Verse 22 adds no new information to verse 21. It seems only to emphasize that all that died were land animals. Dry land or dry ground refers to those areas of the earth not normally covered by the seas, and so the reference is to all forms of life that lived on the dry land, in contrast to the seas, rivers, or lakes.

In whose nostrils was the breath of life translates the Hebrew “with breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils.” This is the only place in the Old Testament where “breath” and “spirit” are joined in this way. It seems to combine the expressions used in 2.7 with that in 6.17 or 7.15. Some interpreters believe the word meaning “spirit” has been added by later editors. The Septuagint and theVulgate omit the word for “spirit” here. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says “the accumulation of the three terms breath, spirit, and life in the Masoretic Text [Masoretic text] emphatically stresses the force of life that animates the living beings…,” and then suggests a literal translation. The sense seems to be clear: “everything that breathes.” Anchor Bible translates “the faintest breath of life,” but there is no parallel for this elsewhere.

Translators may find it more natural and clearer to switch the order of verses 21 and 22 and place verse 22 first, as does Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, “Everything that lived on the earth drowned: the land animals, the birds, and also the people.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .