Passage

Genesis 6.5

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5, NASB95)

Book: Genesis · NASB95

The most uncompromising statement of human sinfulness in the Torah. The verse stacks three intensifiers, "every... only... continually," with no qualifier, no remnant clause, no exception. It is the antediluvian narrator's verdict on humanity before the flood, and it has been read across the tradition as the locus classicus for total depravity, original sin, the noetic effects of the fall, and the necessity of divine initiative in salvation.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"3. And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. 4. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown."

"5. And Jehovah 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. And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7. And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them." (Genesis 6:3-7, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"3. Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will 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 and had children with 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 man’s heart was continually only evil."

"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.”" (Genesis 6:3-7, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"3. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

"5. And GOD 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. ^{every: or, the whole imagination: the Hebrew word signifieth not only the imagination, but also the purposes and desires} ^{continually: Heb. every day}"

"6. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. ^{both: Heb. from man unto beast}" (Genesis 6:3-7, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"3. And Jehovah saith, 'My Spirit doth not strive in man, to the age; in their erring they [are] flesh:' and his days have been an hundred and twenty years. 4. The fallen ones were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when sons of God come in unto daughters of men, and they have borne to them, they [are] the heroes, who, from of old, [are] the men of name."

"5. And Jehovah seeth that abundant [is] the wickedness of man in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil all the day;"

"6. and Jehovah repenteth that He hath made man in the earth, and He grieveth Himself, unto His heart. 7. And Jehovah saith, 'I wipe away man whom I have prepared from off the face of the ground, from man unto beast, unto creeping thing, and unto fowl of the heavens, for I have repented that I have made them.'" (Genesis 6:3-7, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the narrator of Genesis
Audience: Israel post-Exodus, reading the prehistory of the flood
Location: the antediluvian earth
Time period: events in deep prehistory; composed c. 1446 to 1406 BC (traditional dating)

Theological reading

Three Hebrew terms stack to produce the most pessimistic anthropology in the Pentateuch. Yetzer (translated "imagination" or "intent") is the rabbinic technical term for the inclination of the heart, later expanded into the two-inclination doctrine (yetzer hatov and yetzer hara) of Second Temple Judaism. Lev (heart) is the seat of will and reason. Kol-hayom ("continually") literally reads "all the day." The verse insists not that humans do bad things occasionally, but that the very orientation of the human will, examined at any moment, is in the wrong direction.

This is the verse Augustine read against Pelagius. It is the verse the Reformers read against late-medieval semi-Pelagianism. It is the verse modern Calvinism reads against any optimism about unaided human reach toward God (Calvinism, Original Sin, Federal Headship). The argument is structural: if Genesis 6:5 is the assessment before the flood and before the Mosaic covenant and before the conquest, no later episode of human achievement can be read as proof of intrinsic human goodness. Whatever good remains is grace, not nature. Genesis 8:21, on the far side of the flood, repeats the diagnosis ("the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth"), confirming that the flood did not solve the underlying problem; only the new covenant in Christ does.

The verse is in tension with surface readings of Imago Dei ("God created man in His own image," Genesis 1:27) only if image is read as moral state rather than ontological status. The Reformed tradition holds both: the image is retained but defaced; humans remain image-bearers with inviolable dignity even while their wills are oriented away from God. This dual claim is what underwrites the simultaneous Christian commitment to universal human dignity and to the necessity of grace.

Apologetically, the verse cuts against two opposing distortions. Against secular optimism ("humans are basically good"), it asserts the empirical and theological fact that human history demonstrates the contrary. Against gnostic-style anti-humanism, it presupposes that humans were created good (Genesis 1:31), have fallen, and remain image-bearers worthy of redemption. The fall is real but not constitutive of human nature; it is what the image of God has fallen from.

Key words

H3068 - YHWH, YHWH (the divine name), the covenant Lord makes this assessment
H3820 - lev, lev (heart), the seat of will and reason, ground zero of the diagnosis
H0120 - adam, adam (man/humanity), generic humanity, not a particular subset

Theological themes

Total depravity. Not "as evil as possible" but "in every part touched by sin"; the will, the affections, and the intellect are all darkened
Original sin. The verse pairs with Genesis 6.6 and Genesis 8:21 to establish that the human problem is not behavioural but constitutional
Universality and inwardness. "Every intent of the thoughts", sin reaches the inner life, not just the outer act
The necessity of grace. If the diagnosis is correct, salvation must originate with God; humans cannot self-cleanse

Cross-references

Genesis 8:21, the post-flood restatement of the diagnosis
Romans 5.12-21, Adam's federal headship and the spread of sin
Romans 3:10 to 18, Paul's florilegium of OT total-depravity texts
Jeremiah 17:9, "the heart is deceitful above all things"
Genesis 6.6, the immediate divine response

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.