A commentary on Bereshit (Genesis) 6 in the Torah, examining the passage where the LORD regrets creating humanity and reflecting on the corruption of the world, the closing of the three worlds, and the symbolic signs marking the end of a civilizational cycle.
This page presents a commentary on Bereshit (Genesis) 6:5–7, a passage from the Torah describing the corruption of the world before the great catastrophe.
Bereshit is the first book of the Torah, traditionally known in English as Genesis.
Contents: Bereshit (Genesis) 6 — Repentance of the LORD and the End of a Civilizational Cycle
Bereshit (Genesis) 6:5–7
Artists have often depicted the destruction described in Bereshit 6 as a moment when the corruption of the world leads to a catastrophic turning point in human history.
5 The LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time.
6 And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened.
7 The LORD said, “I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created—men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.”*
Repentance of the LORD and the Question of Divine Nature
In Bereshit (Genesis) 6 of the Torah, the narrative states that the LORD regretted creating people.
This statement raises a fundamental question. What does it mean for a “divine figure” to repent?
If the Almighty is understood as the Creator of the Universe, the idea of regret appears difficult to reconcile with such perfection. Repentance implies a recognition that something has gone wrong or that an action must be reconsidered.
For this reason the passage invites reflection on the role of the figure called LORD within the narrative. The text portrays a being who reacts to events within the created world rather than one who stands beyond them in complete knowledge.
The Moral Condition of the World
The verses of Bereshit 6 describe a world in which human behaviour has become deeply corrupted. Violence and disorder dominate society, and the thoughts of the human heart are described as continually inclined toward evil — a moral decline already visible in earlier passages of Bereshit such as the story of Cain and Abel.
Within the narrative this condition leads to the decision of the LORD that culminates in the great catastrophe later described in the chapter — the destruction of much of the world.
The Closing of the Worlds
In this understanding, that catastrophe marks not only physical destruction but also a change in the structure of the world itself. Before it, the boundaries between the three worlds were not as closed as they later became, and communication between them was more open. After this turning point, direct contact was cut off, and only a faint connection remained — through visions and other subtle forms of perception.
Civilizational Cycles and the Revelation of Symbols
This is why the corruption described in Bereshit 6 is not only a story about the past. It is also a warning about the condition of the world at the end of the cycle.
The questions raised here continue in later passages of Bereshit, including the story of Abraham’s trial in Bereshit 22.
