The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof
The earth polluted by sin
The inhabitants of the earth pollute it by their sins: the children of Israel defiled God’s land by filling His inheritance with the carcasses of their abominable things, with their idolatries, with their wicked inventions and corrupt ways.
(R. Macculloch.)
Transgression
“They have transgressed the laws” of nature, of conscience, and of nations--the ceremonial, judicial, and moral laws, delivered to them by Jehovah Himself. These laws, stamped by the sacred authority of the one great Lawgiver, which they ought to have religiously observed, they presumptuously transgressed, omitting to do what He required and committing what He had forbidden. (R. Macculloch.)
The earth cursed for man’s sake
The Bible gives no support to the theory that matter itself is evil. God created all things; “and God saw everything that He had made; and, behold, it was very good.” When, therefore, we read in the Bible that the earth is cursed, we read that it is cursed for man’s sake; when we read of its desolation, it is as the effect of man’s crime. (G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The everlasting covenant
The covenant is that with Noah, and the law that against bloodshed (Gen_9:5-6). (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
