24 God thought, Let the Earth bring forth life, species by species:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים תּוֹצֵ֨א הָאָ֜רֶץ נֶ֤פֶשׁ חַיָּה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ
[Click the links if you are curious about those words in the translation above.]
We have seen that the first half of creation week parallels the second half, which means that now, on Day Six, something should be happening that corresponds with Day Three. That day, as you remember, was the day when the primordial chaos below Sky was organized into Seas and Earth. It was also the only day so far when two stages of creation took place, not just one: Plants came into existence when “the Earth brought forth greenery” (v. 12). As you remember, in v. 11, God thought, Let the Earth sprout greenery. The Earth did not actually do that, but instead “brought forth” greenery. (I did not pay careful enough attention to this at the time, but have updated my translation now.)
Now God reframes his thought in line with what actually happened on Day Three. There would seem to be two different ways to look at the change. One is quite simple: The “greenery” verb, which occurs only one other place in the Bible, was derived from its object, but there is no obvious way to create a verb from the Hebrew phrase nefesh ḥayah. There are most definitely verbs related to each of these words. Perhaps you remember that in Exod 31:17 God catches His breath with a verb made from nefesh. And one can certainly “keep [someone] alive” with a verb from חיה. But the Hebrew system of 3-letter roots makes it impossible to combine the two words into a single verb that would match both parts of this phrase.
Another way to look at it is that God’s plan is dynamic. Like the “God-wind” of v. 2, the quiet, methodical text of our chapter conceals a project dealing in immense energies. This is not a kit being assembled step by step, but an experiment being worked on in God’s lab. Just as the Earth did not “sprout” greenery but “brought it forth,” it is now to “bring forth” life.
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