The next clause is more difficult and perhaps more controverted: “For that he also is flesh.” Why is the word “also” here? And what is the logic indicated by “_for that_”? Can it mean that God withdraws his Spirit because man is _human_――with a body of “flesh”? Our translators separated the main Hebrew word into three――the preposition meaning _in_, the relative written elliptically, and the particle meaning _also_. The construction of Fuerst is better――“In their wandering, he is flesh,” _i. e._ their degeneracy has brought flesh completely into the ascendant: warring against the spirit, the flesh is absolute victor in the fight. Henceforth all further conflict is hopeless. Hence God may righteously say――nay must in honor to himself say――My Spirit shall not plead my cause in man forever. He is utterly gone over to the flesh, and nothing remains but that he must perish. One hundred and twenty years of merciful respite[23] for patient warning and exhaustive trial must suffice:――then, if no penitence appear, judgment must fall, and that without remedy!――――Thus God places on record the moral causes and antecedents of this fearful visitation, that its moral lessons may go down to distant ages for their admonition to the end of time. The hour of doom draws nigh. The Lord gave Noah definite notice to enter his ark (7: 1) and allowed him seven days time (7: 4) to gather in all whom the ark was provided to save. Then “the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.” Of small avail for safety then was the gigantic frame of the giants of those days or the defiant heart of unbelieving scoffers!