Focusing on their punishment, Pardes Yosef, along with other sources, raises an important question. While the generation of the flood certainly deserved punishment for the two cardinal sins they committed, why did all the children perish as well? Why did innocent infants, who took no part in these sins, die? And this question extends beyond literal infants riding around in strollers. In a generation where people lived close to a thousand years, one was considered a child until the age of one hundred and exempt from punishment from Shamayim until reaching that age. In Noach’s time, a 99-year-old would still qualify for a youth bus fare! This is also why the sons of Noach – two of which, Cham and Yefet, were no tzaddikim in their own right – did not die in the flood. It is because they were below the age of one hundred when they entered the ark.
He answers, that while the punishments received by the adults were due to giluy arayot, the younger ones died because of the machloket (strife) that arose after the widespread gezel among people. We know that machloket can lead to the death of even children, a principle learned from the episode of Korach, where his entire camp, including all ages, perished as a result of the strife they incited.
