The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
The earth also was corrupt before God. The phrase "before God," expresses the enormity of the corruption which, though proceeding from men, had infused the elements of evil so thoroughly, as it were, into the material soil, that it also had become corrupt.
And the earth was filled with violence. The government being patriarchal, the head or chief had in most instances not the will to restrain or punish the lawless excesses of his family; and in the absence of any well-regulated authority, it is easy to imagine what evils would arise. Men were left to do what was right in their own eyes, and having no fear of God, destruction and misery were in their ways.
God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt. The Hebrew verb is used (Jeremiah 13:7) to signify destroyed or corrupted by putridity; here it denotes moral corruption.
For all flesh had corrupted his way - i:e., course of life, manners, conduct (cf. 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11). The term "all flesh," though in Genesis 6:13; Genesis 6:17 inclusive of, and in Genesis 6:19 applicable solely to, the lower animals, here evidently refers to the human race, which alone are capable of moral corruption; and it is deserving of notice that no mention is made of the sin of angels intermingling with women.