Genesis 6:2

Summary

The verse states that the "sons of God" saw that the "daughters of humankind" were good/beautiful, and as a result they took wives for themselves from among all the women they chose. The clause structure links a perception (seeing), a causal judgment (because they were good), and a resulting action (taking wives).

Key words

• bene ("sons of", H1121I) — masculine plural noun in construct state, forming a fixed phrase with the following noun; construct nouns cannot stand alone and always link to what follows.
• ha-Elohim ("God", H0430G) — plural noun with definite article; here functioning as the second element of the construct chain bene ha-Elohim, "sons of the God/gods."
• ki ("that/because", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the reason or content clause explaining what the "sons" perceived.
• tovot henah ("[were] good, they [f.]", H2896A + H2007) — feminine plural adjective followed by the feminine plural pronoun "they," forming a nominal clause without a copula ("they [were] good") — Hebrew often omits "to be" in the present/described state.
• bacharu ("they chose", H0977) — qal perfect, marking completed action; describes a prior selection process now finished, contrasting with the narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs around it.

What the text says

The sentence opens with two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs, va-yir'u ("and they saw," H7200G) and later va-yiqchu ("and they took," H3947I), which carry the main storyline forward in sequence: seeing, then taking. Between these two actions sits a subordinate clause introduced by ki ("that," H3588A), stating the content of what was seen: tovot henah, "they [were] good" — a verbless clause typical of Hebrew stative description, with no explicit "to be."

The two groups involved are marked by parallel construct chains: bene ha-Elohim ("sons of the God/gods") and benot ha-adam ("daughters of humankind," H1323G + H0120G), connected by the direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated). The final clause, mikkol asher bacharu ("from all whom they chose," H3605 + H0834A + H0977), uses a qal perfect verb, indicating that the choosing was already completed at the time the wives were taken — the taking follows a finished act of selection.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew construct phrase bene ha-Elohim ("sons of the God/gods") is rendered in the Vulgate as filii Dei ("sons of God"), matching the Hebrew construct sense directly. The LXX text given instead reads oi angeloi ("the angels"), omitting an explicit reference to "God" in this clause and substituting a different noun for "sons," diverging from both the Hebrew and the Vulgate in how the first group is identified.