Why, if god limited man's life to 120 years, did people live longer?

Alter ...Friedman ...Stone Edition ...JPS Torah Commentary ...bible.org ...The Targum of Onkelos ... Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ... Bible.org notes: "Some interpret this to mean that the age expectancy of people from this point on would be 120, but neither the subsequent narrative nor reality favors this. It is more likely that this refers to the time remaining between this announcement of judgment and the coming of the flood." Similarly, the Commentary notes that the Targumim (as I have shown) as well as Seder Olam, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Radak all take this as the time before the Flood. One can insist they were all deficient in their understanding of Biblical Hebrew and/or they were being disingenuous and/or they were simply not very bright, but none of these claims strike me as particularly compelling, arachnophilia's efforts notwithstanding.Throwing pebbles at the Torah strikes me as more juvenile that useful

My apologies. Of course, but I doubt that what motivates and sustains threads such as this is anything even remotely related to responsible textual criticism. Foolish and stupid, but also disrespectful. Much of this can be mitigated by assuming the religious mythos of the Torah to reflect an honest effort on the part of a sincere and intelligent people.