Evil Inclination of All Humanity

6 Now when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them, ² then the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives, any they chose. ³ Then Adonai said, “My Spirit will not remain with humankind forever, since they are flesh. So their days will be 120 years. ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, whenever the sons of God came to the daughters of men, and gave birth to them. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown.

⁵ Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained. ⁷ So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.”

⁸ But Noah found favor in Adonai’s eyes.

Parashat Noah

⁹ These are the genealogies of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. He was blameless among his generation. Noah continually walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. ¹¹ Now the earth was ruined before God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God saw the earth, and behold it was ruined because all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

Instructions for the Ark

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is coming before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I am about to bring ruin upon them along with the land. ¹⁴ Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with compartments and smear pitch on it, both inside and out. ¹⁵ Now this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a roof for the ark, and you shall finish it to within a cubit from the top. You shall put the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third stories. ^{[a] 17} Now I am about to bring the flood—water upon the land—to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life from under the sky. Everything that is on the land will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you. So you shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Also of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of everything—male and female—into the ark to keep alive with you. ²⁰ Of the flying creatures according to their kind, of the livestock according to their kind, of all the crawling creatures of the ground according to their kind—two of everything will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ As for you: take for yourself every kind of edible food and gather it to yourself. It will be food for you and for them.”

²² So Noah did according to all that God commanded him; he did so exactly.