I love talking about Genesis. And now Jeff has asked a question for “Hebrew people.” I’m pretty sure I’m not a Hebrew person, but I’m going to try to lay out exactly what’s going on in the Hebrew of Genesis 6:3. The Hebrew reads as follows
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה לֹא־יָדוֹן רוּחִי בָאָדָם לְעֹלָם בְּשַׁגַּם הוּא בָשָׂר וְהָיוּ יָמָיו מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה׃
Vayomer YHWH lo-yadown ruwchiy ba’adam l’olam beshaggam huw’ basar vehayuw yamain me’ah
Vayomer YHWH — And Jehovah said
ruwchiy — my Spirit
lo-yadown — will not ‘yadown.’ Yadown occurs only once in the O.T. According to the KJV it means “strive,” but for the sake of this post, I’ll assume that it means “remain” as found in the NET and the ancient Greek Septuagint translation.
ba’adam — in Man
l’olam — forever
beshaggam — this is a rare form that appears to have been produced by mashing a few words together. I’ll assume the NET is right in translating it “since.” For more information, see the note on YLT at the end.
huw’ — he
basar — flesh
vehayuw yamain me’ah v’esriym shanah– and his days will be one hundred twenty years.
And so we can translate the whole thing: “And Jehovah said, my Spirit will not remain in Man forever, because he is flesh. And his days will be one hundred twenty years.”
The NET has “So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” The differences between its translation and mine are all a matter of English style, except that the NET translates the last bit in a way that indicates they side with the Flood theory of the verse’s meaning.
The NLT has “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.’” And that’s just reckless paraphrasing, as I see it.
UPDATE: Oops! I promised to say what what going on with the YLT. YLT translates beshaggam as ‘in their erring.’ That’s all.
3 Comments
It’s poetically ambiguous. On the one hand, God’s spirit will not “contend with” man, for he is “corrupt.” On the other hand, God’s spirit will not “remain in” man, for he is “mortal.” Part of the figurative use of “flesh” is that it can refer to our frailties that make us distinct from God: our physical frailty (mortality) and our moral frailty (corruption). Both of these figurative uses fit the surrounding context.
The idea of corruption is important in Genesis 6. Physical corruption is the decay of flesh. Spiritual corruption is moral decay. Since we almost never use the word corrupt today to refer to literal, physical decay, we can’t find an equally ambiguous word for it. God chooses to “destroy” the “corrupt” in vv. 12-13. Because of violence, humanity corrupted the earth both spiritually and physically, so God gives them more “corruption” than they can handle. It’s poetic justice.
Curious whether this is true I have been seeking an answer on this from someone who knows how to calculate it, can you help?
The word for ’120′ (mê’âh – ‛eśrîym) amounts to 666 in Gematria.
One-hundred and Twenty [120] = 666
מירשע-האמ
(Mem, Aleph, Hey – Ayin, Shin, Resh, Yod, Mem)
The number 666 pops on the scene right after the value of 120 and the word for [120] in Hebrew, calculates out to [666]
1 Kings 10:10 And she [Sheba] gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices a very great store and precious stones. Never again came such abundance of spices as these the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. 1 Kings 10:14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one particular year was 666 talents of gold
This appears alot elsewhere as my studies bring me to this but I cannot confirm if the above is correct, can you confirm or deny this for me?
Thanks for any help
You appear to have your Hebrew backwards–probably just a technology problem. The phrase “one hundred and twenty” as found in 1 Kings 10:10 is מאה ועשרים me’ah v’esrim, spelled mem-alef-hey, vav-ayin-sin-resh-yod-mem. The gemetria for the phrase then adds up to mem-aleph-he 40+1+5=46 and vav-ayin-sin-resh-yod-mem 6+70+300+200+10+40=626. me’ah and v’esrim, 46 and 626, make 672. Close, but not quite accurate.
Hope that helps.