THERE WERE TEN GENERATIONS FROM ADAM TO NOAH. What need is there for mankind to [know] this? It is to teach you that although those generations provoked Him continually, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not bring the waters of the flood upon them on account of the righteous and pious who were among them. Some say that as long as Methuselah was alive the flood did not descend upon the earth; and even when Methuselah died the flood was yet suspended for them for seven days after his death, as it is stated, And it came to pass after the seven days.¹ What special feature was there about those seven days? They were the days of mourning for that righteous man which stayed the retribution; therefore it is stated, And it came to pass after the seven days.² Another interpretation of And it came to pass after the seven days: it teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, granted them this further respite after the original period of one hundred and twenty years, in which time they might repent;³, is interpreted by the Rabbis as a period of warning which God granted to that generation in which to repent. When this ended, He allowed them a further seven days’ grace. but they did not do so, therefore it is stated, And it came to pass after the seven days. Another interpretation is: the words teach that the Holy One, blessed be He, reversed for them the order of the universe, the sun rising in the west and setting in the east, perchance they would notice it, be awestruck and repent; but they did not do so, therefore it is stated, And it came to pass after the seven days.⁴ recall the days of the creation and suggest that God interfered with the order of nature, as laid down at the creation, in the hope that mankind would be awestruck at the phenomenon and repent. Another interpretation: The words teach that the Holy One, blessed be He, spread His table before them and showed them His bounty of the kind to be enjoyed in the world to come, so that they might scrutinize themselves and say, ‘Woe to us for all this good which we shall have lost!’ But they corrupted their way upon the earth,⁵ as it is stated, And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; [for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth].⁶ VI, 12.

footnotes: ¹ Gen. 7, 10. ² Cf. Sanh. 108b (Sonc. ed., p. 744). ³ The verse in Gen. 6, 3, Therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years ⁴ The words the seven days ⁵ The text is in disorder and the translation follows Schechter’s text which gives the MS. reading. V reads ‘and [woe to us] for having destroyed our seed from the earth’. ⁶ ibid.

R. Eleazar b. Parṭa said: It is written, My spirit shall not judge man for ever.⁷ 3. The verb yadon, translated in the Versions as ‘abide’ or ‘contend’, is here given the meaning ‘judge’. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘I shall not judge them until I shall have first doubled their reward’,⁸ as it is stated, They spend their days in prosperity, and peacefully they go down to the grave.⁹ R. Jose the Galilean said: Scripture states, Shall not judge. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘I shall not regard the evil impulse as equal to the good impulse’. When is this so? Before the decree has been sealed; but once the decree has been sealed, both impulses bear equal responsibility for sin.¹⁰ VI, 5), God will not judge it on the same footing as the good impulse, but make allowance for human frailty. Once man has been sentenced at the seat of judgment, both impulses are on equal footing as regards responsibility for sin. Cf. the somewhat similar statement by the same author in Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XXVI, §6 (Sonc. ed., pp. 216f).

footnotes: ⁷ ibid. ⁸ This is in agreement with the Rabbinic doctrine (cf. Ḳid. 40b, Sonc. ed., p. 202) that God bestows prosperity upon the wicked in this world, paying them a double reward for the few good deeds to their credit in this world (cf. B.B. 15b, Sonc. ed., p. 75), in order to deny them the world to come. ⁹ Job 21, 13. Their reward is thus double: they live in prosperity and die in tranquillity without suffering; cf. Sanh. 108a (Sonc. ed., p. 739) where the verse is explained as referring to the generation of the flood. ¹⁰ The intention of this passage is obscure. Perhaps the meaning is: because the evil impulse enters man at birth (Gen. 8, 21) and the nature of man is prone to fall under its sway (ibid.

He used to say: From the righteous the evil impulse is removed¹¹ and they are left with¹² the good impulse only, as it is stated, My heart is slain within me.¹³ is meant the desires of the heart, i.e. the evil impulse. [According to Bacher, Ag. d. Tannaiten, I, p. 361, n. 3, the interpretation is based on the use of leb for heart instead of lebab both here and in the next quotation. The latter is explained by the Rabbis as the two impulses while the former denotes only one of them.] From the wicked the good impulse is removed and they are left with the evil impulse only, as it is stated, Transgression speaketh to the wicked, methinks—there is no fear of God before his eyes.¹⁴ XXXVI, 2. Transgression speaketh is interpreted as ‘the evil impulse prompts’. Average people are left with both impulses: he who draws near to the evil impulse is swayed by it, and he who draws near to the good impulse is swayed by it, as it is stated, Because He standeth at the right hand of the needy, to save him from them that judge his soul.¹⁵ CIX, 31. The needy are the average persons who are lacking in good deeds. Them that judge his soul are the two impulses in man which control him. On the passage, cf. Ber. 61b (Sonc. ed., p. 385). R. Simeon b. Eleazar said: Scripture states, Shall not judge. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘I will not judge them until I have rewarded the righteous’. This is so only in this world;¹⁶ but as for the world to come Scripture declares, His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his dust.¹⁷ CXLVI, 4. Consequently the wicked will not see anything of the reward granted to the righteous in the hereafter. R. ‘Aḳiba said: Scripture states, My spirit shall not judge man for ever. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘They did not scrutinize themselves as mortals,¹⁸, here understood as ‘they did not judge themselves’ is the generation of the flood. but displayed an arrogant spirit towards the Most High’, [as it is stated,] Yet they said unto God: Depart from us.¹⁹ R. Meir said: Scripture states, Shall not judge. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘That generation declared, “The Lord shall not judge” [meaning,] there is no Judge in the world; the All-present has abandoned the world’. Rabbi [Judah the Prince] said: Scripture states, Shall not judge. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘They do not set up courts of justice on earth, so I will set up²⁰ against them courts of justice on high’.

footnotes: ¹¹ lit. ‘he takes away from them’. ¹² lit. ‘and he gives them’. ¹³ Ps. 109, 22, E.V., is wounded. By heart ¹⁴ ibid. ¹⁵ ibid. ¹⁶ The punishment of the wicked will be the more poignant when they see the bliss of the righteous. This, however, can only happen in this world and not in the world to come, because the generation of the flood will not stand in the judgment in the world to come; cf. Sanh. 107b (Sonc. ed., p. 737). ¹⁷ ibid. ¹⁸ According to this interpretation the subject of yadon ¹⁹ Job 21, 14. ²⁰ There is a variant, ‘I, too, will not set up’; i.e. I will punish them without recourse to judicial procedure.