בראשית ו-י: מבול, או 'התחלות הן תמיד גם סוף'

For, behold, I create new heavens And a new earth; And the former things shall not be remembered, Nor come into mind. .

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of nobles saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose. And the LORD said: ‘My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of nobles came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

מבול A FLOOD — so called because it ruined (בלה) everything; because it cast everything into confusion (בלל), and because it brought (הוביל from root יבל) everything down from the heights to a lower level. And this last explanation underlies the translation of Onkelos who translates it by טופנא (Ar. טוף = Heb. צוף) because the Flood caused everything to float about and brought it (the Ark) to Babel which is a low-lying district. That is the reason why it (Babylon) is called, also, Shinar (שנער): because all those who died through the Flood were shaken out (ננערו) into it (Shabbat 113b).

that the sons of nobles saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose. And the LORD said: ‘My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.’