Genesis 6:17

6:17 I am about to bring ¹  floodwaters ²  on the earth to destroy ³  from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. ⁴  Everything that is on the earth will die,

Genesis 7:21-23

7:21 And all living things ⁵  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life ⁶  in its nostrils died. 7:23 So the Lord ⁷  destroyed ⁸  every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. ⁹  They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn The Hebrew construction uses the independent personal pronoun, followed by a suffixed form of הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) and the a participle used with an imminent future nuance: “As for me, look, I am going to bring.”

² tn Heb “the flood, water.”

³ tn The verb שָׁחָת (shakhat, “to destroy”) is repeated yet again, only now in an infinitival form expressing the purpose of the flood.

⁴ tn The Hebrew construction here is different from the previous two; here it is רוּחַ חַיִּים (ruakh khayyim) rather than נֶפֶשׁ הַיָּה (nefesh khayyah) or נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat khayyim). It refers to everything that breathes.

⁵ tn Heb “flesh.”

⁶ tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”

⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).

⁹ tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.