What Does Genesis 6:6 Mean?
And the LORD relented of having made humankind upon the earth, and it pained him at his heart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “repented” also gives the word for “comfort,” placing regret and consolation within one word-family.
THE MEANING
The LORD regrets having made humanity and is grieved at heart by what human life becomes. Human corruption reaches the maker personally; it is not emotionally weightless before him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the LORD is unaffected by human choices: human corruption brings him grief.
THE ROOT
וַיִּנָּחֶם
wayyinnāḥem
GROWS FROM
נ־ח־ם
n-ḥ-m
To be moved to regret or relent; in related forms, to comfort or console.
“relented” in this verse is wayyinnāḥem. Here the form means regret; related forms can mean receiving or giving comfort. English separates those emotional states, while Hebrew keeps them in one root-family, making grief and the need for consolation resonant neighbors without making this verb mean “comfort” here.
ALSO GROWS
niḥam: Be comforted; receive consolation.
נִחַם
This related form shows the root describing a movement through distress toward consolation.
niḥēm: Comfort; console.
נִחֵם
This form names the giving of consolation, another movement within the same root-family.
וַיִּתְעַצֵּב
wayyitʿatzev
GROWS FROM
ע־צ־ב
ʿ-ṣ-b
To hurt or cause pain; in this form, to grieve.
“pained” in this verse is wayyitʿatzev. The root connects grief with the language of pain and painful toil. The maker’s response is described as felt hurt, not as an abstract verdict.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsev: Pain; sorrow.
עֶצֶב
This noun carries the same root’s grief into the language of experienced pain.
ʿiṣṣāvôn: Painful toil; sorrow.
עִצָּבוֹן
Genesis uses this noun for sorrowful toil, showing how the root’s grief can be felt through life’s burdens.
THE PATTERN
Human corruption can grieve God, revealing his living emotional relation to humanity.
How often they strained against him in the wilderness, and made him ache in the barren place!But they rebelled, and pained his Set-Apart Breath. So he was overturned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.And do not hurt the Set-Apart Breath of God, in whom you have been sealed for the day of release.THE THREAD
And he called his name Noah, the one who settles, saying, This one will comfort us in our work and in the pain of our hands, from the ground which the LORD has cursed.In Genesis 5:29, “comfort us” is יְנַחֲמֵנוּ (yenaḥamenu), from the same נ־ח־ם (n-ḥ-m) root behind “repented” here. English divides consolation from regret; Genesis holds them in one word-family, so Noah’s hoped-for comfort echoes beside the maker’s grief.
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