Genesis 7:22

Gen 7:22 All in whose nostrils [was] the breath of life, of all that [was] in the dry [land], died.

Ver. 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life died, of all that was in the dry land.] This last clause exempts fishes: though the Jews would needs persuade us that these also died; for that the waters of the flood were boiling hot. But rain-water uses not to be hot, we know; and therefore we reject this conceit as a Jewish fable.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:22 Everything that . . . lived: See study note on 6:17.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And the waters prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Which is to be reckoned not from the end of the forty days' rain, but from the beginning of the flood; for from the seventeenth day of the second month, when the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, unto the seventeenth day of the seventh month, when the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, and the waters decreased, were just five months, or one hundred and fifty days; until which time the waters increased yet more and more, even after the forty days' rain; so that it seems there was a continual rain afterwards, as Aben Ezra observes, though not so vehement; or otherwise it is not so easy to account for the increase of the waters.

Next: Genesis Chapter 8

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whether men or beasts, &c., all that breathed the same air with man, all that lived in the same element which man by his sins had infected; whereby the fishes are excepted, as living in another element.

See Poole on "Gen 2:7".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

נשמת רוח חיים means the breathing of the breath of life.

אשר בחרבה WHATSOEVER WAS IN THE DRY LAND [DIED] — and not the fish in the sea (Sanhedrin 108a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

כל אשר נשמת רוח חיים באפיו, both the words נשמת and רוח are in a construct mode belonging to the word חיים, as if the Torah had written נשמת חיים ורוח חיים. Other examples of such a construction are found in Ezekiel 31,16 מבחר וטוב לבנון, “the choicest and best of Lebanon.” Or, Job 20,17 נהרי נחלי דבש וחמאה, “the streams, the rivers of honey, the brooks of cream.” The Torah, when referring to man, speaks of נשמת, whereas when speaking of the animals it describes their essence of life as רוח חיים.

בחרבה, but the fish on the earth did not die. They were, after all in their habitat. Furthermore, apart from the technical reason why they would not drown in the water, more importantly, seeing that they had never shared the same habitat as man, they had not learned of man’s corrupt ways and become corrupt themselves. We must contrast the implication here that the fish did not die, with definitive statements threatening the death of the fish of the sea as a result of G’d’s retribution to man for his iniquity both in Hoseah 4,3 וגם דגי הים יאספו, “also the fish in the sea will perish,” as well as the statement in Tzefaniah 1,3 אסף עוף השמים ודגי הים, “both the birds in the sky I will sweep away as well as the fish in the sea.” Either what these prophets threaten are exaggerations, or if we are to take these threats at face value, literally, these predictions apply to specific countries but not world-wide. If the prophet speaks about events which have happened since he issued the threat in G’d’s name, he referred to the fish adjoining a specific country being devastated by G’d, but this did not result in a species of fish being wiped out on a global scale. At the time of the deluge there was a wholesale destruction of life on the earth barring the seas, except for the few specimen of each species that survived in the ark. The specimen that were saved did not deserve to die any less than their counterparts, but they were saved in order not to make it necessary for G’d to create them anew after the deluge. It had been inappropriate for G’d to destroy the fish, or even to save them by means of a miracle, as they would not have been able to share the accommodation in the ark, and the ark itself would have sunk if part of it had been converted into an aquarium holding all the fish.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.