4 PEOPLE BECOME CORRUPT AGAIN
The People of the Earth Again Become Corrupt. Noah is Born
1 And all the days that Enoch lived upon earth, were three hundred and sixty-five years.
2 And when Enoch had ascended into heaven, all the kings of the earth rose and took Methuselah his son and anointed him, and they caused him to reign over them in the place of his father.
3 And Methuselah acted uprightly in the sight of YAHWEH, as his father Enoch had taught him, and he likewise during the whole of his life taught the sons of men wisdom, knowledge and the fear of YAHWEH, and he did not turn from the good way either to the right or to the left.
4 But in the latter days of Methuselah, the sons of men turned from YAHWEH, they corrupted the earth, they robbed and plundered each other, and they rebelled against YAHWEH and they transgressed, and they corrupted their ways, and would not hearken to the voice of Methuselah, but rebelled against him.
5 And YAHWEH was exceedingly wroth against them, and YAHWEH continued to destroy the seed in those days, so that there was neither sowing nor reaping in the earth.
6 For when they sowed the ground in order that they might obtain food for their support, behold, thorns and thistles were produced which they did not sow.
7 And still the sons of men did not turn from their evil ways, and their hands were still extended to do evil in the sight of YAHWEH, and they provoked YAHWEH with their evil ways, and YAHWEH was very wroth, and repented that he had made man.
8 And he thought to destroy and annihilate them and he did so.
9 In those days when Lamech the son of Methuselah was one hundred and sixty years old, Seth the son of Adam died.
10 And all the days that Seth lived, were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.
11 And Lamech was one hundred and eighty years old when he took Ashmua, the daughter of Elisha the son of Enoch his uncle, and she conceived.
12 And at that time the sons of men sowed the ground, and a little food was produced, yet the sons of men did not turn from their evil ways, and they trespassed and rebelled against YAHWEH.
13 And the wife of Lamech conceived and bare him a son at that time, at the revolution of the year.
14 And Methuselah called his name Noah, saying, The earth was in his days at rest and free from corruption, and Lamech his father called his name Menachem, saying, This one shall comfort us in our works and miserable toil in the earth, which YAHWEH had cursed.
15 And the child grew up and was weaned, and he went in the ways of his father Methuselah, perfect and upright with YAHWEH.
16 And all the sons of men departed from the ways of YAHWEH in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the earth with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices and they continued sinning against YAHWEH.
17 And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence.
18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke YAHWEH; and YAHWEH saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
19 And YAHWEH said, I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth, yea from man to the birds of the air, together with cattle and beasts that are in the field for I repent that I made them.
20 And all men who walked in the ways of YAHWEH, died in those days, before YAHWEH brought the evil upon man which he had declared, for this was from YAHWEH, that they should not see the evil which YAHWEH spoke of concerning the sons of men.
21 And Noah found free unmerited love and favour in the sight of YAHWEH, and YAHWEH chose him and his children to raise up seed from them upon the face of the whole earth.