The Bible

 

Genesis 6

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1 It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

2 that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.

3 Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."

4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

5 Yahweh 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.

6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

7 Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

8 But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.

9 This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

13 God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.

15 This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

16 You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.

17 I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.

18 But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

19 Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

20 Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.

21 Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them."

22 Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #587

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587. That 'Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth' means mercy, and that 'He was grieved in heart' has a similar meaning, is clear from the consideration that Jehovah foresees from eternity every single thing and therefore never repents. When He made man, that is, created him anew and perfected him to the point of his becoming celestial, He also foresaw that in the process of time he would become the kind of person described here. And because He foresaw the kind of person he would become, He could not repent. This is quite clear in Samuel,

Samuel said, The Invincible One of Israel does not lie, and He will not repent, for He is not a man (homo) that He should repent. 1 Samuel 15:29.

And in Moses,

God is not a man (vir), that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not act? Or has He spoken, and will He not carry it out? Numbers 23:19.

'Repenting' however means having mercy.

[2] Jehovah's, that is, the Lord's mercy includes every single thing which the Lord does towards the human race, whose condition is such that He has mercy on it, on each according to his state. He has mercy therefore on the state of the person He allows to be punished, as He does on that of the person on whom He confers the enjoyment of good. Being punished is a manifestation of mercy because it turns all evil that is being punished towards good. And conferring the enjoyment of good is a manifestation of mercy too, because nobody merits anything good at all. In fact the whole human race is evil, with everyone, if left to himself, rushing into hell. Consequently it is by mercy that anyone is rescued from that place, and by nothing other than mercy, since the Lord does not need anyone to help Him. The word mercy (misericordia) is used therefore because mercy rescues a person from misery (miseriae) and from hell, and so is used with respect to the human race whose condition is such, and it is the product of love towards all because all are such.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.