Passage

Genesis 6.6

"The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." (Genesis 6:6, NASB95)

Book: Genesis · NASB95

The text that has occasioned more divine-immutability debate per word than perhaps any other in the Old Testament. Did God change His mind? Was He surprised? Or is the verb (Hebrew nacham, "to be sorry / to relent") an anthropopathism, a divinely-authorized human-shaped description of an unchanging divine response to a changed creaturely situation? Classical theism reads the second way; open theism reads the first. The verse is the principal proof-text on both sides.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"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. 8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah." (Genesis 6:4-8, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"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.” 8. But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes." (Genesis 6:4-8, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"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} 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." (Genesis 6:4-8, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"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.' 8. And Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah." (Genesis 6:4-8, YLT)

Setting

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

Theological reading

The Hebrew verb nacham covers a semantic range from "comfort oneself" to "regret" to "relent." When applied to God it must be read alongside the canon's other affirmations: "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent" (Numbers 23.19), and "the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind" (1 Samuel 15.29), and "I, the LORD, do not change" (Malachi 3.6). Classical theism reads Genesis 6:6 as an anthropopathism, that is, a real description of God's response to creaturely sin cast in covenantally-fitting human terms. God does not literally have a heart that aches the way a human heart aches; the language reaches across the divine-creature gap so the Israelite reader can grasp that human wickedness is not a matter of indifference to God. The eternal divine will, foreknowing the fall, foreknowing the flood, foreknowing the rainbow covenant, is unchanged. What changes is the creaturely situation; the language of "regret" describes God's unchanging holiness encountering a changed world.

Open theists (Open Theism) read the verse the opposite way: God genuinely did not know exactly how human history would unfold, His "regret" is a real cognitive update, and Genesis 6:6 is plain testimony that the future is open even to God. The classical reply is that the open-theist reading is incompatible with Numbers 23.19 and 1 Samuel 15.29 and the broader canonical witness to omniscience and immutability, and that the cost of taking Genesis 6:6 hyper-literally is reading every other passage about God's nature through one verse rather than reading one verse through the canon's whole testimony.

The verse also surfaces a Christological resonance. The same Lord who is "grieved" by the wickedness of the antediluvian world will Himself enter that world in the incarnation, take its grief into His own person at the cross, and bring its judgment to completion through resurrection. The phrase "grieved in His heart" is picked up in Ephesians 4:30 ("do not grieve the Holy Spirit"), suggesting the pattern is permanent: human sin really does affect God, even if not in the way creaturely sorrow affects us. See Divine Immutability, Divine Impassibility, Classical Theism, and Classical Theism vs Theistic Personalism for the systematic frames.

Key words

H3068 - YHWH, YHWH (the divine name), the covenantal LORD, not generic deity
H3820 - lev, lev (heart), the seat of will and intent in Hebrew anthropology; here in anthropopathic predication of God

Theological themes

Anthropopathism. Human-shaped descriptions of God authorized by Scripture; condescension to creaturely understanding, not literal predication
Divine immutability and impassibility. The classical-theist commitment that God's nature and will do not change; "regret" describes a relational vector, not an internal upheaval
Open-theist counter-reading. Genesis 6:6 as evidence the future is open to God; the principal proof-text of the position
The grief of God over sin. Whether literal or analogical, the verse insists human wickedness is not a matter of divine indifference; this matters pastorally and apologetically against the "cold deity" caricature

Cross-references

Numbers 23.19, "God is not a man that He should repent", the central counter-text
1 Samuel 15.29, "the Glory of Israel will not change His mind" (paired with Samuel's earlier statement that the Lord did "regret" making Saul king; the chapter holds both together)
Malachi 3.6, "I the LORD do not change"
Genesis 6.5, the immediate antecedent: human wickedness as the occasion for the divine "regret"
Jonah 3:10, Exodus 32:14, similar "relenting" predications

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.