The long passage of time represented through the genealogies of Cain and Seth raise an important question: how long will these lines continue according to their respective paths? Will any of the children of Cain experience a revival, breaking from the generational sins of Cain and exemplified by the wicked Lamech? Or, will any of the children of Seth apostatize from the true worship of Yahweh handed down through their generations? How many centuries and generations will pass in each lineage before something dramatic takes place? Or, does some innate, biological feature explain the difference between the offspring of Cain and the offspring of Seth?

In fact, we do not learn the details of what happens in each of the lines. The narrative of Genesis does not give us a zoomed in account of the total corruption of humankind as we saw with the temptation of Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, or the temptation of Cain to murder his brother. Yet, while we do not know how the corruption of the whole human race came about, we do know that it happened. In Genesis 6:5 we discover “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” What could have happened? How does Yahweh respond to this depravity? Is there any hope for the human race at this point?