Genesis 6:3

And the Lord —Jehovah; not because due to the Jehovist (Tuch, Bleek, Colenso), but because the sin above specified was a direct violation of the footing of grace on which the Sethites stood— said ,—to himself, i.e. purposed,— My spirit —neither "ira, seu rigida Dei justitia" (Venema), nor "the Divine spirit of life bestowed upon man, the principle of physical and ethical, natural and spiritual life" (Keil); but the Holy Ghost, the Ruach Elohim of Genesis 1:2 — shall not always strive . London : —

1. Shall not dwell ( LXX ; ου ̓ μη Ì καταμει ì νη ; Vulgate, non permanebit ; Syriac, Onkelos).

2. Shall not be humbled, i.e. by dwelling in men (Gesenius, Tuch).

3. More probably, shall not rule (De Wette, Delitzsch, Kalisch, Furst), or shall not judge ( ου ̓ κρι ì νει ), as the consequence of ruling (Symmachus, Rosenmüller, Keil), or shall not contend in judgment ( arguere, reprehendere ; cf. Ecclesiastes 6:10 ), i.e. strive with a man by moral force (Calvin, Michaelis, Dathe, 'Speaker's Commentary,' Murphy, Bush). With man, for that he also —beshaggam . Either be, shaggam, inf. of shagag , to wander, with pron. surf. = " in their wandering" (Gesenius, Tuch, Keil)—the meaning being that men by their straying had proved themselves to be flesh, though a plural suffix with a singular pronoun following is inadmissible in Hebrew (Kalisch); or be, sh (contracted from asher ) , and gam (also) = quoniam . Cf. 5:7 ; 6:17 ; So 1:7 ( A . V .). Though an Aramaic particle, " it must never be forgotten that Aramaisms are to be expected either in the most modern or in the most ancient portions of Scripture " ('Speaker's Commentary)—is flesh, not "transitory beings" (Gesenius, Rosenmüller, Tuch), or corporeal beings (Kalisch), but sinful beings; bashar being already employed in its ethical signification, like σα ì ρξ in the New Testament, to denote "man's materiality as rendered ungodly by sin" (Keil). "The doctrine of the carnal mind ( Romans 8:1-39 .) is merely the outgrowth, of the thought expressed in this passage ' (Murphy). Yet his days —not the individual's (Kalisch), which were not immediately curtailed to the limit mentioned, and, even after the Flood, extended far beyond it ( vide Genesis 11:1-32 .); but the races, which were only to be prolonged in gracious respite (Calvin)— shall be an hundred and twenty years . Tuch, Colenso, and others, supposing this to have been said by God in Noah's 500th year, find a respite only of 100 years, instead of 120; but the historian does not assert that it was then God either formed or announced this determination.