Genesis Chapter 6    

“sons of God.” The phrase “son of God” is a very specific phrase that refers to the beings that God has directly created, such as angels and cherubim. Here in Genesis 6, the Hebrew is ben ha Elohim (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים), thus including the Hebrew definite article ha. However, the phrase occurs both with the Hebrew definite article ha (Gen. 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1) and without the definite article simply as ben Elohim (Job 38:7; בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים). It is also sometimes ben el (“son of God” using El instead of Elohim for God (Ps. 29:1; 89:6). It appears in the Aramaic in Daniel 3:25 as bar Elohim (the Aramaic bar and Hebrew ben both mean “son”). In the New Testament the equivalent phrase, “son of God,” is used of Adam who was a direct creation of God (Luke 3:38), of Jesus Christ who was “the Son of God,” and of Christians, who are “born again” into God’s family when God creates holy spirit in them, which makes them “new creations” (2 Cor. 5:17). Every time the phrase “son of God” appears in the text, it refers to a direct creation of God.

Genesis 6:2 is telling us in very straightforward terms that created beings of God, which we learn in this case are fallen angels (demons), took human women and by an act of genetic manipulation created a race of fallen people, the Nephilim. The fallen angels did not actually have sexual intercourse with the women and by that means produce the Nephilim; instead, the demons manipulated the genetics of the women to produce the fallen race. They had already successfully manipulated the genetics of many things in God’s creation, such as the plants that they changed so they would produce thorns.

Some critics say that these “sons of God” are not divine beings, and that the word “son” is also used of people who are in relation to God and who are not direct creations of God. It is true that the biblical and cultural use of the Hebrew word “son” is very broad, including natural children, disciples, and people who are dear to you. However, the specific phrase “son of God” is very different than simply the word “son,” and it only occurs eight times in the Old Testament and all of them refer to spirit beings—direct creations of God.

We can also see that these “sons of God” are spirit beings by how they show up in the Bible. Here in Genesis 6:2 and 6:4, these “sons of God” took any of the daughters of men they chose. Fathers have always been protective of their daughters, and if these sons of God were humans, they could not have had any woman they chose. They could do so only because they were spirit beings. In Job 1:6 and 2:1, the “sons of God” come into the presence of God in heaven, and in Job 38:7, they were around when the earth was created. This shows they are spirit beings. In Psalm 29:1 is a summons for the divine beings to exalt Yahweh. In Psalm 89:6 the “sons of God” are in heaven, in the sky. In Daniel 3:25, Nebuchadnezzar sees a divine being “like a son of God” (or perhaps to him, “a son of the gods”) walking in the fire. From the scriptural evidence, we conclude that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 and 6:4 are divine beings, and from the context and scope of Scripture, we can see that the ones mentioned here in Genesis 6 are fallen angels.

[For more on the “sons of God” being spirit beings, see commentary on Genesis 6:4, “Nephilim.” For more on “fallen angels,” see commentary on Revelation 12:9.]

“desirable.” The context in Genesis 6 is fallen angels (who are called “sons of God”) wanting human women so they could produce a fallen race—the Nephilim. The Hebrew word we translate “desirable” is tov (#02896 טוֹב), which has a large semantic range. Generally, it refers to things that are “good,” “pleasant,” “beneficial,” “valuable,” “appropriate,” “right,” “happy,” etc. While it is true that tov is used in some contexts as “beautiful,” that is not its primary meaning here. The fallen angels did not come to the women because they were so beautiful they could not be resisted, but because the demons had an ulterior motive.

Although tov certainly may have overtones of “beautiful” or “attractive” here, its more appropriate contextual meaning is “desirable” [to bring about a specific end]; “beneficial,” or “good” [for the desired purpose]. We see this meaning a few chapters earlier in Genesis in the record of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve saw the fruit was “good (tov) for food,” that is, it was beneficial for her purpose. The fruit was also “pleasing to the eye,” or “attractive,” but that is the Hebrew word ta’avah (#08378 תַּאֲוָה), not tov.

Ancient mythologies have stories about gods seeing human women and coming down and seducing or raping them, and that, together with our natural romantic inclination, leads us to want to think that the “sons of God” (God’s created beings) saw that human females were beautiful and sexually attractive, so out of lust they came and took the ones they chose. However, the context and scope of Scripture, and also human history, militate against that interpretation.

It is doubtful that human women are attractive to angels and demons in the way that humans are attracted to each other. For one thing, there does not seem to be any way a spirit being can actually get some kind of what we know as sexual fulfillment by being with a human being. Furthermore, in the thousands of years since the last outbreak of Nephilim after Noah’s Flood, there have not been any more incidents of demons producing Nephilim by human women. This points to the fact that the demons were with the women only for the purpose of producing the Nephilim, not because they were so sexually attracted to them.

In the context we see that the fallen angels had the ulterior motive of producing the “Nephilim,” or “Fallen ones,” a mutant race so evil that in a very short time “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” It would not have taken the Nephilim too long to destroy the genetically pure descendants of Adam and Eve and destroy any hope mankind had of producing the Savior, Jesus Christ, so God saved the human race by destroying the earth, including all the Nephilim, in the Flood. Noah’s Flood did not deter the Devil from his plan to prevent the Savior from coming, and so after the Flood, more demons produced more Nephilim, which is why Genesis 6:4 says, “and also after that,” i.e., after the Flood. But those Nephilim were killed off, and all the demons who produced the Nephilim were imprisoned in Tartarus, the Greek word that refers to a prison for the gods (2 Pet. 2:4; cp. 1 Pet. 3:18-20).

The Devil has continually tried to keep God’s Messiah from saving mankind and destroying him. He tried destroying the Christ-line and Israel many times; he tried having Jesus killed as a baby and stoned as an adult. The Nephilim were just one more plan the Devil tried, but it, too, failed.

Additional resource:

The Sons of God Of Genesis Six (1:27:45) (Pub: 1993-01-01)

This teaching explains who the “sons of God” were in Genesis 6, and that they orchestrated one of the first Satanic attacks on mankind to try to stop the promised “seed” of Genesis 3:15 from being born. Verses: Gen. 1:11-12, 21, 24-25; 3:17-18; 6:1-5; Lev. 19:19; Num. 13:1-2, 23, 26-33; Deut. 2:9-11, 19-22; 3:10-11; 7:1-2; 9:1-3; 20:10-18; Josh. 11:21-23; 1 Chron. 20:4-8; Job 1:6; 2:1; 26:1-5; 38:4-7; Ps. 88:3-10; Prov. 2:16-18; 21:16; Isa. 14:3-9; 26:14, 19; Dan. 3:25, 28; 2 Cor. 5:1-2; 1 Pet. 3:18-20; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6-7 Teacher: John Schoenheit Listen on Castos

“man” This is a collective singular referring to humankind. The collective singular takes the singular pronouns “he” and “his.”

“Nephilim.” “Nephilim” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word nephilim, which is the plural form of the word nephiyl (#05303 נְפִיל), from the Hebrew root word naphal, “to fall.” The word nephilim means “fallen ones,” and it is translated that way in Young’s Literal Version of the Bible. The Nephilim were a mutant humanoid race produced when fallen angels genetically manipulated human females. Because this race of mutant humans was a totally new species, the REV, as well as many other English versions, transliterate “Nephilim” directly into the English text rather than having a translation such as “fallen ones.” All humans are sinful and “fallen” in nature, but not all humans are demonically genetically mutated to be Nephilim.

There are a few English Bibles that translate nephilim as “giants,” and there are some lexicographers who accept that as the meaning of the Hebrew word, but the evidence is against it. However, the Septuagint uses the Greek word gigantes, “giants,” as the translation of the Hebrew word nephilim, and that is no doubt at least partly why some English versions, especially early ones like the Geneva Bible, King James, and Douay Rheims, say “giants.” But it is also possible that the Septuagint translators used the word gigantes because the Bible says that at least some of the Nephilim were huge people, even giants.

It is worth noting that some scholars say that the Greek word gigantes should not be translated as “giants” in verses that refer to the Nephilim, because the Greek mythology, taken from Hesiod’s Theogony, depicts the races of giants—including the Hundred-handers, Titans, and Cyclopes—as the descendants of Uranus, and Gaia (the goddess personification of “Earth,” from ge, “earth” or “land”), and therefore gigantes should be rendered “earthborn.” Although that etymology of gigantes is likely not correct, it is worth noting that in Greek mythology various races of giants came from the gods, and biblically that would include the Nephilim.

The Nephilim were “Fallen Ones,” that is, “fallen” creatures made by demons, and they were made the same way the Devil and his demons made God’s wonderful plants into thorny plants and God’s wonderful animals into dangerous animals. The Devil has the ability—which we humans now have to some extent as well—to change the genetics of a plant or animal and mutate it into something different than its original state. When the Devil gained control over the earth after Adam and Eve sinned, one of the things he did was manipulate the genetics of things so that they became evil. This is not directly stated in the Bible, but the reason for that is at least twofold: the people on earth at that time were not knowledgeable about genetics and would not have understood the concepts and also the conclusion can be deduced logically, and God expects us to think logically when reading the Bible. God would never have made His wonderful, “very good” Eden-world into the harsh and dangerous place it is today, and Adam did not have the ability to do it. Only the Devil had both the power and motivation to turn God’s paradise that He loved into a place of thorns, poisons, and danger. The Devil genetically altered God’s creation and then the genetically altered plants and animals reproduced after their kind so that the whole earth is now covered with these dangerous and poisonous plants and animals.

No one knows exactly what the Devil did to manipulate the genetics of the plants and animals, but it is clear that he did it. He did it to plants and animals, and he did it to human beings. So the Bible says that Satan’s demons, the “sons of God,” married human females and produced a race that the Bible calls the Nephilim. The Bible does not use the terminology or vocabulary that a modern geneticist would use to describe what the demons did to the human women so that they gave birth to the Nephilim. Instead, Genesis 6:2-4 uses simple terminology that the people of the time could understand: the “sons of God” (fallen angels) took the human females as wives, and “came into them,” (the standard biblical vocabulary for sexual intercourse), and the women “bore” children to them. But the “children” were not demons, nor were they “normal” humans—the way Adam had been created by God. They were a mutant human race: the “fallen ones.” They were completely fallen in their very nature, genetically engineered to be evil, and they were not capable of being godly or being saved. There is little doubt that the demons came into human form and had sex with the women. They still do that today. A demon that comes into concretion as a male and has sex with women is called an “incubus,” while a demon that comes into concretion as a woman and seduces a man is referred to as a “succubus.” Although many think that the existence of an incubus or succubus is just mythology, demons are real and that they come into human form is well documented just as it is stated here in Genesis 6, and most of the time they do we know them as “ghosts.” But the key to understanding Genesis 6 is realizing that a human woman’s egg cannot be fertilized by a demon. A demon is an angel and angels do not even marry (Matt. 22:30), and furthermore, God designed things to reproduce after their kind. So while a demon might have sex with a human woman, he could not impregnate her, but he could alter her genetics (or the genetics of a fertilized egg inside her) so that she gave birth to a genetically altered baby—a nephilim.

God created mankind in His image. The Devil had the Nephilim made in his image: evil. He knew that the Messiah who was foretold to destroy him would be a human, so he tried to keep the Messiah from coming by producing the Nephilim. Then they could destroy all of the humans who had not been genetically altered and keep the Messiah from being born. Quite a few ancient sources say the Nephilim were the offspring of fallen angels and human females, including references in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and the writings of Josephus. This position was also believed by early Church Fathers such as Tertullian and Lactantius, who was an advisor to Emperor Constantine. In fact, in his book, The Genesis Record, Henry Morris wrote: “Apparently the first Christian writers to suggest the Sethite interpretation [that the “sons of God” were humans] were Chrysostom and Augustine.”^a

When we understand who the Nephilim were and where they came from, we can solve some of the perplexing questions many people have about God and the Bible. Two of those difficult questions are: “If God loved the world, why did He cause the Flood and kill everyone?” And, “If God is a loving God, why did He command the Israelites to totally destroy the inhabitants of the Promised Land, including the children?” (Deut. 7:1-6; 20:16-18). The answer is that God had to protect the human race from Satan’s race of “Fallen Ones” that were not genetically like God’s original humans. The problem was in the genetics of the Nephilim, so their “race” had to be killed off.

The Nephilim were well-positioned to destroy humans on earth. They were very wicked and at least some of them were very large and powerful. For example, Og, one of the Nephilim, had a bed that was over 13 feet (four meters) long and six feet (two meters) wide (Deut. 3:11). Goliath of Gath was over nine feet (three meters) tall (1 Sam. 17:4). There have been a number of archaeological discoveries and ancient drawings of very large people. Many anthropologists have assumed that when a very large person is depicted next to smaller humans, the picture was not meant to be an accurate depiction, but rather to show that the larger person was a king or one of the gods. However, that conclusion is an assumption and may well be wrong: the picture may be accurate and the larger person may actually be one of the Nephilim.

The Nephilim were the result of demonic genetic manipulation, so there was no way to teach or train them to be godly. Furthermore, when the Nephilim reproduced, they made more of their kind, just like when the genetically changed thorns and thistles reproduced, they made more thorns and thistles, and when poisonous snakes reproduced they made more poisonous snakes. Because of their size and strength, and the demonic power behind them, before Noah’s Flood the Nephilim were both reproducing themselves and also killing off humans who were not Nephilim, and this resulted in more and more of the earth’s population being Nephilim. The abundance of Nephilim on the earth explains why the Bible says that shortly before the Flood, mankind got to the point that “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

In fact, there is evidence that right before the Flood the only genetically pure line of humans left on earth was Noah’s line. Genesis 6:9 says that Noah was “blameless” in his generation. But the Hebrew word translated “blameless” is tamiym (#08549 תָּמִים), which means “whole, sound, complete or entire, innocent, having integrity,” and it is mainly used of animals that are without defect and therefore could be used for sacrifice. It is likely that in Genesis 6:9 the Bible is saying that “in his generation,” Noah was “without defect” genetically, as well as saying that Noah obeyed God.

The fact that mankind was completely wicked before the Flood is good evidence for the existence of the Nephilim. There are only 1,656 years from the creation of Adam to the Flood, but we can see that mankind became totally wicked in much less than that time because the Nephilim did not come along until people really began to multiply on the earth (Gen. 6:1). In contrast, it has now been more than 4,000 years since the Flood, and there are many good and loving humans on earth. This shows that humans do not become totally wicked on their own as a function of human genetics. It took demons genetically changing humans into a mutant race of “fallen ones” to make everyone so evil that every intention of their hearts was evil all the time.

Some people deny that the Nephilim were a mutant race of humans produced by demons, for three major reasons. Some say the Devil and demons do not exist, but we reject that argument and assert that the Bible makes it plain that they do. Others say that the vocabulary in Genesis 6 does not support the interpretation that demons somehow mated with humans and that the phrase “sons of God” can refer to descendants of Adam through Seth. However, a study of the phrase “sons of God” in the Hebrew text will show that it always refers to beings created directly by God, such as Adam, Jesus Christ, and angels (this must be a study of the exact Hebrew phrase, not the general idea of “son” of God, because, for example, Israel is referred to as God’s “son.” But the exact Hebrew phrase used in Gen. 6 of the “sons of God” is only used of God’s directly created beings).

There are many other lines of evidence besides the meaning of the phrase “sons of God” that show that the Nephilim were not ordinary humans. One is that the “sons of God” could take any human female they wanted, which is not normal human-to-human behavior, whereas demons would have the power and evil nature to take any human female they desired. Also, the blame for the evil “marriages” between the sons of God and daughters of men was never placed on the women, which would make sense if the women were forced into these unions by demons, but not if they had married evil husbands by choice. Also, the offspring of the “sons of God” and “daughters of men” are called “Fallen Ones.” But both godly and ungodly humans are “fallen,” so the specific designation, “Fallen Ones,” shows that these “children” were fallen in a different sense than just the regular fallen state of all humans. Also, many of the Nephilim were giants, but a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever does not produce children who are giants. To produce the giant Nephilim, one of the “parents” was not a normal human.

Lastly, the offspring of these “sons of God” and human women were extremely wicked, so much so that every thought of their heart was evil, and in not too much time the whole earth was populated by beings who were this way. But even if the children of believers and unbelievers turn from God, rarely if ever is it true that every thought they have is wicked—that is not normal human behavior. All these facts together show that the Nephilim were the genetically manipulated progeny of humans and demons, engineered to be evil.

A third reason people say that fallen angels could not produce offspring by human women is because God made things to reproduce after their own kind (cp. Gen. 1:11, 21, 24, 25). While it is true that in a natural environment things reproduce after their own kind, plants and animals (including humans) can be changed so that they reproduce in a way that does not follow their natural family or genus. Mutations and genetic changes can occur. Today, humans are doing many different kinds of genetic manipulation on plants and animals, and those genetically changed things then reproduce after their kind—and that is exactly what the Devil did to plants, animals, and even humans after the Fall. But the Bible warns against trying to crossbreed species: “You must not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock” (Lev. 19:19 HCSB).

God responded to the Devil’s making of the Nephilim in two ways: He dealt with the demons who produced the Nephilim and He dealt with the Nephilim themselves. As for the demons who produced the Nephilim, God shut them up in Tartarus (2 Pet. 2:4), in the Abyss (Luke 8:31; Rev. 20:1), in “gloomy darkness” (Jude 1:6), so they were not free to do evil on earth anymore. As for the Nephilim themselves, they were mortal and were killed off.

There were two times in history the demons produced Nephilim; before and after Noah’s Flood. In the first outbreak of Nephilim before Noah’s Flood, God killed them all off in the Flood. In the second outbreak of Nephilim after the Flood, people killed them off, just as God told Israel to do.

In spite of the fact that God put the demons who produced the Nephilim who lived before the Flood into Tartarus, it was not long after the Flood that the Devil again tried to stop the Messiah by producing more Nephilim. However, it seems the Devil had become aware that demons who participated in making the Nephilim would be imprisoned in Tartarus, so in the second outbreak of Nephilim there were only a limited number of them, and they seemed to be mostly concentrated in Israel, the Promised Land. However, there is evidence that there were also some Nephilim in other parts of the world. The Bible tells us that the Nephilim were the famous men who lived in ancient times (Gen. 6:4). Although many histories and ancient mythologies have been lost, distorted, or exaggerated, there are ancient records and mythologies that claim that “gods” cohabited with women and produced leaders and heroes such as the Greek heroes Perseus and Hercules, who were indeed famous. So even this second outbreak of Nephilim, although more limited in number, could have been widely spread.

That second outbreak of Nephilim occurred shortly after the Flood. We know that because when Abraham entered the land of Canaan, about 400 years after the Flood, “the Canaanite was already in the land” (Gen. 12:6). These “Canaanites” were Nephilim. We know that because, by Genesis 14:5, some of the inhabitants of Canaan were being called “Rephaim,” and the Rephaim were Nephilim, and were descendants of “Rapha.”

Like humans, the humanoid Nephilim had names, and the Bible gives us the names of some of them. “Rapha” was one of the names (Rapha apparently lived in the Philistine country in or near Gath, because his descendants were from around there, and some joined the Philistines and fought against Israel, including Ishbibenob, Saph, and two others who are unnamed (2 Sam. 21:15-22; 1 Chron. 20:6-8). Also, one of the Nephilim was “Anak” (Num. 13:33), and the descendants of Anak were the Anakim. Anak’s father was Arba (Josh. 15:13), which shows us that the child of a Nephilim was also a Nephilim. It is likely that Arba and Rapha were the names of two of the Nephilim who were, or were close to, the first generation “progeny” of fallen angels and human women.

After the Exodus, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, Moses sent spies into the Promised Land. The spies encountered Nephilim in the Promised Land and returned to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. The spies reported: “And we saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak come from the Nephilim), and in our own sight we seemed like grasshoppers, and we seemed that way in their sight” (Num. 13:33 REV). The report of the spies shows they knew what the Nephilim were and that the Nephilim were very large people, even “giants.” Moses told Israel to conquer Canaan and not to be afraid of the Nephilim. Moses said, “Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan [River] today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’” (Deut. 9:1-2 ESV). Thus in Numbers and Deuteronomy Moses referred to the Canaanite nations as being “Anakim,” descendants of Anak, which meant they were Nephilim (Num. 13:33).

Joshua and the Israelites conquered the Promised Land and killed off the Nephilim—except for the ones who lived in the southwest seacoast area bordering the Mediterranean Sea. That area was inhabited by the Philistines, whose capital cities were Gaza, Gath, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron (Josh. 13:3; 1 Sam. 6:17). “At that time Joshua proceeded to exterminate the Anakim from the hill country—Hebron Debir, Anab—all the hill country of Judah and of Israel. Joshua completely destroyed them with their cities. No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites, except for some remaining in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod” (Josh. 11:21-22 HCSB). So the cities that still had Nephilim after Joshua conquered Canaan included the city of Gath, and that is where Goliath, one of the Nephilim, came from.

The Nephilim that Joshua left in the Philistine cities were killed off by David, who had war after war with the Philistines. But whereas Joshua referred to them as “Anakim” because they were descendants of Anak (Josh. 11:22), in other places they are referred to as Rephaites or Rephaim because some of them descended from Rapha (1 Chron. 20:4, 6, 8). We should not be confused about the Nephilim in Israel sometimes being called Anakim and sometimes being called Rephaites or Rephaim because it is likely that descendants of Anak married descendants of Rapha. After all, both Anak and Rapha were Nephilim and lived and had children in the same general area, so in a few generations, some of those children would be both Anakim and Rephaites.

Some of David’s wars with the Philistines specifically mention fights with descendants of Rapha. In one war, Sippai the Raphaite was killed; in another war, Lahmi, the brother of Goliath, was killed (which is how we know that Goliath was one of the Nephilim; if his brother was, so was he), and in still another war a huge man who was a descendant of Rapha, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, was killed. These men were all descendants of Rapha (2 Sam. 21:16-22; 1 Chron. 20:4-8. In many English Bibles, “Rapha” is not transliterated as a name but translated as “giant.” He would have been a giant, but it helps us to follow the mutant race of Nephilim if he is called “Rapha”).

Scripture connects the Anakim and Rephaim, showing that they were both Nephilim. They were both huge in size and very wicked, and lived in the same area, and Deuteronomy 2:10-11 connects them, adding another twist: there are other names for these Nephilim. For example, Deuteronomy 2:11 says that the people of Moab called them “Emim,” which means “Terrors,” and Deuteronomy 2:20 tells us the Ammonites called them, “Zamzummim” (the meaning of Zamzummim is disputed, but E. W. Bullinger says it means “Noisy Ones.” The Arabic word zamzama, which may be related, means to rumble [like thunder], or murmur).

We know that the Nephilim could mate with genetically pure humans and produce more Nephilim, which is why when the Bible lists the nations of Canaan and sometimes includes the Nephilim among them, we can be sure that all of the nations of Canaan had Nephilim intermixed with them. For example, Genesis 15:18-20 lists the Raphaim among other nations of Canaan; the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. The Bible gives other lists that include these nations, sometimes leaving some nations out and including others (cp. Exod. 3:8, 17; 23:23; Deut. 7:1; 20:17; Josh. 12:8).

Once we understand that the gene pool of the Canaanites had been corrupted by the Nephilim, a mutant race that was evil and unable to be saved, we can see why God commanded Moses and Joshua to wipe them out, including the children. The baby of a Nephilim could not be trained to be godly any more than a baby rattlesnake could be trained not to have venom. Their behavior is influenced by their genetics.

God allowed the Israelites to marry women from the nations around the Promised Land (Deut. 20:10-15) because they had not been intermixed with Nephilim. But when it came to the nations in the Promised Land, the Israelites were to kill them off (Deut. 7:1; 20:16-18). God said if the Israelites allowed the Canaanites to remain alive, “they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods” (Deut. 20:18 NIV84). God never said a word about Israel being able to convert the Canaanites to being godly, because they could not be. The Devil had Nephilim made to destroy the human race and prevent the Messiah from coming, and God had to save the human race by having the Nephilim killed off. So God was not being unloving when He caused the Flood or told Joshua to kill the inhabitants of Canaan. He was being loving; determined to bring forth the Messiah and save the human race.

[For more on the meaning of the phrase “sons of God,” see commentary on Genesis 6:2. For supporting information on demons producing offspring via human women, see commentary on Jude 1:6 and 1:7. For more information on Tartarus, the “god prison,” see commentary on 2 Peter 2:4. For more information on the first outbreak of Nephilim occurring in the time before the Flood, see commentary on 1 Peter 3:20. For more information on the Abyss, see commentary on Revelation 20:1.]

“those days.” “Those days” were the “days,” or “time,” actually a period of years, when mankind was increasing on the earth and demons were at work producing the Nephilim. The earth was becoming a very evil place and the genetically pure humans were becoming scarcer, so God instructed Noah to build the ark and prepare for the Flood. In that context, the phrase, “and also after this,” means after that time before the Flood, i.e., after the Flood. Thus the Bible lets us know that the Nephilim were on earth after the Flood as well as before it.

“the mighty men who were of old, the famous men.” The Nephilim were big and powerful and rose to the top of many societies. Nephilim like Og became kings (Deut. 3:11), and men like Goliath were renowned warriors. These people were some of the famous people of the ancient legends. No doubt most of those ancient legends have been lost. One reason for that is that ancient societies fought one another and the losing towns were often burned, just like the great libraries of Alexandria in Egypt and Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia were burned.

In spite of that, we still have records of some Greek heroes who seem to have been Nephilim. For example, Hercules was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene; Perseus, who beheaded Medusa, was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Danae; Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus and Leda; Minos, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Europa, was the king of Crete and the first one to build a navy; Achilles, hero of the Trojan War and greatest warrior in Homer’s Iliad, was the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus; and Odysseus (better known by his Latin name, Ulysses), was the hero of Homer’s Odyssey and a great-grandson of Zeus. The ancient mythologies are likely distorted, exaggerated, and somewhat fabricated, but the Bible says that some of the people who were the heroes of the ancient legends were actually Nephilim, “heroes” of old time.

“great.” The Hebrew text implies that the extent of the evil was not only great but was increasing.

“And Yahweh regretted.” This is one of the many verses of Scripture that shows the feelings of God, and that He is affected by what people do. Far from being the “unmoved mover” of some theological systems, a straightforward reading of Scripture shows that our God is an emotional God, who changes His mind and course of action in response to what people do. Many verses testify to this (cp. 1 Sam. 15:11, 35; Jer. 15:6; 18:1-11). See commentary on Jeremiah 18:6.

“blameless.” The word is used of animals used for sacrifice, that they are “without blemish,” “unblemished.” When applied to humans it took on the meaning “blameless.”

“Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” This is not the birth order of the sons, but the order of their importance in the Word of God. Shem was the son whose lineage led to Christ; Ham was the son from whom the Canaanites and Egyptians came, who constantly interacted with Israel, and Japheth was the son from whom the Greeks and other nations west of Israel came.

Noah can be seen as a second Adam. Both Adam and Noah had three sons, one of whom turned out to be evil.

[For more information on the chronology of the sons of Noah, see commentary on Gen. 5:32; 10:21; and 11:10.]

“Make an ark.” We do not know how long it took Noah to build the ark. It is often taught that it took Noah 120 years, but that is not correct. Noah’s sons were grown and married when God told him to build the ark, and Shem, Noah’s middle son, was 100 years old two years after the flood. So if we assume that Shem was around 20 years old when God told Noah to build the ark and get on board with his family, including his sons’ wives, then Noah would have been building the ark for less than 80 years, but it could have been considerably less than 80 years, the Bible does not say how long it took.

[For more on the chronology of Noah and his sons, see commentary on Gen. 5:32; 10:21; and 11:10.]

“gopher wood.” The identity of gopher wood (“gopher” is transliterated directly from the Hebrew text) is unknown, although guesses and suppositions about exactly what kind of wood it is have been made. Since we do not know all the kinds of trees that existed before the Flood, and do not have Noah’s ark from which we could examine a sample, it is best to just leave the text “gopher wood.”

“and cover it.” The covering of pitch would seal the ark and make it waterproof.

“cubits.” This is using the shorter cubit of roughly 18 inches, which most scholars believe is the cubit Noah used.

“an opening.” This is a “window” for daylight and air. There would probably have been many on the ark, but the text just mentions one.

“breathe its last.” The Hebrew verb gava (#01478 גָּוַע) refers to dying and is fundamentally synonymous with the verb “die” muth (#04191 מָוֹת), although it seems to refer to breathing and can refer to stopping breathing (see commentary on Gen. 25:8, “breathed his last”). The CEB has “Everything on earth is about to take its last breath.” Darby used “expire” (meaning “out-breathe”). John Goldingay has “Everything on earth will breathe its last.”^a

“establish my covenant.” This is the first time the word “covenant” occurs in the Bible. The text is unclear whether this is the confirmation of an older covenant or a brand new covenant that God is making with Noah. In Genesis 9:9 the same language is used of the new covenant that God made with Noah.

“two” The Hebrew word is “two,” but in this context, it can be understood as a “pair.” Gordon Wenham translates Genesis 6:19: “At the same time you shall bring into the ark to stay alive with you some of every living thing, some of all flesh, pairs of everything: they shall be male and female.”^a Some other English versions use “pairs” instead of “two” as well (cp. CEB; NLT). The designation “pair” is clear from the last phrase in the verse: “they are to be a male and a female,” and also from Genesis 7:2-3, which makes it clear that there were to be seven pairs of the clean animals and the birds on the ark. The fact that there were seven pairs of clean animals and birds on the ark also explains how Noah could get off the ark and sacrifice some of the clean animals and birds and still have animals and birds to reproduce the species (Gen. 8:20).

“From every kind of bird.” Every kind of bird and animal was to be kept alive. None were to perish. The wording of the REV is similar to the wording of other versions. For example, the NAB (revised edition) says, “Of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of thing that crawls on the ground, two of each will come to you, that you may keep them alive.”

[For more on the translation “every kind,” see commentary on Gen. 1:11.]

“pairs” See commentary on Genesis 6:19.

“will come to you.” Noah did not have to engage in a huge animal hunt to round up all the animals to put on the ark. God brought the animals He wanted on the ark to Noah. This assured that the animals on the ark were healthy and genetically sound, with as much potential for genetic diversification as possible. We must also remember that before the Flood, all the animals ate plants (Gen. 1:30), so they were not dangerous to Noah and his family.

“and gather it to yourself.” The living creatures would come to Noah, but the food he and his family had to go out and gather. This indicates that at that time before the Flood, all the food that animals and birds ate grew fairly close to the ark. Noah did not have to travel the world to gather up different kinds of food.