21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 6:5-8

And now the cliffhanger.

ה וַיַּ֣רְא יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י רַבָּ֛ה רָעַ֥ת הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וְכָל־יֵ֨צֶר֙ מַחְשְׁבֹ֣ת לִבּ֔וֹ רַ֥ק רַ֖ע כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם:

ו וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּֽי־עָשָׂ֥ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּ֖ב אֶל־לִבּֽוֹ:

ז וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה אֶמְחֶ֨ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֤ם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֨אתִי֙ מֵעַל֙ פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה מֵֽאָדָם֙ עַד־בְּהֵמָ֔ה עַד־רֶ֖מֶשׂ וְעַד־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כִּ֥י נִחַ֖מְתִּי כִּ֥י עֲשִׂיתִֽם:

ח וְנֹ֕חַ מָ֥צָא חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְהוָֹֽה:

The Lord must have seen that the evil of man was great on earth -- every spirit of the thoughts of his heart were only evil all the time --

For the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth; He kept consulting His heart.

The Lord said I will wipe man out that I created, from the face of the earth, man and domestic animal and even the creeping things and fliers in the sky; for I have regretted that I made them.

But the Lord favored Noach.

Now what are we going to do about this word nacham?

First, remember that Noach’s father said Noach would give respite from working the land, and he used the same root.

Second, nacham has to do with pity and compassion, and that goes with Gd grieving to His heart that what He created, which was good when He created it, has turned out so evil.

The problem is that there’s a dagesh in the nun.  This suggests a suppressed letter, but it’s not the assimilated nun that some peh nun verbs have.  The suppressed letter is probably the tav of a hitpael, and this leads directly to a Mishnah in Pirqey Avot saying how patiently Gd bore with these sinners until He finally had enough.  It parallels the hitpael later in the verse.  It also agrees with the use of hitpael in going back and forth like Chanokh “whom Gd took”.

But in verse 7 we have nichamti, the piel, and as I will show in more detail some lessons from now, piel is used when the same bad consequences are turning up time and again. This is Gd saying “this is the dictionary definition of stupidity, getting bad results from your actions and repeating those actions; it’s time for me to do something about people’s stupidity.”

He’s going to wipe people out, and this is the answer to the presumption of Lemekh I in saying “hey, Qain got 7 generations to be avenged, I’ll get 77 generations before anybody avenges me.” Lemekh I got one generation that we know of. It’s the son of Lemekh II whom Gd favors.

You all know that Noach survives what is coming. And that is the second reason why we are not descended from murderers. Anybody who tells you we are is trying to make you feel bad about yourself. That is psychological abuse and bullying. We now realize that bullying promotes everything from obesity through self-harm to suicide. Kick those bullies to the curb where they belong. 

This is the end of the first aliyah in Torah. There are 54. Use the Fact Checking Resources to find texts and audio for further reading. Or contact me about a copy of Narrating the Torah and we'll work something out.

I am not done. I am going to pull all this grammar together in an organized way instead of in bits and pieces the way I have done up to now.