22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,

w ch. 8. 17.

and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

On the

tannuth) of the wilderness. whole, the probability, we think, is, that the original is a generic term more peculiarly appropriate to the serpent or lizard tribes, but applied also without much regard to scientific precision to different kinds of animals of large dimensions and fearful properties whether aquatic or terrestrial or both. Without, therefore, absolutely condemning the present translation, 'great whales,' we may still admit that 'great reptiles' would have been better; and if there be any term in the sacred narrative which can be fairly supposed to embrace the extinct tribes of the Saurian and other species of animals whose huge remains are among the principal wonders of geological discovery, it will scarcely be questioned thattan, tannim, or tannin, with which leviathan is closely connected, may claim that distinction. The result to which we are brought is, that the work of the fifth day was the creation of the inhabitants of the waters; of the birds and the winged insects; and also of the amphibious reptiles.- -¶ Living creature that moveth. creeping. The original, though properly signifying to tread, is applied both to things which creep on the earth, and which swim in the waters, Lev. 11. 44, 46 Ps. 69. 34. Gen. 1. 25. In the language of modern zoology, fishes are not ranked among reptiles, but the ancient writers whether sacred or profane

Þ¬370 027907. Gr. τa kηîn τa pezaλa. The execution or effect of the command contained in the preceding verse is here described. The rendering adopted in our translation has evidently been governed by that of the Septuagint, but it decidedly fails to represent the true import of the original. Indeed, neither the Greek nor the English translators have been consistent with themselves in rendering the Heb. word tan or , tannim, in both which forms it occurs. We find them in other places, for instance, severally translating it by Spakov and 'dragon.' Thus Ezek. 29. 3, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon. (Heb. 377.Gr.тov dрaкovтα тov pɛyav), that lieth in the midst of the rivers.' The figure in this passage is evidently borrowed from the crocodile of the Nile, for to what could a king of Egypt be more properly compared than to the crocodile? A similar allusion is doubtless to be recognised, Is. 51. 9, 'Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon (1775, tannin)?' Yet in numerous other passages the term is applied in such connections that neither whale, crocodile, nor dragon would seem to be intended. Thus in Job 30. 29. Ps. 44. 19. Is. 13. 22-34. 13.-35. 7.-Jer. 9. 11.-14. 6.-49. 33. Mic. 1. 8, the scene of the animal's residence is one of utter desolation, and the animal himself is described as snuffing the wind, wailing, and belonging to the desert. In Lam. 4. 3, it is term-made not such nice distinctions. ed in our translation 'sea monster,' 22. God blessed them. That is, gave though from its being said to 'draw out them power to propagate their several the breast to its young,' the term would species by generation, and thus to inappear to denote some kind of wild crease into a countless multitude. This beast, rather than a tenant of the deep. idea of increase or multiplication is of In Mal. 1. 3. it is said, 'And I hated ten conveyed by the word blessing in Esau, and laid his mountains and his the sacred writers, as Gen. 26. 60, And beritage waste for the dragons (they blessed (i. e. invoked a blessing

רומשת .Heb

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was

So.

upon) Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them.' Ps. 128. 3, 4, Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house; thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.' It is in virtue of this blessing' of God that the almost infinite increase of the various animated tribes of the creation has hitherto resulted, and is still perhaps going on; though the fact of a continued multiplication whether of animals or men is a matter not easily determined. -T Fill the waters in the The word 'seas' here evidently has the meaning of gulfs or cavities forming the reservoir of the waters of

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

is by no means limited in its application to insects or reptiles. Thus we find it, Ps. 104. 20, applied to the beasts of the forest, 'Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth (). Yet that it is occasionally used of the inhabitants of the water is clear from Lev. 11. 46, 'This is the law of every living creature that moveth () in the waters; and from Ps. 69. 34, 'Let the heavens praise him, the seas, and every thing moveth (2) therein.' In the present case, as the are grouped with the 0 and ya nn i.e. the larger herbivorous cattle and the larger beasts of prey, it is probable that the term refers to the smaller classes of land animals whose bodies are brought by means of short legs into closer contact with the earth. If reptiles are inare we to understand the term, Is. 11.9, cluded, they must be exclusively land"The earth shall be full of the know-reptiles, as the amphibious species were ledge of the Lord as the waters cover the embraced in the previous day's work. sea,' i. e. the bed of the sea.

scas.

the ocean. See note on v. 10. Thus too

24. Living creature. Heb. living soul; collective singular for 'living

souls.'- -T Cattle.

.remes רמש

- Beast. Heb. hayah. This term in Hebrew is derived from a word signifying life' or 'living,' and is the

term usually applied to wild beasts in contradistinction from the tame, which, as just remarked, are usually, though not always, denominated cattle. Although it is probable that none of the animal tribes at the creation or before the fall were wild in the sense of fierce and ravenous, yet the different species un

Heb. behemah. Under this term are included the various species of tame and domestic animals, especially such as are herbivorous.-- Creeping thing. Heb. In our translation we here find creeping things again mentioned and included among the objects of the sixth day's creation. The Eng-doubtedly possessed different natures, lish phrase in its common acceptation some being originally more vivacious, undoubtedly implies some of the in- active, and vigorous, and less adapted sect or reptile tribes; and this sense is to man's dominion than others. plainly favored by the Septuagint rendering έprɛra; but the Heb. is de-marked that although the earth and the rived from a verb signifying in a more water are commanded to bring forth general sense, to move or to tread, and respectively the creatures which were to

25. And God made. It is to be re

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

x ch. 5. 1. & 9. 6. Ps. 100. 3. Ec. 7. 29. Acts, 17.

inhabit them, yet in speaking of the actual execution of the work, it is not said the earth created, or the waters created, their several tenants, but that God created them one and all. No creative power was delegated to the elements in any degree. Omnipotence alone was adequate to the result, and omnipotence only effected it.

and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

20, 28, 29. 1 Cor. 11. 7. y ch. 9. 2. Ps. 8-6.

the Jews belonged, its ruddy blush or flesh-tint. Others, with less likelihood, trace its origin to ada mah, ground, earth, while Josephus upon very insufficient authority combines both; This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is red, because he was formed out of red earth compounded together; 26. And God said, let us make man. for of that kind is virgin or true earth.' The remaining and crowning work of Ant. B. I. c. I. It is also the generic the sixth day, the creation of man, is name for the whole race, who are callnere described. The habitation having ed Adam,' Gen. 9. 6, and 'sons of been duly prepared, the destined ten- Adam,' Ps. 11. 4.—¶ In our image ant was now to be ushered into it. and after our likeness. It does not apThis purpose is expressed by a peculiar pear that these two words materially phraseology, 'Let us make man;' as differ in import from each other. They if by way of consultation. Instead of saying, 'Let there be man,' as he had the purpose of making the expression are probably used together merely for before said, 'Let there be light,' or more emphatic. That the 'image of giving a command to the elements to God' implies a likeness to him in morbring forth so noble a creature, heal attributes is plainly intimated in the speaks of the work as immediately his own, and in the language of deliberation; implying thereby not any more intrinsic difficulty in this act of his power than in the creation of the small-ledge after the image of him that creaest insect, but the superior dignity and excellence of the creature he was about to form. The language employed is not, however, in itself any more a decisive argument in favor of the doctrine of the Trinity than the use of the plu

ral term Elohim, v. 1, on which we

have already remarked. Comp. Job, 18. 2, 3. 2 Sam. 24, 14. The original for man adam is from a root signify ing to be red, and is closely related to the Hebrew word for blood, which the Scriptures speak of as the seat of vitality, Gen. 9. 4, and which gives to the human countenance in many countries, particularly those inhabited by the Caucasian race, to which

words of the Apostle, Col. 3. 10, where he exhorts christians to 'put off the old man with his deeds, and to put on the new man which is renewed in know

ted him.' See also Eph. 4. 24. But there can be as little doubt that the phrase in this connection denotes pr marily the possession of dominion and of the ensuing clause, 'let them have authority. This is evinced by the words dominion,' which is to be regarded as explanatory of the term 'image.' So

the Apostle, 1 Cor. 11. 7, denominates the man the image and glory of God,' especially on the ground of his being the head of the woman,' or having preeminence over her. The expression implies that man was appointed by the Creator to sustain towards inferior animals a relation strikingly similar to that in which he himself stands tow

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

a

b

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the

ZI Cor. 11. 7. a ch. 5. 2. Mal. 2. 15. Mat. 19. 4.

earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that † moveth upon the earth.

29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bear

Mark, 10. 6. bch. 9. 1, 7. Lev. 26. 9. Ps. 127. a

28. And God blesssd them, &c. Here again the term 'blessing' has reference to the multiplication of seed as explain-¶ Subdue it. Heb. ed above, v. 22.15. This may be understood either of bringing the earth, the material globe, into subjection to the uses of man by the labors of agriculture, by obtaining possession of its mineral treasures, by levelling its hills and filling up its vallies, and making it in every possible way to conduce to his well-being; or the 'earth' here may be taken as synonymous with its brute inhabitants and to 'subdue' it is but another term for obtaining and exercising that mas tery over them which was especially designed for man at his creation, v. 26. Interpreted in this sense the last clause of the verse is merely explanatory of the meaning of the term 'subdue.'

ards man; and hence that man upon 27. Male and female created he them. earth represents or bears the image of That is, the destined human race was God nearly in the same sense in which to be constituted male and female. the governor of a province is said to re- The allusion to the other sex is evidentpresent or bear the image of his sover-ly proleptical, as nothing had yet been eign.- - Let them have dominion. said of the creation of woman. This is From the use of the plural pronoun detailed in all its particulars in the next here it is evident that 'man' is taken chapter. in a collective sense implying the whole race. It was not Adam alone who was to exercise this dominion, but his posterity also. In virtue of this delegated authority it is probable that Adam's control over the animal creation was much more complete before the fall than that which his descendants have exercised since; but that in consequence of his transgression this ascendancy or lordship was in a great measure forfeited, and his rebellion against God punished by the rebellion of the subject creatures against himself. Still there appears to have been an original difference in the constitution and instincts of the 'cattle' and the 'beasts,' and we see no reason to suppose that the lion and the tiger were ever so completely subject to the dominion of man as the ox and the sheep. Probably the leading idea is, that man was invested with a dominion over the animal tribes by being created with powers of a higher grade, such as gave him immense advantages over them, and made him capable, in great measure, of reducing them to subjection, and thus of making them subservient to his pleasure or -¶ Over all the earth. That is, over all the creatures and productions of the earth, and over the earth itself, to manage it as they should see fit for their own advantage and comfort.

use.

29. Behold, I have given you, fc. It is not perhaps to be understood from the use of the word 'give' that a simple permission was now granted to man of using that for food which it would have been unlawful for him to use without it; for by the very constitution of his nature he was made to be sustained by that food which was most congenial to his physical economy; and this it must have been lawful for him to employ unless self-destruction had been his duty. The true iniport therefore of

ing seed, which is upon the face | eth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

с

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creep

cch. 9. 3. Job, 36. 31. Ps. 104. 14, 15, & 136. 25. & 146. 7. Acts, 14. 17. d Ps. 145. 15, 16, & 147. 9. e Job, 38. 41.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

f Ps. 104. 24. 1 Tim. 4. 4.

་

rally speaking, in Asia, at the present day. The mass of the people have it only occasionally, and in small quantities, and many do not eat flesh-meat more than two or three times in a year.' Pictorial Bible.

31. Behold it was very good. This is the divine testimony respecting the works of the creation when all was finished. God saw that every thing was good, because it perfectly answer. ed the end for which it was made. The reason of these words being so frequently repeated throughout the preceding narrative is, to direct attention to the contrast between the original state of things and the present, and to intimate that whatever disorders or evils now ex

the phrase doubtless is, that God had appointed, constituted, ordained this as the staple article of man's diet. He had formed him with a nature to which a vegetable aliment was better suited than any other. That we do no violence to the historian's language in putting this sense upon it, will be evident from the following instances of parallel usage. Gen. 9. 13, 'I do set my bow in the cloud.' Heb. 'I do give my bow in the cloud;' i. e. I appoint, constitute my bow as a sign of the covenant. 1 Chronicles 17. 22, 'For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever.' Heb. Thou hast given (i. e. appointed, constituted) thy people Israel for thyself for a people for ever;' thus rendered in the parallel pas-ist to mar the works of God, they dia sage, 2 Sam. 7. 24. For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever.' It cannot perhaps be inferred from what is here said that the use of flesh-meat was absolutely forbidden, but it clearly implies that the fruits of the field formed the diet best adapted to the constitution which the Creator had given him. This view of the sense of 'giving' is confirmed by the ensuing verse, where the same phraseology is employed, and God is said to have 'given' the green herb to the beasts and birds. This cannot mean a permission, but an appointment, as explained above. 'There is no difficulty in supposing animal food not in use in the primitive times; for it can hardly be said to be so, gene

not originally belong to them, but have been introduced in consequence of man's transgression.-If it be asked why the space of six days was employed in the work of creation when omnipotence could have effected every thing in a moment, it may be answered, that one reason probably was, that all to whom the record should come might be able more leisurely and distinctly to contemplate the Creator's works as they proceeded successively from his hand. Another reason perhaps was that he might lay the foundation of the weekly division of time, and of the institution of the holy Sabbath, an ordinance to be perpetually observed to the end of the world.

REMARKS. The reflections naturally