926. The meaning of Jehovah said in his heart as the fact that it would no longer happen this way will be seen from what follows.

When Jehovah is spoken of as saying, it means only that a thing happens or does not happen in this way (or that it is to happen or not to happen in this way). After all, nothing else can be said about Jehovah than "He is." ¹

Actions or traits that passages in the Word often attribute to Jehovah are mentioned for the sake of those whose minds cannot grasp anything beyond ordinary human experience. That is why the literal sense has the nature that it does. The simple at heart can learn from the appearances with which we all live. They hardly venture beyond what their senses reveal to them, so the Word speaks at their level of understanding. Such is the case here with the statement that Jehovah said something in his heart.

Footnotes:

554. Genesis 6

1. And so it was that humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them.

2. And the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were good, and they took wives for themselves from among all whom they chose.

3. And Jehovah said, "My spirit will not denounce humankind forever, because they are flesh. And their days will be one hundred twenty years."

4. The Nephilim ¹ were in the land in those days and for a very long time after ² the sons of God went in to the daughters of humankind, who bore children to them. These were mighty men, who for ages had been men with a name.

5. And Jehovah saw that the evil of the people in the land multiplied; and what the thoughts of their heart fabricated was nothing but evil every day.

6. And Jehovah was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and he grieved to himself at heart.

7. And Jehovah said, "I will obliterate the human whom I created from the face of the ground, from human to beast to creeping animal to the bird in the heavens, because I regret that I made these things."

8. But Noah found favor in Jehovah's eyes.

554. Summary

THIS is talking about the condition of the pre-Flood people.

Footnotes: