Genesis 6:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Great is My patience, He proclaims, and great is My humility, for I have not desired to apply the judgment I am about to bring; but due to the persistent escalation of their sins up to this point, it is imperative to eradicate their wickedness, lest it spread beyond the point of The end of all flesh has come before Me. Furthermore, consider that God reiterates, as previously noted, that all inclinations of the heart are corrupt (Gen. 6:5), hence He now asserts: The end of all flesh. He emphasizes that none are exempt; all are inclined towards evil, and it is impossible to find even one among them who is devoted to righteousness. When He declares, The end of all flesh has come before My face, it marks the moment when action is required to halt the worsening of the situation. The end of all flesh has come before Me: it appears as though no one has overseen them, or called them to account for their transgressions, allowing them to indulge in lawless acts without realizing that it is impossible to evade Me, Who grants them life, unites their soul and body, and bestows countless blessings upon them. Thus, The end of all flesh has come before My face. Then, in defending Himself in the presence of the righteous and illustrating that the magnitude of their sins incites His righteous wrath, He states, the earth was filled with wickedness due to them. He questions whether there is any evil they have not committed. They have performed so much evil that it has overflowed and engulfed the entire earth. Consequently, I will destroy them along with the earth: and behold, I will eliminate them from the face of the earth. Since they have already brought about their own destruction through their unrighteous actions, I will ensure complete eradication, removing them and purifying the earth from the stain of their numerous transgressions. Yet, reflect on the kind of spirit this righteous man must have possessed upon receiving such words from the Lord. For even if he were confident in his own goodness, hearing this announcement would undoubtedly bring him grief. Righteous individuals are compassionate and are willing to suffer for the salvation of others. How profoundly must this extraordinary man have responded to such words, as he envisioned the devastation of all humanity and the annihilation of God’s creation, perhaps despairing of any hope for himself. He was unaware of what was to come.

"For the earth shall be filled with unrighteousness from them: and behold, I will destroy them and the earth." The Lord has resolved to eradicate not only the wicked inhabitants of the earth but also the earth itself, intending a transformation so profound that all flora and fauna must perish, alongside the creations of humankind, and even the inanimate structures of stones must face destruction or relocation. While plants, animals, stones, and human creations, being inanimate, cannot hold moral culpability before God, they are tainted by the influence of impure beings, which bear the marks of their unrighteousness and cry out for divine justice. Thus, they, too, along with the guilty, face condemnation to be vanquished or at least altered, enabling the guilty to recognize the severity of their transgressions. The strata of the earth's crust still reflect the evidence of this cataclysm brought about by the flood.