Genesis 6:7
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶמְחֶה אֶת־הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָאתִי מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָֽאֲדָמָה מֵֽאָדָם עַד־בְּהֵמָה עַד־רֶמֶשׂ וְעַד־עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם כִּי נִחַמְתִּי כִּי עֲשִׂיתִֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהוָ֗ה אֶמְחֶ֨ה אֶת־הָאָדָ֤ם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֙אתִי֙ מֵעַל֙ פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה מֵֽאָדָם֙ עַד־בְּהֵמָ֔ה עַד־רֶ֖מֶשׂ וְעַד־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כִּ֥י נִחַ֖מְתִּי כִּ֥י עֲשִׂיתִֽם׃
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός Ἀπαλείψω τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὃν ἐποίησα ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς, ἀνθρώπου ἕως κτήνους καὶ ἀπὸ ἑρπετῶν ἕως τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ· ὅτι ἐθυμώθην ὅτι ἐποίησα αὐτούς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Delebo, inquit, hominem, quem creavi, a facie terræ, ab homine usque ad animantia, a reptili usque ad volucres cæli: pœnitet enim me fecisse eos.
Por eso dijo Yehová: “Voy a borrar de la superficie de la tierra a estos hombres que he creado, y también a los animales, a los reptiles y a las aves del cielo. ¡Me pesa haberlos hecho!”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y dijo Jehová: Raeré los hombres que he criado de sobre la faz de la tierra, desde el hombre hasta la bestia, y hasta el reptil y las aves del cielo: porque me arrepiento de haberlos hecho.
So the LORD said, “ I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.” Noah’s Favor with God
✦ What the text says
Summary
Yehovah declares his intention to wipe out humankind, along with animals, creeping things, and birds, from the surface of the ground. The reason given is that he "regrets" having made them.
Key words
'em.Cheh ("I will wipe", H4229A) — qal imperfect, first person: an ongoing or future action, expressing intention rather than completed deed.
ba.Ra.ti ("I created", H1254A) — qal perfect, first person, used in a relative clause ('a.Sher, "which", H0834A) modifying 'a.Dam ("humankind", H0120G): the creating is presented as a completed prior act, contrasted with the future "wiping."
pe.Nei ("[the] surface of", H6440J) — masculine plural construct, linking to 'a.da.Mah ("ground", H0127G): a construct chain meaning "the face/surface of the ground."
ni.Cham.ti ("I regret", H5162H) — niphal perfect, first person: the niphal stem here carries a reflexive/passive nuance often rendered as an inner emotional change of state ("I am sorry," "I regret"), distinct from a simple active verb.
'a.si.Ti ("I have made", H6213H) — qal perfect, first person, with pronominal suffix -m ("them", H9038): completed action referring back to the same beings just listed.
What the text says
The verse opens with the narrative sequence marker va (H9001) attached to i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559), the standard construction introducing direct speech. The speaker is identified as Yah.weh (H3068G). What follows is a first-person declaration built on two perfect-tense verbs framing one imperfect: ba.Ra.ti ("I created") describes the prior act, 'em.Cheh ("I will wipe") describes the intended future act, and the object is 'et-ha-'a.Dam ("humankind"), marked by the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853) and the definite article ha (H9009).
The scope of the declaration is expanded through a series of items connected by the preposition 'ad ("unto", H5704): from 'a.Dam ("humankind") to be.he.Mah ("animal", H0929), to Re.mes ("creeping thing", H7431), and to of ha-sha.Ma.yim ("bird of the heavens", H5775 + H8064), the last joined by the conjunction ve (H9002). The construct form of ("bird of") ties directly to ha-sha.Ma.yim ("the heavens"), producing "bird of the heavens" rather than two separate nouns.
The motive clause is introduced twice by the particle ki (H3588A), first governing ni.Cham.ti ("I regret", niphal perfect) and second governing 'a.si.Ti ("I have made", qal perfect) with the suffixed pronoun -m ("them"). The repetition of ki creates a doubled causal structure: "for I regret... that I have made them."
Differences between versions
The LXX renders Yah.weh as ho theos ("God") rather than transliterating the divine name. Where the Hebrew verb ni.Cham.ti (niphal, "I regret") appears, the LXX uses ethymōthēn ("I was angered/provoked"), a different semantic field than regret. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew sense more closely with poenitet... me ("it repents me" / "I regret"). The Hebrew construct phrase of ha-sha.Ma.yim ("bird of the heavens") appears in the LXX as tōn peteinōn tou ouranou ("the birds of the heaven"), preserving the construct relationship, while the Vulgate's volucres caeli does the same.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.