Before the Flood, human wickedness covered the whole earth. God's assessment in Genesis 6:5 is that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the phrase "in the earth" marks a worldwide, universal condition. No region of human habitation was immune, and no geographical area was spared the destruction sin brings. This corruption was a steady decline over some sixteen centuries, from the "very good" of creation (Genesis 1:31) to wickedness, as separation from God after Eden (Isaiah 59:1-2) bore its fruit. God watched it intently and over a long period. The Hebrew word for "great" implies proliferation, almost exponential growth, so that evil piled on evil and the chance of repentance or revival steadily diminished. The corruption was also total. Every intent of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually, so that external violence flowed from internal rottenness, and no good remained mixed in. Because sin saturated the entire planet, a just God answered universal wickedness with universal punishment, covering the whole earth with water rather than destroying a single region. Only a few, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, stood out as bright spots.

The earth before the Flood was corrupt and filled with violence, and God Himself saw it so. All flesh had corrupted its way, and the earth was full like a container with no room left for more corruption. Mankind was rotten to the core, and no town or mountain village was free of violence. Moses traces the underlying cause back to Genesis 6:1-2: after a population explosion and a long period of prosperity and leisure, men gave themselves over to appetites, with Satan and his demons taking advantage. The universal words in the narrative, such as all, every, and end of all flesh, mean exactly what they say. They rule out a local flood and expose the idea of uniformitarianism as a dismissal of God's sovereignty and His power to intervene. Because man was universally corrupt, God would totally destroy mankind from the earth. Even Noah stood under that judgment, for he was a sinner who was not perfect, though he was the best of his generation. He escaped only because he found grace, saved by grace through faith as believers are today. All humanity remains corrupt before God to some extent, so no one has anything to boast about. The Flood was a destroying judgment that wiped the earth clean through death, and a coming judgment by fire will follow.