Genesis 6:12

Summary

The verse reports that Elohim ("God", H0430G) looked at the earth and observed that it was corrupt. It then gives the reason: "all flesh" had corrupted its "way" upon the earth. The sentence uses two forms of the same verbal root to link observation and cause.

Key words

• va-Yar' ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular; opens the verse as a sequential action ("and then he saw"), marking a new narrative beat.
• nishChatah ("it was corrupt", H7843) — niphal (passive/reflexive) perfect, feminine singular, agreeing with ha-Aretz ("the earth", H0776G); the earth is presented as the entity undergoing corruption, not as an agent.
• hishChit ("it had corrupted", H7843) — hiphil (causative) perfect, masculine singular; same root as nishChatah, but here in causative form, with kol-basar ("all flesh", H3605+H1320) as the causing subject.
• kol-basar ("all flesh", H3605 construct + H1320) — construct chain, masculine singular, functioning as the grammatical subject of hishChit; a collective expression covering living beings rather than a specific individual.
• darK-o ("its way", H1870G + H9023) — noun in construct with a third-person pronominal suffix ("his/its"), forming the direct object of hishChit; denotes a course of conduct attributed to kol-basar.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure moves from perception to explanation. The narrative vav on va-Yar' ("and he saw", H7200G) sets Elohim as subject of a simple qal verb, introducing the earth, marked by the object marker 'et (H0853) and the definite article ha- (H9009), as what is seen. The interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009) introduces the content of what is seen, followed by nishChatah ("it was corrupt", H7843), a niphal perfect agreeing grammatically with feminine ha-Aretz ("the earth", H0776G) — the earth is grammatically presented as having undergone the corruption, without the text specifying an agent at this point.

The second clause, introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A), supplies the cause using the same root sh-ch-t but in the hiphil (causative) stem: hishChit ("it had corrupted", H7843). Here the subject shifts to kol-basar ("all flesh", H3605+H1320), a construct phrase, and the object is darko ("its way", H1870G+H9023), a noun with a pronominal suffix. The repetition of the same consonantal root in two different stems (niphal then hiphil) creates a wordplay linking the state of the earth to the action performed by "all flesh" upon "its way."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Elohim ("God", H0430G) as "Κύριος ὁ θεὸς" ("Lord God"), adding a divine name not present in the Hebrew, which has only 'Elohim. The Hebrew ha-Aretz ("the earth", H0776G) appears once as direct object in the first clause of the Hebrew and Vulgate/LXX, but the LXX's second clause omits an explicit equivalent of "earth" after "way," using only "ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς" once compared to the Hebrew's two occurrences of ha-Aretz. The Vulgate uses "omnis... caro" ("all flesh") matching kol-basar (H3605+H1320), while the BSB translates this phrase as "all living creatures," an interpretive rendering not reflected literally in the Hebrew wording "all flesh."