Never again, and the seasons (Genesis 8:21–22)

Says The Lord smelled the soothing smell (the BSB has the pleasing aroma) and said to His heart that He would not again curse the ground because of man, כִּי the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and that He would not again strike every living thing as He had done (8:21). The verb is qalal, not the 'arar of 3:17. The words on the heart have the noun and the evil of 6:5, without its every, and with from his youth. 8:22 says that yet all the days of the earth (the BSB has As long as the earth endures), seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn or winter, and day and night shall not cease. See the Hebrew notes, and the xrefs from 6:5, 5:29 and Phil 4:18.

Implies The Lord accepts the offering and resolves to preserve; the heart is unchanged, so the promise rests on His resolve. 8:22 is a pledge to preserve the created order (1:5, 14), leading into the covenant of 9:8–17, which is pointed to and not treated here.

Uncertain כִּי may be for or though (the BSB has even though). Curse the ground may look to 3:17 and 5:29, or to the flood. Smelled, and to His heart, may be accommodated language or the idiom of acceptance; nothing is added about God needing the offering. The third pair in 8:22 may name autumn or winter. No lean is taken.