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16 And God P made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.

p Ps. 136. 7, 8, 9. & 148. 3. 5. q Ps. 8. 3. r Job,38. 7.

18 And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the

s Jer. 31. 35.

God had made.' This we offer, however, merely as a suggestion on a point which deserves perhaps a more strict

connected by the copulative 'and' the
last is very frequently merely exegeti-
ical or explanatory of the first; as
Eph. 4. 11. And he gave (i. e. appoint-investigation.
ed) some pastors and teachers, i. e.
pastors even teachers. 2 Cor. 1. 3. (Gr.)
'Blessed be God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ,' i. e. as rightly ren-
dered in our common translation, 'God
even the Father, &c.' The original
word for year (1) has the import
of change or reiteration from the cir-
cuit or revolution involved in the idea.

The greater light.

That is, the sun, usually termed in the Hebrew w shemesh, i. e. minister or servant, from its ministering light and heat to the earth with its inhabitants and productions. The name was well adapted, as perhaps it was designed, to prevent the sun from becoming an object of religious worship, a species of idolatry which crept into the world at a very early period. To rule the day. To regulate the day as to its commencement by its rising and as to its close by its setting; to be, as it were, a presiding power over the day and its various transactions and events.

16. God made two great lights. The sun and moon are alike called great luminaries from their apparently equal, or nearly equal size, not from the degree of light which they give. Every thing in this narrative is described with reference to its appearance to the eye of 20. The moving creature. Heb. Y a supposed spectator. It would seem sheretz. It is remarkable that there that the words, 'And it was so,' in the are two distinct words, of very different preceding verse were designed to inform origin, which the English translators us of the actual execution of the crea- have rendered promiscuously 'creeping ting command in respect to the lumin- creatures' or 'creeping things,' and also aries; if so, we see no serious objection 'moving creatures,' following no doubt to supposing that this and the two en- the authority of the Septuagint, which suing verses are to be taken parenthet- gives OTEтa reptiles for both; thus maically, the writer's scope being to inform king the order of the successive creaus, that God had previously created tions much less clear and perspicuous these bodies for the purpose here men- in our version than it is in the Hetioned, but that they had not hitherto brew text. The first of these words been able to answer the ends of their is that here employed sheretz, renformation on account of the turbid state dered in the margin 'creeping creatures.' of the atmosphere. Otherwise the pas- It comes from a root sharatz sage must be considered as a mere re-signifying to bring forth, increase, or petition, in more expanded particulars, multiply abundantly; and is in fact the of what is affirmed in the preceding very verb which in this same verse is verse. The phrase, therefore, And rendered 'bring forth abundantly.' God made' would be better read 'For Thus too Gen. 8. 17, That they may

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moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

u

21 And God created great

u ch. 6. 20. & 7. 14. & 8. 19. Ps. 104. 26.

breed abundantly () in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply in the earth.

Ex. 1. 7.

'And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, (777) and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them.' Ex. 8. 3, 'And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly (7). From this it appears that the proper translation of the noun is not the creeping, but the rapidly multiplying or swarming creature. It is applied not only to the smaller kinds of fishes, but to various species of land animals, as mice, snails, lizards, &c. Lev. 11. 29, and even to fowls, Lev. 11. 23; in short, to all kinds of living creatures inhabiting either land or water, which are oviparous and remarkable for fecundity, as we know is pre-eminently the case with the finny tribes. Ps. 104. 24. 25, 'The earth is full of thy riches; so is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumera

ble.' The other word translated 'creeping things' is remes, and the creatures expressed by this name were created during the sixth day or period We shall afterwards show (see note on v.24) that it has a very different meaning from here applied to a part of the animate creations of the fifth day.

Thathath life. Heb. living soul. The original word implies 'breath,' and so denotes an animal which lives by breathing. It is chiefly applied in the Scriptures to creatures capable of sensation, and thus distinguished from inanimate matter. Though spoken of man, it does not by itself denote the intellectual or rational faculty, which enters into our ideas of the human soul. See note on ch.2. v. 7.—¶And fowl that may fly. Heb. NE197 9157. By ren

whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

dering the Heb. 1 oph by 'fowl' our translators have limited its meaning so as to include only the birds. But the term includes also winged insects, as is evident from Lev. 11. 20, All fowls (1) that creep, going upon four.' The proper rendering is not tribes of all kinds that can raise fowl, but flying thing, including the themselves up into the air; as is indeed made obvious by the expression in the next verse every fly

ing thing that hath wings. From the letter of this clause it would appear that the fowls, as well as the fishes, were formed out of the water, but in ch. 2. 19, it is said that 'out of the ground the earth and every fowl of the air.' To Lord God formed every beast of the reconcile the apparent discrepancy some have proposed to interpret the word 'ground' in a large sense, as sy land and water. A better mode is to nonymous with 'earth,' including both vary slightly the translation in the present passage, which the original will well admit, and read, and let the forel writer here seems to be to specify the refly above the earth.' The object of the spective elements assigned as the habitation of the fishes and the flying things. In the other passage the design is to acquaint us with the source from whence the beasts and birds originated. They are probably here mentioned together from the similarity of the elements in which they live, and of the motions by which they pass through them.—¶ In the open firmament. Heb. p¬75 30 on the face of the firmament. To an eye looking upwards the flight or sailing motion of a bird appears to be on the face of the sky, which, as Job says, is spread out as a molten looking glass.' 21. God created great whales. Heb.

W

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 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

tannin, with which

¬¬m 270. Gr. τа knтn τа 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. 31.Gr.тov Spaкovтα Tоv μeyav), 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 (17♬ 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,' though from its being said to 'draw out the breast to its young,' the term would appear to denote some kind of wild beast, rather than a tenant of the deep. In Mal. 1. 3. it is said, 'And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons (♫n

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רומשת .Heb

22. God blessed them. That is, gave them power to propagate their several species by generation, and thus to increase into a countless multitude. This idea of increase or multiplication is of ten conveyed by the word blessing in the sacred writers, as Gen. 26. 60, And they blessed (i. e. invoked a blessing

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upon) Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy secd 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 (2) in the waters; and from Ps. 69. 34, Let the heavens praise him, the seas, and every thing moveth (w) therein.' In the present case, as the are grouped with the and 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 conthe ocean. See note on v. 10. Thus too tact 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 sea,' i. e. the bed of the sea.

scas.

.remes רמש

embraced in the previous day's work.

-T Beast. Heb. hayah. This term in Hebrew is derived from a word

24. Living creature. Heb. N WD) living soul; collective singular for 'living signifying life' or 'living,' and is the souls. -T Cattle. Heb. n behetrm usual'y applied to wild beasts in mah. Under this term are included the contradistinction from the tame, which, various species of tame and domestic as just remarked, are usually, though not animals, especially such as are herbi- always, denominated cattle. Although vorous. Creeping thing. Heb.it is probable that none of the animal In our translation we tribes at the creation or before the fall here find creeping things again menwere wild in the sense of fierce and tioned and included among the objects ravenous, yet the different species unof 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 prera; but the Heb, is derived from a verb signifying in a more general sense, to move or to tread, and

25. And God made. It is to be remarked that although the earth and the water are commanded to bring forth respectively the creatures which were to

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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; for of that kind is virgin or true earth.' Ant. B. I. c. I. It is also the generic name for the whole race, who are called Adam,' Gen. 9. 6, and 'sons of Adam,' Ps. 11. 4.- -¶In our image and after our likeness. It does not ap pear that these two words materially differ in import from each other. They are probably used together merely for the purpose of making the expression more emphatic. That the 'image of God' implies a likeness to him in moral attributes is plainly intimated in the 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.

26. And God said, let us make man. The remaining and crowning work of the sixth day, the creation of man, is here described. The habitation having been duly prepared, the destined tenant was now to be ushered into it. This purpose is expressed by a peculiar phraseology, 'Let us make man;' as if by way of consultation. Instead of saying, 'Let there be man,' as he had before said, 'Let there be light,' or giving a command to the elements to bring forth so noble a creature, he 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 plural 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 inany countries, particularly those in habited by the Caucasian race, to which I

ted him.' See also Eph. 4. 24. But there can be as little doubt that the phrase in this connection denotes primarily 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

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