This verse has three parts: first God announces to Noah his decision to destroy humanity; then he gives again the reason for his decision; and finally he repeats his decision to destroy people and the earth.

And God said to Noah introduces God’s decision as spoken to Noah. This clause may be treated as a result of what he sees. Accordingly it may be better translated as “So God said….”

I have determined: determined translates the Hebrew idiom “it is in front of me,” meaning “I have decided.” In some languages “to decide” is expressed figuratively as “to cut the words,” “to come to an end in thinking,” “to see what must be done.” In other languages it is not necessary to put the idea of “deciding” into words at all, since this will be understood from the form of the statement “I am going to…” or “I am about to….”

To make an end of all flesh: this expression, which Revised Standard Version has translated quite literally, means to destroy, or to bring to an end. As in verse 12 all flesh still means all human beings, all people, everyone, but the expression will include animals in verse 17. The first part of the verse has been expressed in one translation as “I have thought to make the end of life [literally ‘their last day’] come for all people in the world.”

For the earth is filled with violence gives the reason for God’s decision. This is almost identical to the statement in verse 11, except for the addition of through them which indicates a reflexive action, indicating that the violence is due to them, brought on by the people themselves. As Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says, “It is their fault that there is much violence….” We may also say “It is because of them that the world is filled with violence” or “It is their own fault that they are cruel and live in the wrong way.”

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth: behold introduces the decision to destroy the people. It marks an important statement. In some languages this particle may be translated by such expressions as “listen, look.” Destroy has the same sense as the verb translated “wipe out” by Good News Translation in Gen 6.7. See there for comments. With the earth is something of a problem. The preposition can mean “and” as well as “with” and “from.” So different versions use different words out of these three possibilities. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project strongly supports “from the earth,” giving it an {A} degree of certainty.

Good News Translation rearranges the parts of the verse and places the reason clause in final position for reasons of style. This is a better sequence for many other languages as well; one translation, for instance, says “… I will destroy [or, ruin] all people in the world, every single one, because the world is full of their useless behavior.” Another translation gives a model for those languages that prefer to state the reason first: “All people are working only at doing bad things, so I am about to destroy them. I will finish off every group of people.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .