God's 120-year warning
Genesis 6:1–8; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5
As violence filled the earth, God announced judgment but gave 120 years, and Noah found favor with him.
But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
Genesis 6:8 (World English Bible)
Genesis 6 describes a world where “every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was continually only evil” (6:5). God grieved and resolved to wipe out that world.
Yet God was patient. Peter says he waited while the ark was being built (1 Peter 3:20) and calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). God told Noah to build a ship of gopher wood, and Noah obeyed in every detail.
Dating notes
Ussher reads Genesis 6:3 as a 120-year countdown to the Flood and dates it 2468 BC. Other conservative scholars read the verse as a limit on human lifespans. The start and length of the ark's construction are not given in Scripture.