Genesis 7:21

Summary

Genesis 7:21 states that all flesh moving upon the earth died, listing four categories of creatures — birds, livestock, wild animals, and swarming things — followed by "all humankind" as a separate, final group.

Key words

• va-yigva ("it died", H1478) — qal narrative form, third-person singular; grammatically the verb agrees with a singular collective subject even though it covers all living creatures.
• kol-basar ("all flesh", H3605 + H1320) — construct chain treating "flesh" as one collective noun-subject rather than a plural, so the following list explains what the collective contains.
• ha-romes ("the one creeping", H7430) — qal participle with the definite article, functioning as a substantive descriptor ("the crawling one") that qualifies basar.
• chayyah ("animal", H2416C) — feminine singular noun used collectively for wild animals, part of the fourfold list.
• ha-shorets ("the one swarming", H8317) — qal participle, parallel in form to ha-romes, describing the sherets ("swarming thing", H8318) category.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a single verb, va-yigva ("it died"), whose grammatical subject is the collective noun phrase kol-basar ("all flesh"). This flesh is further specified by a participial clause, ha-romes 'al ha-'aretz ("the one creeping on the earth"), which functions almost as a relative clause: "all flesh — the kind that creeps on the earth." After this, four categories are introduced, each preceded by the preposition be- ("in/among"): birds, livestock, chayyah, and kol ha-sherets ("all the swarming thing"), the last of which is itself further qualified by a second participle, ha-shorets 'al ha-'aretz ("the one swarming on the earth") — a grammatical echo of the earlier ha-romes clause, forming a kind of structural bracket around the list.

The final item, kol ha-'adam ("all humankind"), breaks this pattern: it is not introduced by the preposition be- like the four preceding categories, but stands independently with its own kol ("all", H3605) construct. This shift in construction sets humankind apart from the "in/among" list of animal categories, even though it is joined to the sentence by the conjunction ve- ("and").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate uses consumptaque est ("was consumed/used up") rather than a straightforward "died," a verbal choice not present in the Hebrew yigva ("died," H1478) or the LXX's apethanen ("died"). The LXX also restructures the list: it groups birds, livestock, and wild animals under one genitive series (τῶν πετεινῶν καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ τῶν θηρίων), then sets "every swarming/creeping thing" (πᾶν ἑρπετὸν) as a separate nominative clause parallel to "all flesh," diverging from the Hebrew's repeated "among" (be-) construction that binds all four animal categories together as containers of the single collective basar.