Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/145

 contain a description of Noah and his contemporaries; Gen 6:13-22, the announcement of the purpose of God with reference to the flood.

Verse 9
“ Noah, a righteous man, was blameless among his generations:” righteous in his moral relation to God; blameless (τέλειος, integer) in his character and conduct. דּרות, γενεαί, were the generations or families “which passed by Noah, the Nestor of his time.” His righteousness and integrity were manifested in his walking with God, in which he resembled Enoch (Gen 5:22).

verses 10-12
In Gen 6:10-12, the account of the birth of his three sons, and of the corruption of all flesh, is repeated. This corruption is represented as corrupting the whole earth and filling it with wickedness; and thus the judgment of the flood is for the first time fully accounted for. “ The earth was corrupt before God ( Elohim points back to the previous Elohim in Gen 6:9),” it became so conspicuous to God, that He could not refrain from punishment. The corruption proceeded from the fact, that “ all flesh” - i.e., the whole human race which had resisted the influence of the Spirit of God and become flesh (see Gen 6:3) - “ had corrupted its way.” The term “flesh” in Gen 6:12 cannot include the animal world, since the