Genesis 6:12

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
God	אֱלֹהִ֛ים 'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
looked	וַיַּ֧רְא vai.Yar'	H7200	to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
earth	הָאָ֖רֶץ ha.'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
corrupt	נִשְׁחָ֑תָה nish.Cha.tah	H7843	to decay · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
flesh	בָּשָׂ֛ר ba.Sar	H1320	flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
corrupted	הִשְׁחִ֧ית hish.Chit	H7843	to decay · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
way	דַּרְכּ֖וֹ dar.Ko	H1870	a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
earth	הָאָֽרֶץ ha.'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Psalms 53:2-3 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
Psalms 14:1-3 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Job 22:15-17 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ung…
Genesis 6:4-5 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare chi…
Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:11-12

The wickedness of that generation is here again spoken of, either as a foil to Noah's piety - he was just and perfect, when all the earth was corrupt; or as a further justification of God's resolution to destroy the world, which he was now about to communicate to his servant Noah. 1. All kinds of sin was found among them, for it is said (Gen 6:11) that the earth was, (1.) Corrupt before God, that is, in the matters of God's worship; either they had other gods before him, or they worshipped him by images, or they were corrupt and wicked in despite and contempt of God, daring him and defying him to his face. (2.) The earth was also filled with violence and injustice towards men. There was no o…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:11

the earth was filled with violence--In the absence of any well-regulated government it is easy to imagine what evils would arise. Men did what was right in their own eyes, and, having no fear of God, destruction and misery were in their ways.

Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:11

The earth also was corrupt - See the note on Gen 6:5.

John Gill on Genesis 6:12

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt,.... This is spoken as if he had never looked upon it before; whereas his eyes are always upon the earth, and the inhabitants of it, and upon all their ways and works: but this denotes the special notice he took, and the particular observation he made upon the condition and circumstances the earth, and its inhabitants, were in. And this is remarked, as well as the particle "behold" is used, to denote the certainty of this corruption; it must needs be true, that the earth was corrupted, since the omniscient God had declared it to be so, who sees and knows all things: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth: that is, all me…

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The Church Fathers

And when God saw that the earth was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted its way. All flesh means all humans, according to the prophet's statement: "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6). For neither birds nor quadrupeds had corrupted their way by sinning, just as they will not see the Salvation of our God, that is Christ, but all humans will see.
— Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)

Because the sons of Seth were going into the daughters of Cain, they turned away from their first wives whom they had previously taken. Then these wives, too, disdained their own continence and now, because of their husbands, quickly began to abandon their modesty, which up until that time they had preserved for their husbands' sake. It is because of this wantonness that assailed both the men and the women that Scripture says, "All flesh corrupted its path."
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 6.3.3

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Cainan — Possession; smith. (1.) The fourth antediluvian patriarch, the eldest son of Enos. He was 70 years old at the birth of his eldest son Mahalaleel, after which he lived 840 years (Gen. 5:9-14), and was…
Flesh — In the Old Testament denotes (1) a particular part of the body of man and animals (Gen. 2:21; 41:2; Ps. 102:5, marg.); (2) the whole body (Ps. 16:9); (3) all living things having flesh, and…
Mahalaleel — Praise of God. (1.) The son of Cainan, of the line of Seth (Gen. 5:12-17); called Maleleel (Luke 3:37). (2.) Neh. 11:4, a descendant of Perez.
Noah — Rest, (Heb. Noah) the grandson of Methuselah (Gen. 5:25-29), who was for two hundred and fifty years contemporary with Adam, and the son of Lamech, who was about fifty years old at the time of Adam’s…
Condescension Of God · .Sets forth his rea — .Sets forth his rea
Death · .Upon the Antedi — .Upon the Antedi
Deluge, The · Sent as a punishment for the extreme wickedness of man — Sent as a punishment for the extreme wickedness of man
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fall Of Man, The · Man in consequence of: Corrupt and perverse in his ways — Man in consequence of: Corrupt and perverse in his ways
Man · Called: Flesh — Called: Flesh

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Genesis 6:12

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:11-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:11

Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:11

John Gill on Genesis 6:12

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 6:12

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 6:11-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 6:11

Adam Clarke on Genesis 6:11

John Gill on Genesis 6:12

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 6:11-12

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 6:9–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 6:11-13

Rashi on Genesis 6:12