So now we are in something of a predicament. Mankind before the flood is totally depraved, a situation that Genesis describes as quite unsatisfactory. But, one might ask, what is the problem? So a bunch of thoroughly evil creatures do thoroughly evil things to each other--so what? (Just as one might ask: "So God could opt to destroy those worthless creatures--so what?") Destroyed by God or destroyed by each other--what is the difference? They all have it coming, and the earth would be well rid of them.
It might even be said that the situation resolves itself to irrelevance; if the people of the earth are totally depraved, how then can their depravity be actualized? No wickedness they might unleash upon each other would be--in the final analysis--undeserved.
Or are we to assume that the innocent victim here is God himself, either neglected or ill-used by his creatures? The text does not support this, centering instead on the outrages inflicted by humans upon one another:
"The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Genesis 6:13, KJV).
The predicament stands.
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