Genesis says the LORD saw that human wickedness was great and that every intention of the heart was continually evil Genesis 6:5. It adds that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence Genesis 6:11–12.
In Genesis 6:5–7 Yahweh surveys human life on earth and gives a sweeping verdict: human wrongdoing has become extensive and internally rooted. The text presses the point with absolute-sounding language about thoughts being constantly bent toward evil. Yahweh then responds with deep sorrow and inner pain over having made humanity. These verses sit in the build-up to the flood story (Genesis 6–9), after a sequence showing humanity spreading and social disorder intensifying (Gen 4–6). The passage works like a turning point: it explains why the narrative shifts from long lifespans and growing populations into a global undoing.
Genesis 6:5–7 presents a sweeping diagnosis of humanity before the flood. Yahweh “sees” human wrongdoing as extensive (“great … in the earth”) and as coming from the inside: human heart-thinking is pictured as persistently bent toward evil. That evaluation is followed by divine sorrow and inner pain.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Genesis 6:5, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.