In Genesis 6:3, what maximum lifespan is mentioned before the Flood?

In Genesis 6:3, God declares that the human lifespan will be 120 years before the Flood.

The verse appears shortly before the account of Noah’s Ark and is commonly read as a statement about a limit on human life or as a period leading up to the Flood. The wording is brief, so interpreters have debated whether it predicts a maximum lifespan or gives a countdown to judgment.

The surrounding Genesis genealogies complicate a simple reading because several figures after the Flood are said to live longer than 120 years. Noah himself is described as 950 years old at death in Genesis 9:29. Some readers therefore understand Genesis 6:3 as referring to the time remaining before the Flood rather than an immediate universal biological limit.

The answer is still explicit in the verse: the number mentioned is 120 years. It should not be confused with Noah’s age when the Flood began, which Genesis gives as 600, or with the 150 days during which the waters prevailed.