“The end [ketz] of all flesh has come [ba] before Me” – their time has come, to be cut off [lehikatzetz]; their time has come to become desolate [bata]; their indictment “has come before Me.” Why to such an extent? It is “as the earth is filled with injustice because of them.” What is injustice and what is stealing?11Injustice [ḥamas] refers to monetary wrongdoing, so what is the difference between that and stealing?
Rabbi Ḥanina said: Injustice involves less than a peruta12A peruta is a small coin of trifling value. Anything worth less than a peruta is considered of negligible value, and there is no legal recourse to retrieve it, as the Midrash goes on to explain. and robbery involves a peruta. This is what the members of the generation of the Flood would do: One of them would take out a basket filled with lupin beans [to the marketplace].
One person would come and take less than a peruta worth [of beans] and another one would come and take less than a peruta worth; less than the amount for which one would be able to collect compensation in court. The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘You acted improperly; I, too, will act improperly with you.’ That is what is written: “Behold, their remnant has gone away from them, and they die without wisdom (Job 4:21) – without the wisdom of the Torah.
“From morning to evening they are broken; forever unnoticed [mibli mesim], forever they will perish” (Job 4:20). Mesim is nothing other than a judge,13So mibli mesim means without a judge. They made sure their crimes could never be brought before a judge. as it says: “These are the monetary ordinances that you shall place [tasim] before them” (Exodus 21:1).