Genesis 6:13

Summary

God announces to Noah that "the end of all flesh" has come before him, because the earth is filled with violence caused by created beings, and declares his intention to destroy them along with the earth.

Key words

• ketz ("end", H7093) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to "all flesh"; it names a decisive terminus, not a process.
• kol-basar ("all flesh", H3605 + H1320) — construct chain meaning "all flesh/all living beings"; basar denotes physical, mortal creatures collectively.
• mal'ah ("she is full", H4390) — qal perfect, 3rd feminine singular, agreeing with ha'aretz ("the earth"); the perfect aspect marks the filling as a completed state, not an ongoing event.
• chamas ("violence", H2555) — masculine singular noun, the direct object-like complement describing what fills the earth.
• mashchitam ("about to destroy them", H7843) — hiphil (causative) participle with pronominal suffix "them"; combined with hinneni ("here I am", H2005+H9040) it expresses an imminent, self-declared action by the speaker.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula vayomer Elohim leNoach ("and God said to Noah"), introducing direct speech. The first clause, ketz kol-basar ba' lefanai ("the end of all flesh has come before me"), places ketz ("end") in construct with kol-basar ("all flesh"), forming a single phrase meaning "the end belonging to all flesh." The verb ba' ("has come", H0935M) is qal perfect, indicating a completed arrival rather than a future or ongoing one — grammatically, the "end" is presented as already having reached the speaker's presence (lefanai, "before me", built from panim + 1st person suffix).

The causal clause ki-mal'ah ha'aretz chamas mipeneihem ("for the earth is full of violence because of them") uses mal'ah, a qal perfect verb agreeing with the feminine noun ha'aretz ("the earth"), to state a completed condition: the earth's fullness of chamas ("violence") is treated as an accomplished fact, not a developing trend. The phrase mipeneihem ("from their faces/because of them") attributes the cause to unspecified plural agents referenced only by the pronominal suffix -hem ("them").

The final clause, vehinneni mashchitam et-ha'aretz ("and here I am, about to destroy them, [with/against] the earth"), pairs the presentative hinneni with a hiphil participle, mashchitam, grammatically marking an action in the process of being enacted by the speaker, directed at "them" and extending to ha'aretz ("the earth") via the particle 'et.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ketz kol-basar as Καιρὸς παντὸς ἀνθρώπου ("the time/season of every man"), replacing "flesh" with "man" and "end" with "time." The Vulgate keeps closer to the Hebrew structure with finis universae carnis ("the end of all flesh"). Where the Hebrew has chamas ("violence"), the LXX uses ἀδικίας ("injustice/unrighteousness") and the Vulgate iniquitate ("iniquity"), both shifting the semantic field slightly from physical violence toward moral wrongdoing.