Bible Synapse
Was God pleased with all he had made, or did he regret making mankind?
Hard question · Who God is · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
At the end of the sixth day “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Seeing human wickedness, “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”.
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. 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 repenteth me that I have made them.
“God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
The objection
At the end of creation “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). A few chapters later “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth” (Genesis 6:6). Either God was satisfied with his work or he regretted it.
The answer
The two verses describe the world at two different times. Genesis 1:31 is the world as God made it, before sin. Genesis 6 describes what had happened since: “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (6:5), and “the earth was filled with violence” (6:11). The writer sets the two scenes side by side on purpose: “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” in 1:31 is echoed in 6:12 by “God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt”. God’s verdict of ‘very good’ was true of what he had made; his grief was over what mankind had made of itself.
The word ‘repented’ is nacham (H5162), which here means sorrow; the verse explains it at once, “and it grieved him at his heart”. Keil and Delitzsch call it ‘an anthropomorphic expression for the pain of the divine love at the sin of man’. God did not abandon what he had made: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8), and after the flood God blessed humanity again (9:1). See also the entry on whether God changes his mind.
From the classic commentators
The repentance of God is an anthropomorphic expression for the pain of the divine love at the sin of man, and signifies that "God is hurt no less by the atrocious sins of men than if they pierced His heart with mortal anguish" (Calvin).Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Genesis 6:6 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
to teach us, that from the time when man was so greatly corrupted, God would not reckon him among his creatures; as if he would say, This is not my workmanship; this is not that man who was formed in my imageJohn Calvin, Commentary on Genesis 6:6 (1554), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Genesis 6 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
- John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis 6, at Bible Hub
- Strong’s Hebrew 5162, nacham, at Bible Hub