Genesis 6:5

And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,.... That it spread throughout the earth, wherever it was inhabited by men, both among the posterity of Cain and Seth, and who indeed now were

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. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

To the heart the Scripture commonly ascribes all men’ s actual wickedness, as , , , , , &c.; thereby leading us from acts of sin to the original corruption of nature, as the cause and source of them. Evil continually, i.e. that man was perpetually either doing or contriving wickedness; that not only his actions were vile, but his principles also; his very soul, yea, the noblest part of it, which might seem most free from the contagion; his mind and thoughts were corrupt and abominable, and so there was no hope of amendment.

Genesis 6:5 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.Ver. 5. The wickedness of man was great in the earth.] Which was now grown so foul, that God saw it but time to wash it with a flood; as he shall shortly do again with streams of fire. He destroyed the world then with water, for the heat of lust; he shall destroy it with fire, for the coldness of love, as saith Ludolfu. And that every imagination of the thoughts.] Omne figmentum cogitationum :The whole fiction or "every creature of the heart," as the apostle has it, speaking there of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a general disorderliness; the whole frame is out of frame. The understanding dark as hell, and yet proud as the devil. The will cross and overthwart. The memory slippery and waterish to receive and retain good impressions; but of a marble firmness to hold fast that which is evil. The affections crooked and preposterous. The very tongue a world of wickedness, what then the heart? Si trabes in oculo, strues in corde . The operations thereof are evil, only evil; "every day evil," saith this text; and assigneth it for the source of the old world’ s wickedness. David also resolves his adultery and murder into this pravity of his nature, as the principle of it; so doth Job; Paul; Isaiah The whole Church cries out, "Unclean, unclean," and, "All we like sheep have gone astray". Now, as no creature is more apt to wander, so none less able to return, than a sheep. "The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master’ s crib"; the very swine accustomed to the trough, if he go abroad, yet at night will find the way home again: not so the sheep. Lo! such is man. Quintilian, therefore, was quite out when he said, "It is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man." But he erred, not knowing the Scripture. For "do ye think," saith St James, alluding to this text, "that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" The civil man’ s nature is as bad as the worst, - not changed, but chained up. Truly said Cicero, Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur . We are no sooner born than buried in a bog of wickedness. De Vita Christ., lib. ii., cap. 7. All the thoughts extensively are intensively only evil, and protensively continually.

(5) And God saw.—Really, And Jehovah saw.Imagination.—More exactly, form, shape. Thus every idea or embodied thought, which presented itself to the mind through the working of the heart—that is, the whole inner nature of man—“was only evil continually”—Heb., all the day, from morning to night, without reproof of conscience or fear of the Divine justice. A more forcible picture of complete depravity could scarcely be drawn; and this corruption of man’s inner nature is ascribed to the overthrow of moral and social restraints.

Verse 5. The wickedness of man was great] What an awful character does God give of the inhabitants of the antediluvian world! 1. They were flesh, (Genesis 6:3,) wholly sensual, the desires of the mind overwhelmed and lost in the desires of the flesh, their souls no longer discerning their high destiny, but ever minding earthly things, so that they were sensualized, brutalized, and become flesh; incarnated so as not to retain God in their knowledge, and they lived, seeking their portion in this life. 2. They were in a state of wickedness. All was corrupt within, and all unrighteous without; neither the science nor practice of religion existed. Piety was gone, and every form of sound words had disappeared. 3. This wickedness was great רבה rabbah, "was multiplied;" it was continually increasing and multiplying increase by increase, so that the whole earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence, (Genesis 6:11;) profligacy among the lower, and cruelty and oppression among the higher classes, being only predominant. 4. All the imaginations of their thoughts were evil - the very first embryo of every idea, the figment of every thought, the very materials out of which perception, conception, and ideas were formed, were all evil; the fountain which produced them, with every thought, purpose, wish, desire, and motive, was incurably poisoned. 5. All these were evil without any mixture of good - the Spirit of God which strove with them was continually resisted, so that evil had its sovereign sway. 6. They were evil continually - there was no interval of good, no moment allowed for serious reflection, no holy purpose, no righteous act. What a finished picture of a fallen soul! Such a picture as God alone, who searches the heart and tries the spirit, could possibly give. 7. To complete the whole, God represents himself as repenting because he had made them, and as grieved at the heart because of their iniquities! Had not these been voluntary transgressions, crimes which they might have avoided, had they not grieved and quenched the Spirit of God, could he speak of them in the manner he does here? 8. So incensed is the most holy and the most merciful God, that he is determined to destroy the work of his hands: And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created; Genesis 6:7. How great must the evil have been, and how provoking the transgressions, which obliged the most compassionate God, for the vindication of his own glory, to form this awful purpose! Fools make a mock at sin, but none except fools.

5–8. Introduction to the story of the Flood from J: Jehovah sees the sinfulness of man and resolves to annihilate the race. Genesis 6:5 to Genesis 9:17. The Flood. (J and P.) Here follows the Hebrew narrative of the Flood. The Flood is the one great event in the history of the world, which in the Hebrew narrative emerges out of the obscurity between the creation of man and the period of the patriarchs. It marks the close of the first era of the human race. According to the story in Genesis, it was a judgement for the depravity of mankind. It marks also the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind. This has its origin in the mercy of God, who, in recognition of the righteousness of Noah, preserves him and his family in the general overthrow. This is a symbol of salvation. The new age opens with the renewal of promises to man, and with a covenant entailing new obligations on man’s part, in return for the assurance of Divine protection. On the relation of the Genesis narrative to the Babylonian and other accounts of the Flood, see Special Note on the chapter comments for Genesis 8. The present narrative is woven together out of the two distinct Israelite traditions, J and P: see Introduction. This compositeness of structure in the Flood narrative is quite unmistakable1[12]. It accounts for the (a) repetitions, (b) discrepancies, (c) intermittent use of special words and phrases, inexplicable on the assumption of a continuous homogeneous narrative. Under the head of (a) “repetitions,” notice the duplicated account of the growing corruption of mankind in Genesis 6:5-8 (J), and in Genesis 6:9-12 (P); of the entrance of Noah and his family into the ark Genesis 7:7 (J) and Genesis 7:13 (P); of the rising of the waters of the Flood Genesis 7:17 (J) and Genesis 7:18-19 (P); of the end of all living creatures Genesis 7:21 (P) and Genesis 7:22-23 (J); and of God’s promise to Noah in Genesis 8:15-19 (P) and Genesis 8:20-22 (J). [12] See Appendix C (book comments).Under the head of (b) “discrepancies,” notice that, in P, Noah takes one pair of every kind of animal into the ark (Genesis 6:19-20, and Genesis 7:15-16), while, in J, Noah is commanded to take seven pairs of every clean animal and one pair of every unclean animal into the ark (Genesis 7:2-3); again, in P, the Flood is brought about through the outburst of the waters from the great deep both from beneath the earth and from above the firmament (Genesis 7:11, Genesis 8:2); while, in J, it is produced by the rain (Genesis 7:12, Genesis 8:2). According to P, the Flood was in progress for 150 days (Genesis 7:24, Genesis 8:3), while according to J the rain lasted for 40 days (Genesis 7:12); in J the waters were subsiding for 14 or 21 days (Genesis 8:10; Genesis 8:12), and in P the earth was dry after a year and 10 days (Genesis 8:14).

5. God saw… only evil — A fearful picture of human depravity, in its thoroughness and universality. The genealogy of the lust and violence that now raged through the world is powerfully traced in a few pregnant words.