Pete - I've just looked up v23 which you called in your defence:

"Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark."

Again, I can't see that helps your argument. I would read that 'Every living thing' as the dominant phrase. By comparision, omit the text before the semicolon: "people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth". My understanding is that is what you believe the verse means - the part before the semicolon is entirely superfluous. But the part before the semicolon makes sense if the terms after it are not qualifiers but instead emphasise the extent of the destruction.