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When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 

Introduction

Here’s the big picture of this small passage: by the time of Genesis chapter 6, less than two thousand years into recorded history, “every intention of the thoughts [of the human] heart was only evil continually.”

There is a lesson here to learn right at the beginning: there were no “good old days” after Adam and Eve rebelled against God and were cast out of the garden. It’s pretty easy to look at the world we live in today and to cast a glance in the rearview mirror and say, “oh, if only it was like it used to be…” But Ecclesiastes 7:10 would tell us that this is not the path of wisdom. 

      “Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” 

      For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

There was no glory day for mankind after Adam’s fall. Look at the world around you, look at Genesis 6, and see the similarity. 

I’ve got four questions, broken into two sections: first, the problem of evil, under which we will consider, “who are the sons of God”, and, “who are the Nephilim?” The second section will be God’s response, under which we will consider, “what is meant by ‘his days shall be 120 years’?”, and “what does it mean for God to regret?”

The Problem of Evil

Who are the “Sons of God”

The first question arises in verse two. Who are the sons of God who “saw that the sons of man were attractive?” 

The only other times that phrase(Sons of God) is used in the OT (3 times in Job and once in Daniel), it refers to angelic beings. So it would seem most reasonable to think that this is also how the phrase is used in Genesis 6.

Further, this seems to be the viewpoint of the writers in New Testament books of 2 Peter and Jude as well: both refer to great sin committed by angels at the time of Noah. For this sin, there seem to be a certain number of angels who, unlike Satan and many of the other fallen angels in his service, are no longer free to roam the earth. Rather, they are kept in “chains of gloomy darkness” (2 Peter 2:4). In both Jude and 2 Peter this sin seems to be of a sexual nature, because it is placed directly alongside the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah: Jude 7 speaks of those who indulge in “sexual immorality and…unnatural desire.” Jude 6 also explicitly mentions that the angels “did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.” This seems to be the sort of thing which Genesis 6 is referring to. Angels leaving heaven, taking human form, and cohabitating with human women.

This is super weird. More than that, it’s deeply evil. Which is why God wouldn’t put up with it, and placed these demons in chains until the day or judgment, when they will ultimately be cast into the lake of fire.

Who are the Nephilim?

Now, if that’s how we understand the sons of God - as angelic beings - and they, according to