This passage does not imply, as some expositors have explained it, that certain animals had survived the Flood without having been in the ark, and that therefore there was only a partial inundation of the earth. Inasmuch as this view squarely contradicts clear statements that all land and air animals that had not found a haven of refuge in the ark had been destroyed (chs. 6:17; 7:4, 21–23), another explanation must be found. The preposition “to,” in the phrase “to every beast,” is here more appropriately rendered “of” or “with regard to” (see ch. 20:13, “of me”). The RSV, following the LXX, renders it thus: “Every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.”