The hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3)

Says The Lord says, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years” (6:3, BSB). The verb is יָדוֹן, a recognized crux: the BSB has contend; Swete has Οὐ μὴ καταμείνῃ, shall not remain, and adds τούτοις, these. Swete 6:3 opens καὶ εἶπεν Κύριος ὁ θεός. Then his days shall be 120 years, in both the Hebrew and the Greek, and in the Samaritan main text. See the Hebrew, Greek and textual notes.

Implies As tagged, the verb belongs with judging and contending; remain is the Greek's sense.

Uncertain What the hundred and twenty years measure is open, and no lean is taken. (1) A limit on a human life: ground, his days is said of a lifetime. Objection: several lives after the flood in Genesis are longer. (2) The time left before the flood: ground, the sentence heads the flood account. Objection: “After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (5:32, BSB) and “Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth” (7:6, BSB) stand a hundred years apart, not a hundred and twenty; reply, 6:3 is not dated and need not follow 5:32 in time. Early readings of the term are set out in the historical note on the flood. No lean is taken here.