And God said unto Noah
This is a proof that he found favour in his eyes, since he spake to him, and told him what he had observed, and what he was determined to do, and gave him directions to make an ark for the security of himself and family, when he should destroy the world:
the end of all flesh is come before me;
that is, it was determined to put an end to the lives of all men, and of all cattle, and fowl and creeping things on the earth; all which are included in the phrase, "all flesh", even every living substance on the earth:
for the earth is filled with violence through them;
that is, through men, for they are principally intended in the preceding clause, though not only; and it was through them, and not through other creatures, that the earth was filled with violence, in the sense in which it is explained in (See Gill on Genesis 6:11):
and behold, I will destroy them with the earth;
meaning, that he would destroy all men, together with the cattle and creeping things of the earth, the trees, and herbs, and plants in it, yea, that itself, for that is said to perish by the flood, ( 2 Peter 3:6 ) . Some render it, "out of the earth" F2; that is, would destroy them from it, that they should be no more on it.