Breath, Wind, Life (Gen 7:22)
The Flood
22 Everything with the breath of the wind of life in its nostrils, of all that was on the wasted land, died.
כֹּ֡ל אֲשֶׁר֩ נִשְׁמַת־ר֨וּחַ חַיִּ֜ים בְּאַפָּ֗יו מִכֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֶּחָֽרָבָ֖ה מֵֽתוּ׃
Your translation calls it “dry” land, something we’ll discuss by the time we’re finished today. For now, consider this another reminder that if you want to know what the Bible says, you have to learn Hebrew. First … breath.
Last time, we pointed out that vv. 21–23 would crescendo to the destruction of all life on Earth, matching the similar crescendo of the water in vv. 18–20. V. 21 listed all the different types of living creatures described in Version 1 of creation. In case we weren’t paying attention, v. 22 goes on to remind us that this means everything that breathes.
The main thing that breathes, the one that concerns us the most — the one who had the breath of life breathed directly into it by YHWH God — is of course humanity. That breathing of breath into humanity was in Version 2 of creation, of course. Westermann observes:
The sentence belongs clearly to J; רוח is a subsequent addition, even though we can no longer see the reason for it (harmonizing?). Its omission in the Gk and the Vg confirms this.
Hendel agrees that רוח ru’aḥ ‘wind’ is an addition, and expands on the reason for it:
The MT and SP add rwḥ (“breath, spirit”), which is lacking in the LXX. This plus harmonizes the phrase nšmt ḥyym, typical of J, with the equivalent P phrase rwḥ ḥyym (6:17, 7:15), both meaning “life’s breath.”
Robert Alter translates the combined phrase as “the quickening breath of life” (“quickening” in the sense of “bringing something to life”) and offers an observation that pushes things further:
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