Genesis 6:11-13

11-13. The earth also was corrupt This verb, in the same form, is used in Exodus 8:24, to describe the land of Egypt corrupted by the swarms of flies, the black, blood-sucking multitudes that made the land uninhabitable. It is also used in Jeremiah 13:7, of a girdle rotted in the ground, which symbolized to the prophet the awful sin of idolatrous Israel . Earth, or rather the land, is used by metonomy for the inhabitants of the land, as in the last clause of Genesis 6:13. The expression is repeated and thus explained in the following verse .

Before God In the three successive verses this sinful corruption and violence is described in words of increasing vigour and vividness, as going on before the very eyes of God.

Violence A chaos of sinful destructive passion raged through the inhabited world.

God looked upon the earth, and, behold A sublime and solemn anthropomorphism. The universal destruction of the sinful race rises before God’s eye as a vivid fearful vision, and he describes what he sees to the solitary righteous man who “walked with him” in confidential communion.

Through them Hebrews, from before their face. Violence heralded their steps wherever they trod.

I will destroy them Hebrews I am destroying them, even (the inhabitants of) the earth. The determination to destroy having been formed, the event is spoken of as already in process of execution.