Genesis 8:21

The Lord smelled a sweet savour. God’s satisfaction with Noah’s conduct and His acceptance of Noah’s gift are presented in very human language. The divine response to Noah’s devoted worship was a resolve that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood. This promise was not communicated to Noah until a little later (see ch. 9:8—17). The words “I will not again curse the ground” did not remove the curse of ch. 3:17. They simply refer to the fact that a universal catastrophe such as the Deluge would not overtake the human race again. Localized floods were not included.

The imagination of man’s heart. Some commentators have seen a contradiction between this verse and ch. 6:5-7. God had ordained the Flood because “every imagination of the thoughts” of man’s heart was “only evil continually,” and here, for the very same reason, He promised never to send another. It must be that in the first case “imagination” refers to a fixed pattern of thought as translated into action (ch. 6:5), and that here it refers to man’s inherent tendencies. The KJV marginal reading, “though,” instead of “for,” is probably correct.