Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Genesis 7:22

in Genesis 7

Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.

KJV

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

⋯

This verse in Genesis 7

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Of all that was in the dry land - From this we may conclude that such animals only as could not live in the water were preserved in the ark.

This site's exposition

every living thing that moved upon the earth

on Genesis 7:21-24

The dying is stated and never described. The single line of hope is that those in the ark remained. Jesus took these days as the picture of His own coming, that people ate and drank and married until the day Noah entered the ark, at Matthew 24:38 and 39. The water stands over the earth for 150 days.

This site's exposition

breath of life in its nostrils

The phrase goes back to 2:7, where the LORD God breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils. Dry land limits the loss to land creatures. Adam Clarke concluded that only animals unable to live in the water were taken into the ark.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

City of God 13.24 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

Then, a little further on in the same book [Genesis], one could just as easily have noticed the verse "Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died." This means that everything that lived on the earth perished in the flood. Thus we find that Holy Scripture is accustomed to use both phrases—"living soul" and "the breath of life"—in regard even to beasts, and in the verse "All things wherein there is the breath of life" the Greek text does not use the word pneuma but pnoē.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כֹּ֡לall

    kolH3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁר֩that

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • נִשְׁמַת־[the] breath of

    nishmat-H5397 →

  • ר֨וּחַ[the] breath of

    ruachH7307 →378 times

  • חַיִּ֜יםlife

    chaiyimH2416 →498 times

  • בְּאַפָּ֗יו[was] in nostrils its

    beapavH639 →276 times

  • מִכֹּ֛לfrom all

    mikolH3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • בֶּחָֽרָבָ֖ה[was] on the dry ground

    becharavahH2724 →

  • מֵֽתוּ׃they died

    metuH4191 →839 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

5 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Genesis 2:7Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.17 worksIsaiah 2:22Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?6 worksGenesis 6:17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.4 worksRomans 5:14Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.4 worksRevelation 16:3And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it turned to blood like that of the dead, and every living thing in the sea died.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 2:7

    Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

    it leads to

    • Ecclesiastes 12:7

      before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

    • Job 33:4

      The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

    • 1 Corinthians 15:45

      So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

    • Isaiah 64:8

      But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

    • Acts 17:25

      Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

  • Through

    Genesis 6:17

    And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 7:4

      For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

    • 2 Peter 2:5

      if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

    • Genesis 7:21–23

      And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Great Flood — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Great Flood — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 7 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, City of God 13.24; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 7 →