Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Twenty-Nine — Etzev
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Etzev is an equivocal noun. It is a noun for pain and suffering: 'in pain shalt thou bring forth children' (Gen 3:16). It is a noun for anger: 'and his father had not angered him all his days' (1 Kings 1:6) — he had not angered him; 'for the king was grieved for his son' (2 Sam 19:3) — anger on his account. And it is a noun for opposition and rebellion: 'but they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit' (Isa 63:10); 'they provoked him in the wilderness' (Ps 78:40); 'if there be any way of pain in me' (Ps 139:24); 'all the day they wrest my words' (Ps 56:6).
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According to the second sense or the third it is said: 'and it grieved him at his heart' (Gen 6:6). As for the second sense, its interpretation is that God was angry with them for their evil deeds. As for the phrase 'at his heart' — and likewise his saying in the story of Noah, 'and the Lord said in his heart' (Gen 8:21) — hear its meaning: the thing said of a man, that 'he spoke in his heart' or 'said to his heart,' is the meaning a man does not utter and does not say to another; and likewise every thing God willed but told no prophet at the time when that act was carried out according to his will, is said of him 'and the Lord said in his heart,' by way of likening it to that human sense, consistent with 'the Torah speaks in the language of men' — and this is plain and clear. Since, for the rebellion of the generation of the Flood, the Torah does not record the sending of a messenger to them at that time, nor a warning to them, nor a threat of destruction, it is said of them that God was angry with them in his heart. And likewise his will that there be no flood — he did not then say to a prophet 'go and tell them such-and-such'; therefore it says 'to his heart.'
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As for the interpretation of 'and it grieved him at his heart' according to the third sense: its explanation would be that man opposed the will of God concerning him — for lev too is used to name the will, as we shall explain in the equivocation of the noun lev.