Genesis 7:22

22 Everything on dry land with life's breath in its nostrils died.

Genesis 7:22 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 7:22

All in whose nostrils [was] the breath of life
Whether of fowls, beast, cattle, or creeping things:

of all that was in the dry land, died;
by which description fishes were excepted, since they breathe not, having no lungs, and are not on the dry land, where they cannot live, but in the waters. Some pretend it to be the opinion of some Jewish writers, that the fishes did die, the waters being made hot, and scalded them; but this fable I have not met with.

Genesis 7:22 In-Context

20 The waters rose twenty-three feet high, covering the mountains.

21 Every creature took its last breath: the things crawling on the ground, birds, livestock, wild animals, everything swarming on the ground, and every human being.

22 Everything on dry land with life's breath in its nostrils died.

23 God wiped away every living thing that was on the fertile land—from human beings to livestock to crawling things to birds in the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

24 The waters rose over the earth for one hundred fifty days.