English: “Hashem saw and spurned” — He saw their deeds and rejected them. “Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters” — not from His own anger, but from the provocation with which His sons and daughters provoked Him. This teaches that the anger comes from the side of the lower beings.
The midrash carefully locates the source of the “ka’as” in the people’s actions, preserving divine impassibility while still accounting for the language of rejection.
Type of Learning
Custom (theological parsing of the source of divine “anger”).
What Is Learned
See the Core Text and context note for the specific point derived from the verse.