Tafsiran Kejadian 7:22: Rashi, Radak, Tur HaArokh & The Midrash

נשמת רוח חיים means the breathing of the breath of life.

כל אשר נשמת רוח חיים באפיו, both the words נשמת and רוח are in a construct mode belonging to the word חיים, as if the Torah had written נשמת חיים ורוח חיים. Other examples of such a construction are found in Ezekiel 31,16 מבחר וטוב לבנון, “the choicest and best of Lebanon.” Or, Job 20,17 נהרי נחלי דבש וחמאה, “the streams, the rivers of honey, the brooks of cream.” The Torah, when referring to man, speaks of נשמת, whereas when speaking of the animals it describes their essence of life as רוח חיים.

מכל אשר בחרבה מתו. Of all that perished in the destruction. And there are no fish in the sea, even in the waters of a boiling flood. It was possible that they fled into the abyss and into the crevices of the rocks and hid there. And how about all the people who ran away to the ocean?

אשר בחרבה WHATSOEVER WAS IN THE DRY LAND [DIED] — and not the fish in the sea (Sanhedrin 108a).