I will destroy. — Heb., delete, rub out.
From the face of the earth. — Heb., the adâmâh, the tilled ground which man had subdued and cultivated.
Both man, and beast. — Heb., from man unto cattle, unto creeping thing, and unto fowl of the air, The animal world was to share in this destruction, because its fate is bound up with that of man (Romans 8:19-22); but the idea of the total destruction of all animals by the flood, so far from being contained in the text, is contradicted by it, as it only says that it is to reach to them. Wild beasts are not mentioned in this enumeration, probably because the domestic cattle would be the chief sufferers.
Creeping thing. — Not necessarily reptiles. (See Note on Genesis 1:24.)