So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;
Parallel translations
- WEB All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
- KJV And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
- BSB And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.
- NKJV And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
- NLT All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
All flesh that moved on the earth died, including birds, animals, and every person. The judgment falls universally on the living.
Overview
The comprehensive list of the dead conveys the staggering scope of the flood's judgment on a world given over to violence. The repetition of categories from creation shows judgment undoing the teeming life God had made. This sobering picture warns of the reality of God's judgment and heightens the grace by which Noah's household alone survives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Gen 6:13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
- Gen 6:17I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
- Gen 7:4In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
- Gen 6:6–7Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
- Rom 8:20For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
- 2 Pet 2:5and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
- Isa 24:6Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
- Job 22:15–17Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
- Rom 8:22For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
- Jer 4:22–27“For my people are foolish, they don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
- Joel 1:17–20The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
- Joel 2:3A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
- Matt 24:39and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
- Isa 24:19The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently.
- Hos 4:3Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells therein will waste away. all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die.
- Luke 17:27They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
- Zeph 1:3I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.
- Jer 12:3–4But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 7:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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