Глава 6

Having spoken about Noah's purity, Moses turns to the story of how evil lust intensified in Noah's contemporaries and says: “And it came to pass when the sons of men began to be many... and daughters were born to them” (Gen. 6:1). Moses here calls the tribe of Cain many people, and by adding, “that the daughters were born to them,” he wants to show that, according to what we said earlier, the descendants of Cain were dwindling. “When the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were good, they girded for themselves wives from all those they had chosen” (Gen. 6:2). The sons of Seth are called the sons of God. They, like the children of righteous Seth, are called the people of God. “They are good... the daughters of men,” whom the sons of God saw, they are the daughters of Cain; their beauty and decoration served as a snare for the sons of Seth. The words: “girding for themselves wives from all those who had chosen them,” show that when they took them as wives, then they were proud of them, they made a choice from them, the poor was proud of himself before the rich, the old was proud of the young, the ugliest was proud of the most beautiful. The descendants of Cain did not pay attention to either wealth or appearance, but only wanted to have farmers for their lands that remained unsown. This began with the intemperate and the poor; the incontinent were carried away by the beauty of the daughters of men, and the poor lusted after their riches. The entire Sifovo tribe followed in their footsteps. And since the sons of Seth took the daughters of Cain as spouses and neglected their former wives, the latter ceased to maintain the purity and modesty that they had observed until that time for the sake of their husbands and with them. And since this intemperance spread among husbands and wives, Scripture says: “all flesh corrupted its way” (Gen. 6:12). “And the Lord God said: My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh: but their days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3), that is, in this generation life will not last up to nine hundred years, as it continued in the primitive generations. “They are flesh,” for the days of their lives are spent in carnal affairs. “Their days shall be a hundred and twenty years,” - if they repent of the continuation of that time, they will be delivered from the wrath that threatens them; if they do not repent, they will incur wrath by their deeds. Thus, the goodness of God gives one hundred and twenty years for repentance to a race that would not deserve it in truth. Afterwards, Moses writes about the children born of Cain’s daughters from the sons of Seth, and says: “And you performed the blessings on the earth in those days: and then, when the sons of God came in among the daughters of men, and I rejoiced for myself: these performed the blessings that have come from the ages, the rich men” (Gen. 6:4). Those who were born were giants for the small tribe of Cain, and not for the strong tribe of Seth. In the descendants of Cain, people became stunted, because the earth cursed by God did not give them its strength and provided only weak and powerless products (food), as it happens today that the earth, fruits and herbs sometimes give strength, and sometimes do not give it. Since the descendants of Cain, as the damned, as the sons of the damned, and as those who lived on the damned land, then collected and ate such growths of the earth, devoid of power, then they themselves became as powerless as what they ate. The sons of Seth, since they were sons of blessing and lived on the earth adjacent to paradise, ate numerous and not devoid of strength earthly products and had strong bodies. These strong sons of Seth, coming to the daughters of the groaning Cain, gave birth to famous giants for his tribe. The words: “from time immemorial” mean that for Cain’s tribe the same giants were born as the primitive and eminent people – Seth and Enos. After the story of the giants born in the offspring of Cain, whose wives, although they were beautiful, were too small in comparison with the sons of Seth, Moses says: “When the Lord God saw the wickedness of men multiply on the earth: and everyone deliberately thinks evil in his heart all the days” (Gen. 6:5). So, over the course of the years given for repentance, people added sins to sins. “The malice of men has multiplied on the earth,” that is, the malice has spread in both tribes. The thoughts of their hearts were set “on evil all the days,” because not only at times, but constantly and at every hour, they sinned, neither day nor night, never ceasing to fulfill their evil thoughts. Because of such general wickedness, “God said: I will consume... from man, even to livestock, and from creeping things, even to the birds of the air: I have not repented for what I have done” (Gen. 6:7). God does not repent as not having foreseen that people would reach such corruption, but He wants to show to subsequent generations the great wickedness of the human race, which has reached such a degree of intemperance that it seems to bring the unrepentant God to repentance. Moreover, the Holy Spirit justified God's justice, making it clear that people were not destroyed by the flood in vain. If this unrepentant Creature condescended to say about Himself “repentance”, then he spoke in such a way that the daring race, hearing these words, shuddered, and so that the seeds of repentance sank into the hearts of those who persisted. If there had been any deficiency in God’s creatures, then God would have created a new world and would not have preserved in the ark the creature whose creation he repented of. But look, God, having said “repentance”, thereby shows that He did not repent! For if God repented of sinners, then why was there remorse for animals, creeping things, and birds of the air that did not sin? If he didn’t regret them, then why did he say “repentance” when he didn’t repent? Therefore, regret about the creation of not only the guilty, but also the innocent, confirms that God spoke of His repentance out of love for sinners, and does not show that God did not have foreknowledge. The Goodness that created people was pained by the fact that they must perish for their deeds, and if they do not perish, then through them the generations that follow them will become wicked. When the shortening of human life and God’s repentance did not make people tremble and did not awaken in them regret for their sins, then God says to Noah: “The time of all flesh has come before Me... Make for yourself an ark from trees that grow high... The length of the ark is three hundred lactae, and the breadth of fifty lactae, and the height of it is thirty lactae... And in a lacta you will complete it from above... the habitation... You will create a mixture of blood within it... and you will tar it... outside with pitch" (Gen. 6:13-16). God laid such hard work on the righteous, not wanting to bring a flood on sinners. Where could Noah get such trees? Where could I get resin, iron and tow? With whose hands could he do this? Where could he get people who would help him in his business? Who would listen to him when in the human race “all flesh grew its way?” (Gen.6:12). If Noah himself and his household had begun to build the ark, would not everyone who saw him laugh at him? However, Noah began building the ark in the first of those years that were given to his contemporaries for repentance, and completed the construction in the hundredth year. You might be interested in: