29 God said, “Now, I have given you all the plants seeding seed all over the earth and every tree that has in it tree-fruit sowing seed: they are yours to eat, 30 and to all the beasts of the earth, all the birds of the sky, and everything that creeps on the ground that has life in it, every green plant to eat.” And it was so.
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּה֩ נָתַ֨תִּי לָכֶ֜ם אֶת־כָּל־עֵ֣שֶׂב ׀ זֹרֵ֣עַ זֶ֗רַע אֲשֶׁר֙ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְאֶת־כָּל־הָעֵ֛ץ אֲשֶׁר־בּ֥וֹ פְרִי־עֵ֖ץ זֹרֵ֣עַ זָ֑רַע לָכֶ֥ם יִֽהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָֽה׃ וּֽלְכָל־חַיַּ֣ת הָ֠אָרֶץ וּלְכָל־ע֨וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם וּלְכֹ֣ל ׀ רוֹמֵ֣שׂ עַל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ֙ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה אֶת־כָּל־יֶ֥רֶק עֵ֖שֶׂב לְאָכְלָ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃
I’m not sure I’ve ever before commented on two full verses in a single post as I’m going to do today. This will start happening much more frequently as we move forward in the Bible. In this particular case, most of what these two verses say has been discussed in earlier posts. I’ll note a few smaller points and then take a look at the big idea that we’re encountering here.
God said
V. 24 and v. 29 both begin with the same two Hebrew words: ויאמר אלהים vayomer elohim. I explained back in v. 3 why I decided to translate אמר as “think” in this expression. Now, of course, God is speaking directly (“you”) to the earthlings, and “said” is the appropriate translation. Not all thoughts are verbal, but if you want to communicate thought you must do so in words, so “say” makes sense for that purpose.
now
God is not merely saying these things but calling attention to them. The Hebrew word is הִנֵּה֩ hinneh. I’ll discuss it at more length when we see it again in v. 31.
plants … every tree
We saw these two categories back on Day Three. I’ll remind you that plants, including trees, do not seem to be thought of in the Bible as being alive. Their purpose, according to Genesis 1, is to feed the animals, perhaps explaining the correspondence between Day Three and Day Six in the two parts of Creation Week.
beasts … birds … everything that creeps
Once again the category of b’hemah, which we took to be the domesticated animals, is missing, suggesting that its absence in v. 28 is neither a mistake nor so significant as perhaps we might have thought it to be. Why we still have two categories of Earth creatures (beasts and creeping things) along with the Sky creatures is not clear — and the Sea creatures are not mentioned at all. Marine eco-systems don’t seem to be part of the knowledge base in Genesis 1 other than the fact that there obviously are living creatures who make their homes in the water.
And it was so.
Did you notice? This “was” (וַֽיְהִי) is the only verb in v. 30. Once again, the human beings who are being addressed directly are lumped together with the other living things. The phrase נפשׁ חיה ‘life’ is never applied in this chapter directly to human beings, yet it is clear that we, like they, must eat to live. The verb “I have given” of v. 29 applies to us and to the rest of the animals alike.
Another point that’s worth looking at here is this: What was so? Up until now — with the possible exception of Day Two, when “it was so” seems to be in the wrong place in the MT but in the right place in the LXX — what follows the phrase va-yehi khen is that we are shown how it became so: God made it, the earth brought it forth, and so on. Not this time.
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