What Does Genesis 7:23 Mean in the King James?
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The repeated “destroyed” comes from מָחָה, “wipe away”: the verse describes life erased from the ground, then names the household left alive inside the ark.
THE MEANING
This verse names the flood without softening it: every living thing on the ground is wiped away, while Noah and those with him remain alive inside the ark. It holds total destruction and preserved life in the same frame.
THE ROOT
מָחָה
māḥâ
GROWS FROM
מ־ח־ה
m-ḥ-h
To wipe away, erase, or blot out.
The English “destroyed” translates a verb whose core image is wiping away; its repetition makes the disappearance explicit. The same root can describe blotting out transgressions, so the force is erasure while the thing erased depends on the verse.
ALSO GROWS
məḥēh: Blot out; erase.
מְחֵה
In Psalm 51:1, this form asks for transgressions to be blotted out, showing the same root applied to wrongdoing.
māḥîtî: I have blotted out.
מָחִיתִי
In Isaiah 44:22, this form describes transgressions being blotted out, another use of the root’s erasing image.
שָׁאַר
shāʾar
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ר
sh-ʾ-r
To remain or be left over.
“remained” in this verse is shāʾar. The verse turns from what is wiped away to what is left: Noah and those with him are described with a verb meaning to remain. The Hebrew root also gives the word for a remnant, making survival here part of the verse’s central contrast.
ALSO GROWS
shāʾar: Remain; be left.
שָׁאַר
This is the verb used for Noah and his companions after the destruction.
sheʾērît: Remnant; what remains.
שְׁאֵרִית
This related noun makes explicit the idea compressed into “remained”: a remainder left after others are gone.
THE PATTERN
The root מָחָה describes wiping away in sharply different settings, from life on the ground to wrongdoing and a city.
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.THE THREAD
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.Genesis uses מָחָה for life wiped from the ground; Isaiah uses the same root for transgressions blotted out. The object changes from living beings to wrongdoing, making the root’s range visible without softening the violence of Genesis.
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