When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves1 of all that they chose. Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years."2 The Nephilim3 were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.4
[1] The sons of God took wives for themselves? I have so little understanding of what this is referring to. Was the meaning of this story obvious to the author's original audience, or was it already a cryptic story back then?
[2] How is this 120-year lifespan limit related to the rest of the story?
[3] The "Nephilim" are clearly of the past here - it says "were on the earth in those days--and also afterward", but they show up again in Numbers 13:33. This brings up interesting questions about when Genesis and Numbers were written compared to when the events of the Pentateuch occurred - but I can imagine more than one way of resolving it.
[4] So 1, 2, and 4 all appear related, but where does 3 fit in? Our chapter and verse divisions often break up stories that should be more continuous. But this is a case where a story may be artificially added to a narrative (the Noah and the flood story that follows), which it may actually have nothing to do with. There are no clear words of condemnation here. I can believe some interpretations that manage to use it to explain the flood story, but there are problems with those interpretations and it feels more likely to be that it is its own independent story about an aspect of the pre-flood world.
Take-home: Really difficult for me to get a take-home message from this. For me this is one of the most cryptic accounts in the Bible.
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