Wickedness, regret, and favor (Genesis 6:5–8)

Says “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time” (6:5, BSB). Swete 6:5 has Κύριος. “And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (6:6, BSB). The verb is וַיִּנָּחֶם, a Niphal; it returns in נִחַמְתִּי at 6:7. The Piel is comfort at 5:29. Swete has ἐνεθυμήθη … διενοήθη, pondered … considered, and ἐθυμώθην, I was angered. “Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8, BSB). The name נֹחַ and the noun חֵן share two consonants in reverse order. See the Hebrew and Greek notes.

Implies In the Niphal the root runs from regret over one's own deeds to pity and comfort; here its object, that He had made man, sets it with regret over a deed of one's own. The narrative draws a name-play between Noah and favor.

Uncertain Hebrew speaks of God's regret, pain and heart as of people's, a feature of the language. The root is used of God regretting (1 Sam 15:11, 35) and of God, not a man, not relenting (Num 23:19; 1 Sam 15:29). Either the wording is fitted to human understanding, or it tells a real response to sin within an unchanging purpose; the words do not settle it. No lean is taken on a theory of divine impassibility or its denial. See the historical note.