Genesis 7:22

22 Everything that breathed and lived on dry land 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 rising more than twenty-two feet above the highest peaks.

21 All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people.

22 Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died.

23 God wiped out every living thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat.

24 And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.