Once again we are told very clearly why the punishment had to come. Opposed to Noah there was a humanity that is rotten to its core. We find the same word used here for corrupt
in Jeremiah 13:7. There it refers to a loincloth that would rot away completely, decompose. One of the pieces of evidence of the dissolution of society is that the earth is full of violence. The law of God is no longer respected. Survival of the fittest prevails on earth. This means that the weakest on earth are afflicted with violence and oppression. The condition of the world’s population is as it is described in Psalm 11:3, If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The Lord sees this. He saw that life on earth is in a state of decay. That is why every creature that has breath would be afflicted by God’s punishment. The Lord told Noah that he would destroy all that lived on earth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.