"This is the line of Noah.—Noah was righteous and blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God" (6:9). There is a debate among the commentators whether Noah was independently righteous or just in his generation. The verse itself is ambiguous. Some hold “in his generation” must be there to limit the description of Noah as righteous and blameless. The text explains that Noah was righteous ONLY in his generation, but would be a regular guy in other generations. Others say that “in his generation” is added to heap praise on Noah. Even though his entire generation was wicked, Noah still managed to be a righteous person. Chapter 7 opens with a similar verse “Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, with all your household, for you alone have I found righteous before Me in this generation” (verse 1). Does this verse provide more insight into the rabbinical debate? If God is speaking directly to Noah, it would be odd that he would use the opportunity for a backhanded compliment. ‘Noah, I will save you because you are only good in this generation, but if you were in any other generation…good luck!’ This may provide proof for the opinion that the earlier qualifier provided additional praise to Noah that he was righteous despite the evils of his generation.
Sforno, though, finds a way for this to be limiting without it being a backhanded compliment. He explains that this verse teaches us that Noah’s family was not worthy of being saved. God specially says “you alone”. The fact that his family is also mentioned here comes to exclude them from this calculation. Interestingly, God never explains why Noah is righteous. Unfortunately, due to Noah’s brisk introduction in the last chapter, we do not see the type of person he was before the flood. God simply selects him by declaring him righteous. Perhaps some of the commentators are upset that Noah does not try to save the inhabitants of the world like Abraham will do later on with the inhabitants of Sodom. All we know about Noah is that he enters the Ark and does everything God wants him to do. That may be enough to earn the praise of being a righteous man in an evil world.
