Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 6:7

"And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them." — Genesis 6:7 (ASV)

I will destroy. —Hebrew, delete, rub out.

From the face of the earth. —Hebrew, the adâmâh, the tilled ground which man had subdued and cultivated.

Both man, and beast. —Hebrew, from man to cattle, to creeping thing, and to 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 extend 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.)