Genesis 7:23

Summary

Genesis 7:23 describes the completion of the flood's destructive effect: every living thing on the earth's surface was wiped out, categorized by type (humankind, animals, creeping things, birds), and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained.

Key words

• va-yiMach ("and he wiped out", H4229A) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular; the subject is grammatically unstated in this clause but continues from the flood narrative, referring to the agent who caused the wiping-out.
• yeKum ("existence", H3351) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha ("the"), in construct with kol ("all", H3605); the phrase kol-ha-yeKum means "all the existence/all that existed," a comprehensive term for living things.
• va-yimmaChu ("they were wiped out", H4229A) — same root as word 2, but here in a form marked by narrative va, third person masculine plural, repeating the destruction verb with a plural subject (the categories just listed).
• yishaEr ("he was left", H7604) — niphal (passive) narrative verb, third person masculine singular; the niphal stem marks Noah as the one to whom the action of "being left" happens, rather than an agent acting.
• akh ("only", H0389) — adverb restricting the scope of yishaEr, isolating Noah (and those with him) as the sole exception to the total destruction just described.

What the text says

The verse opens with va-yiMach ("and he wiped out"), a qal verb whose grammatical subject is not overtly named in this clause — the action continues from the preceding narrative context. Its object is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated object marker) and consists of the phrase kol-ha-yeKum 'asher 'al-peney ha-'adamah — "all the existence which was on the surface of the ground." This yeKum is then itemized through a chain of 'ad ("unto", H5704) phrases: me-'Adam 'ad-behemah 'ad-remes ve-'ad-'of ha-shamayim — "from humankind unto animal unto creeping thing and unto bird of the heavens." This construction lists categories in descending or expanding order without a single collective noun repeated each time, relying instead on the preposition chain to convey totality.

The verb root m-ch ("to wipe out") appears twice: first as va-yiMach (singular, referring to the object kol-ha-yeKum as a unified concept) and again as va-yimmaChu (plural, matching the plural sense of the itemized categories) — "and they were wiped out from the earth." This repetition of the same root in singular then plural form marks the completion of the action grammatically before moving to the next clause.

The final clause uses the niphal verb yishaEr ("he was left") — a passive/reflexive stem indicating Noah's survival as a result rather than an action Noah performed. The adverb akh ("only") restricts this survival exclusively to Noach and 'asher itto ("who [were] with him"), located ba-teVah ("in the ark").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew occurrences of the "wipe out" root differently: ἐξήλειψεν for the first (singular) and ἐξηλείφθησαν for the second (plural, passive voice), matching the Hebrew's shift from active to a passive-like plural. The Vulgate uses delevit and deleta sunt, similarly shifting from active to passive. Where the Hebrew has kol-ha-yeKum ("all the existence"), the LXX reads πᾶν τὸ ἀνάστεμα ("all the rising/growth") and the Vulgate omnem substantiam ("all substance"), each choosing a different abstract term for the collective category of living things.