Bnei HaElohim & Bnot HaAdam Commentary Edited 11.28.22

(1) בני האלהים THE SONS OF ELOHIM — The sons of princes and rulers (Genesis Rabbah 26:15). Another explanation of בני האלהים is that these were princely angels who came as messengers from God: they, too, intermingled with them (the daughters of men). Wherever the word אלהים occurs in the Scriptures it signifies authority, and the following passages prove this: (Exodus 4:16) “and thou shalt be his (אלהים) master”, and (Exodus 7:1) “See, I have made the (אלהים) a master.”

לא ידון רוחי באדם MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT STRIVE AGAINST MAN — My Spirit shall not be in a state of discontent and shall not strive with Myself because of man.

(1) הנפילים THE GIANTS — Thy were called נפילים because they fell (נפלו) and caused the downfall of (הפילו) the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). (2) In Hebrew the giants are usually called בימים ההם .ענקים IN THOSE DAYS — In the days of the generations of Enosh and the sons of Cain (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). (3) וגם אחרי כן AND ALSO AFTER THAT — Although they witnessed the destruction of the generation of Enosh when the Ocean rose and flooded a third part of the world, yet the generation of the Flood did not humble itself and take a lesson from them (Genesis Rabbah 26). (4) אשר יבאו WHEN [THE SONS OF GOD] CAME IN, they (the women) bore children, giants like them (the fathers) (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). (5) הגבורים MIGHTY — in rebellion against God. (6) אנשי שם MEN OF RENOWN (literally, men of name) — Men who bore distinctive names: עירד, מחויאל, מתושאל being so named because these names have reference to their destruction, for they were wiped out and torn out from the world (מחוי-אל would signify “wiped-out-by-God”, מתושאל “Torn-out-by-God). Another explanation is that they were men of devastation (אנשי שם-מון) — who devastated the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7).

THE SONS OF GOD. The term bene Elohim (the sons of god) refers to the sons of the judges who dispensed God’s (Elohim) justice. Others say that Elohim refers to God Himself and the sons of God are holy ones (saints) living on earth. They are called sons of God in the sense of Ye are the children of the Lord your God (Deut. 14:1). Others say that the sons of God refers to the children of Seth and that the daughters of man refers to women of Cain’s family. However, it appears to me that the sons of God refers to those who know celestial knowledge. These men chose women who matched them astrologically and physically. Hence they produced mighty men. It is possible that they took women even against their will.

ויראו בני האלוהים, the sons of the judges, the elite of the species who are here referred to as אלוהים, just as in Exodus 22,27 אלוהים לא תקלל, “you must not curse a judge.” There are numerous similar examples in the Torah of the attribute אלוהים being applied to morally high ranking human beings. Onkelos also translates it in this vein when he speaks of בני רברביא. ...

את בנות האדם, the daughters of the weaker masses of the human race. The women were unable to resist the physically stronger בני האלוהים, and when the sons of the "great ones" saw the daughters of the poor/weak, that they were "good," meaning visually beautiful, they would exploit and take whomever they chose from all the women and those who were pleasing to them, whether single or married, for whoever was "greater" than his fellow would exploit his fellow and there was no one to save from their hand...

In the Sifri¸ (Behaalotcha 86) the point is made that if the judges' sons grabbed women from the marketplace and raped them, how much more so did the rest of the people [act in this manner]...

ויאמר ה' לא ידון רוחי באדם לעולם, G’d either said this to Himself, or to Noach. My father of blessed memory (Joseph Kimchi) explained the line לא ידון in the same sense as the word מדון in Proverbs 15,18 as referring to a struggle, strife. The soul G’d had blown into Adam’s nostrils was meant as an antidote to the pull of the raw material man was made of. The body, basically is in tow of the animalistic urges of the animals, something natural, seeing that man’s own body is made of the same raw material as are the animals. G’d now decided to grant man an extension of 120 years to do תשובה, repentance, failing which He would wipe out mankind from the earth. ... At any rate, the meaning of the expression is that G’d would not let His spirit rest until both man’s body and spirit would be wiped out.
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בשגם,...In other words: “the reason why My spirit will not prevail within man is due to the fact that man like beasts are only flesh.” Even though G’d had implanted man with a divine soul, this soul had been unable to assert itself within him- humankind were being drawn by their animalistic urges. As a result, G’d said, “I will give them another 120 years during which they have a chance to improve themselves. If they return, good, I'll establish them in the world; if not, I will annihilate them from the world...

הנפילים, this verse must be understood as attached to the previous verse (2) in which the mating habits of the בני האלוהים had been discussed. After the Torah had criticised the manner in which the physically stronger males grabbed their women, G’d now gave them another 120 years and no more to improve their ways.

The people described as נפילים were a group of giants. The reason why they are not described as such, but as “fallen,” is that people who took one look at these giants were apt to fall down ((נפל in sheer fright of such powerful potential opponents. Examples of similar use of the root נפל can be found in Job 14,18 ואולם הר נופל, “even if the mountain were to fall” a truly frightening experience. The Torah simply relates that during these latter days before the deluge there were people of gigantic size These were just a few individuals .

וגם אחרי כן אשר יבואו בני האלוהים אל בנות האדם, and also after the elite had made a point of mating with the physically attractive בנות האדם there were even more numerous such giants who reflected the genes of their fathers in size and the allure of their mothers in beauty. והמה הגבורים אשר מעולם, these were the ones always remembered in later times as the heroic people of their time אשר מעולם אנשי שם, people whose reputation survived their disappearance from the earth. After the deluge survivors realised that it had been displeasing in the eyes of G’d for those people to have devoted themselves to all the physical pleasures of the world and to aim at enlarging the size of their bodies as well as aiming to increase the number of years they lived on earth. [After all they had perished, and normal sized individuals, such as Noach’s family had survived. Ed.] The physical desires of the survivors of the deluge were far less powerful than that of their forebears so that gradually also their lifespan diminished, i.e. their entire hold on matters physical became a less dominant concern. People in the generations after the deluge, in spite of their other failings, gradually resumed a lifestyle that had been normal before the excesses that the בני אלוהים had indulged in. When the Israelites came to the land of Canaan there were only a very few of the former giants still surviving, mostly concentrated around Hebron (Joshua 15,14) Our sages have a tradition that there were only four such giants still alive at that time. (Joshua 14,15) In the time of David there appear to have been a few such men in Gat (Samuel II 21,15) Concerning Og, the King of Bashan, the Bible testifies that he had been a remnant of this race of these antediluvian giants (Joshua 13,12). It is possible that those survivors still practiced a lifestyle reminiscent of their antediluvian forebears.

...The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Adam and his wife are called bnei ha’elohim because they were G-d’s handiwork and He was their father; they had no father besides Him. And he [Adam] begot many children, as it is written, And he begot sons and daughters. Now these men, first to be born of a father and mother, were of great perfection in height and strength because they were born in the likeness of their father, as it is written concerning Seth, And he [Adam] begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. And it is possible that all the children of the first generations — Adam, Seth, Enosh — were called bnei ha’elohim because these three men were in the likeness of G-d. But then the worship of idols commenced, and there came upon men a weakness and slackness.
And so they said in Bereshith Rabbah: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. Are not the first ones toldoth (offspring)! But what are they? [They are in the image and likeness of] G-d. They raised a question before Aba Kohen Bardela: ‘Adam, Seth, Enosh?’ At first, he was silent, but then he said to them: ‘Up to here [Seth] they were in the image and likeness of G-d; after that, Kenan, vexers.’”
Now when men began to multiply and daughters were born to them, the men of these first generations were in their strength, and because of their great desire they would choose the beautiful women of tall stature and good health. Now first Scripture tells that by force they took them unto themselves as wives, and afterwards it tells that they came in a promiscuous manner to the daughters of men who were not of that high degree, and the matter was not known until they begot children for them, and everyone recognized that they were not the offspring of other people but that they had been born to these bnei ha’elohim because these children were very tall. They were, however, inferior to their fathers in height and strength, [This is the meaning of the name Nephilim — inferior ones], just as the word Nephilim is used in the expression: I am not ‘nophel’ (inferior) to you. Still they were mighty men in comparison with the rest of the people. And Scripture tells that this happened in the first generation to those who were called bnei ha’elohim because they were of absolute perfection, and it is they who caused the daughters of men to beget nephilim (inferior ones); and also after that, for the nephilim themselves begot nephilim from them.
The meaning of the expression, that were of old, is that after the flood, the men, upon seeing the mighty, would remember these nephilim and say: “There have already been mightier men than these in the ages which were before us.” They were the men of renown in all generations afterward. This is a fitting explanation of this chapter. But the Midrash of Rabbi Eliezer the Great, in the chapters concerning the angels that fell from their place of holiness in heaven — as is mentioned in the Gemara of Tractate Yoma — fits into the language of the verse more than all other interpretations. But it would necessitate delving at length into the secret of this subject.