Genesis 6:6-7
● “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And 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 repeteth me that I have made them.”
-- Jubilee Bible
Ego
When I first read the verse, I interpreted it in the regular two dimensional way that man so often does.
I (man) was so complicit in God's regret that he created me that he wiped my species from the face of the earth.
Now, the corruption of man must be mitigated by the fact that we were being led and taught by a group of bitter heavenly creatures that had ran from God's grace because of their egos. They wanted to be equal to God. And they resented the love that God rendered upon mankind. So they left his side, fell to Earth, and corrupted us.
That means we were more attracted to the ways of the corrupt than to the will of our Creator. We thought we were deserving of more than what He wanted us to have. Ego.
It is easy to excuse our behavior, and let the Nephilim take the blame. Scapegoat them.
I think the sheep would be right to hold the same opinion of mankind. They didn't seek the corruption of the fallen, but they shared in our punishment.
Version Study & Takeaway
The Linguistic Trap:
"Repent" implies God made a moral mistake; "Regret" implies God lacked foreknowledge and made a tactical miscalculation. Both words trap God in human limitations.
The Scriptural Reality (Nāḥam):
As I noted in 1 Samuel 15:11, more contemporary interpretations of God’s Word suffer from a tendency to gloss over the original intent. What I see is a developing pattern of humans minimizing our complicity. God was not pained because we presented Him with a bad joke; His pain came from being sucker-punched by His most beloved creation.
The Takeaway:
We are quick to look for architects of our ruin outside of ourselves. Blaming the fallen, the culture, or the spiritual climate feels cleaner than confronting our own appetites. But Genesis 6 dismantles that defense. Outside rebellion gave us a pattern; our own ego chose to wear it.
When humanity rebelled, creation paid the price alongside us. The innocent suffered because we abandoned our role as faithful caretakers, choosing self-exaltation over stewardship. Sin is never contained—it always costs someone who had no say in the choice.
Noah stands in verse 8 not as an example of human perfection, but as proof of an alternative orientation. While the world looked outward to feed its pride, Noah looked up. True favor doesn't begin when we explain away our corruption; it begins when we surrender the illusion that we can rule ourselves, choose humility, and walk faithfully against the current.
When did I earn the right to shift my burden of guilt to the innocent?
Genesis 6:5-8 NIV
Wickedness of the World
5
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
6
The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
7
So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
8
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.