Genesis 6:11 and HAMAS

[RR144]

In Genesis 6:11 we read:

“Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth became full of violence.”

In the Hebrew it reads:
ותמלא הארץ חמס

Which translates:
And the earth was filled with חמס hamas.

Let that sink in.

 

[Nancy]

What do you make of this brother?

"In this week’s portion we learn the name of the wickedness: hamas. “The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. ותמלא הארץ חמס” (Genesis 6:11)

The translation of lawlessness doesn’t provide the nuance to the Hebrew word hamas because the Torah doesn’t ever specify—even elsewhere—what it really means. The commentators tried to explain. They, too, wondered what kind of choices had the people made to provoke God’s response to want to destroy them. Clearly not good ones."

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