
Two of every kind of bird, every kind of animal, and every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
Take every kind of food that is eaten and store it away — it will be food for you and for them.
Noah did this. He did as Elohim commanded him.