Commentaire sur La Genèse 6:5

כי רבה רעת האדם, a reference to the past,

וירא השם כי רבת רעת האדם, G'd saw that man's wickedness on earth kept increasing. G'd regretted that He had made man on earth. Why was the evil man did connected to "the earth?" The wording of the Torah gives the impression that man perpetrated evil deeds on the body of the earth, whereas their wickedness consisted primarily of violence and sexual perversions as per 6,11-12. While it is justified to describe the theft of land as violence and evil perpetrated on the earth, this is a mere technicality, a minor detail. Why did the Torah not simply say: "G'd regretted having made man," instead of saying that "G'd regretted having made man on earth?" This leads us to believe that if only G'd had made man elsewhere He would not now have had reason to regret it. Surely this is not what the Torah meant to tell us!

'וירא ה, seeing that the time G’d had allocated to the people to improve their ways had elapsed, G’d saw that nothing had changed. רק רע כל היום, the words וכל יצר, refer to both man’s urges, the urge to do good, and the urge to do evil. The urge to do good had succumbed to the evil urge, completely. The Torah here calls the planning of wicked deeds based on impulses יצר לב, the urge of the heart. The reason is that the heart is perceived as the origin of all impulses be they good or be they evil in nature. The reason why G’d gave them 120 years extension, although He was well aware that they would not do teshuvah, was only in order for man to learn from G’d’s attributes, and to adopt this attribute for himself. Just as G’d allowed man plenty of time to improve his ways, so man, when dealing with his fellow, should also not be impatient, but allow enough time for people to rethink their evil attitudes.
When G’d created the human race He wanted it to be good completely, or at least predominantly. If mankind would turn to be completely evil it could not endure, seeing that G’d had chosen the good. When He saw that the generation preceding the deluge was thoroughly evil, especially in their inter-personal relations, their use of violence as a legitimate tool to gain their ends, their deeds threatened to undermine the foundations upon which G’d had built His universe. He therefore decided to destroy all those who were evil and to save only the few good ones, so that these survivors could form the nucleus of a better human race after the deluge. G’d had found Noach, his sons, and their wives to be good and they were chosen to provide the seed for future generations. Lemech, Noach’s father had died already 5 years prior to the deluge, and Metushelach, Noach’s grandfather, another good man, had lived his life to the full before the onset of the deluge. As a result of these two men having died, there were no righteous people left on earth other than Noach and his family.