The conceptions of chaos in antiquity fluctuate between that of empty space (Hesiod, Aristotle, Lucretius, etc.) and the ‘rudis indigestaque moles’ of Ovid (Metamorphoses i. 7). The Babylonian representation embraces the elements of darkness and water, and there is no doubt that this is the central idea of the Genesis narrative. It is singular, however, that of the three clauses of verse ² only the second (which includes the two elements mentioned) exercises any influence on the subsequent description (for on any view the ‘waters’ of the third must be identical with the Tĕhôm of the second). It is possible, therefore, that the verse combines ideas drawn from diverse sources which are not capable of complete synthesis. Only on this supposition would it be possible to accept Gunkel’s interpretation of the first clause as a description of empty space. In that case the earth is probably not inclusive of, but contrasted with, Tĕhôm: it denotes the space now occupied by the earth, which being empty leaves nothing but the deep and the darkness.
2. תהו ובהו] LXX ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος; Aquila κένωμα καὶ οὐθέν; Symmachus ἀργὸν καὶ ἀδιάκριτον; Theodotion κενὸν (or οὐθὲν) καὶ οὐθὲν; Vulgate inanis et vacua; TargumOnkelos צדיא וריקניא (‘desolate and empty’); Peshiṭtå (‡ Syriac word) (‡ Syriac word). The fragmentary Jerome Targum has a double translation: “And the earth was תהיא ובהיא, and (compare TargumOnkelos) desolate from the sons of men, and empty of work.” תהו occurs along with בהו in Jeremiah 4²³, Isaiah 34¹¹; תהו alone in 17 passages besides. The meaning varies between two extremes: (a) a (trackless) desert (Job 12²⁴ [= Psalms 107⁴⁰] 6¹⁸, Deuteronomy 32¹⁰), and (b) unsubstantiality (שאין לו ממש, Abraham Ibn Ezra) or ‘nonentity,’ a sense all but peculiar to II Isaiah (also 1 Samuel 12²¹, and perhaps Isaiah 29²¹), but very frequent there. The primary idea is uncertain. It is perhaps easier on the whole to suppose that the abstract sense of ‘formlessness,’ or the like, gave rise to a poetic name for desert, than that the concrete ‘desert’ passed over into the abstract ‘formlessness’; but we have no assurance that either represents the actual development of the idea. It seems not improbable that the Old Testament usage is entirely based on the traditional description of the primæval chaos, and that the word had no definite connotation in Hebrew, but was used to express any conception naturally associated with the idea of chaos—‘formlessness,’ ‘confusion,’ ‘unreality,’ etc.—בהו] (never found apart from תהו) may be connected with bahiya = ‘be empty’; though Aramaic is hardly a safe guide in the case of a word with a long history behind it. The identification with Βααυ, the mother of the first man in Phœnician mythology (see page 49 f.), is probable.—תהום] is undoubtedly the philological equivalent of Babylonian Ti’āmat: a connexion with Aramaic Tihāmat, the Red Sea littoral province (Hoffmann in Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, iii. 118), is more dubious (see Lane, 320 b, c; Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi. 1, 560). In early Hebrew the word is rare, and always (with possible exception of Exodus 155. 8) denotes the subterranean ocean, which is the source from which earthly springs and fountains are fed (Genesis 49²⁵, Deuteronomy 33¹³, Amos 7⁴, and so Deuteronomy 8⁷, Genesis 7¹¹ 8² (Priestly-Code); compare Homer Iliad xxi. 195), and is a remnant of the primal chaos (Genesis 1², Psalms 104⁶, Proverbs 8²⁷). In later writings it is used of the sea (plural, seas), and even of torrents of water (Psalms 42⁸); but, the passages being poetic, there is probably always to be detected a reference to the world-ocean, either as source of springs, or as specialised in earthly oceans (see Ezekiel 26¹⁹). Though the word is almost confined to poetry (except Genesis 1² 7¹¹ 8², Deuteronomy 8⁷, Amos 7⁴), the only clear cases of personification are Genesis 49²⁵, Deuteronomy 33¹³ (Tĕhôm that coucheth beneath). The invariable absence of the article (except with plural in Psalms 106⁹, Isaiah 63¹³) proves that it is a proper name, but not that it is a personification (compare the case of שְׁאוֹל). On the other hand, it is noteworthy that תהום, unlike most Hebrew names of fluids, is feminine, becoming occasionally masculine only in later times when its primary sense had been forgotten (compare Albrecht, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, xvi. 62): this might be due to an original female personification.—מרחפת] Greek Versions and Vulgate express merely the idea of motion (ἐπεφέρετο, ἐπιφερόμενον, ferebatur); TargumOnkelos מנשבא (‘blow’ or ‘breathe’); Peshiṭtå (‡ Syriac word). Jerome (Quæstiones sive Traditiones hebraicæ in Genesim): “incubabat sive confovebat in similitudinem volucris ova calore animantis.” It is impossible to say whether ‘brood’ or ‘hover’ is the exact image here, or in Deuteronomy 32¹¹,—the only other place where the Piel occurs (the Qal in Jeremiah 23⁹ may be a separate root). The Syriac verb has great latitude of meaning; it describes, e.g., the action of Elisha in laying himself on the body of the dead child (2 Kings 4³⁴); and is used of angels hovering over the dying Virgin. It is also applied to a waving of the hands (or of fans) in certain ecclesiastical functions, etc. (see Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus 3886).
3–5. First work: Creation of light.—[And] God said] On the connexion, see above, pages 13 ff.; and on the significance of the fiat, page 7.—Let there be light] The thought of light as the first creation, naturally suggested by the phenomenon of the dawn, appears in several cosmogonies; but is not expressed in any known form of the Babylonian legend. There the creator, being the sun-god, is in a manner identified with the primal element of the kosmos; and the antithesis of light and darkness is dramatised as a conflict between the god and the Chaos monster. In Persian cosmogony also, light, as the sphere in which Mazda dwells, is uncreated and eternal (Tiele, Geschichte der Religion im Altertum ii. 295 f.). In Isaiah 45⁷ both light and darkness are creations of Yahwe, but that is certainly not the idea here. Compare Milton’s Paradise Lost, iii. 1 ff.:
“Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born;
Or, of the Eternal co-eternal beam,” etc.
3. ויהי אור corresponds to the ויהי כן of subsequent acts.
4. saw that the light was good] The formula of approval does not extend to the darkness, nor even to the coexistence of light and darkness, but is restricted to the light. “Good” expresses the contrast of God’s work to the chaos of which darkness is an element. Gunkel goes too far in suggesting that the expression covers a ‘strong anthropomorphism’ (the possibility of failure, happily overcome). But he rightly calls attention to the bright view of the world implied in the series of approving verdicts, as opposed to the pessimistic estimate which became common in later Judaism.—And God divided, etc.]. To us these words merely suggest alternation in time; but Hebrew conceives of a spatial distinction of light and darkness, each in its own ‘place’ or abode (Job 3819 f.). Even the separate days and nights of the year seem thought of as having independent and continuous existence (Job 3⁶).
The Hebrew mind had thus no difficulty in thinking of the existence of light before the heavenly bodies. The sun and moon rule the day and night, but light and darkness exist independently of them. It is a mistake, however, to compare this with the scientific hypothesis of a cosmical light diffused through the nebula from which the solar system was evolved. It is not merely light and darkness, but day and night, and even the alternation of evening and morning (verse ⁵), that are represented as existing before the creation of the sun.
4. האור כי טוב] with attracted object: see Gesenius-Kautzsch § 117 h; Davidson § 146.
5. And God called, etc.] The name—that by which the thing is summoned into the field of thought—belongs to the full existence of the thing itself. So in the first line of the Babylonian account, “the heaven was not yet named” means that it did not yet exist.—And it became evening, etc.] Simple as the words are, the sentence presents some difficulty, which is not removed by the supposition that the writer follows the Jewish custom of reckoning the day from sunset to sunset (Tuch, Gunkel, Bennett, etc.). The Jewish day may have begun at sunset, but it did not end at sunrise; and it is impossible to take the words as meaning that the evening and morning formed the first (second, etc.) day. Moreover, there could be no evening before the day on which light was created. The sentence must refer to the close of the first day with the first evening and the night that followed, leading the mind forward to the advent of a new day, and a new display of creative power (Delitzsch, Dillmann, Holzinger, al.). One must not overlook the majestic simplicity of the statement.
The interpretation of יום as æon, a favourite resource of harmonists of science and revelation, is opposed to the plain sense of the passage, and has no warrant in Hebrew usage (not even Psalms 90⁴). It is true that the conception of successive creative periods, extending over vast spaces of time, is found in other cosmogonies (Delitzsch 55); but it springs in part from views of the world which are foreign to the Old Testament. To introduce that idea here not only destroys the analogy on which the sanction of the sabbath rests, but misconceives the character of the Priestly Code. If the writer had had æons in his mind, he would hardly have missed the opportunity of stating how many millenniums each embraced.
5. יום in popular parlance denotes the period between dawn and dark, and is so used in 5a. When it became necessary to deal with the 24-hours’ day, it was most natural to connect the night with the preceding period of light, reckoning, i.e., from sunrise to sunrise; and this is the prevailing usage of Old Testament (יום ולילה). In post-exilic times we find traces of the reckoning from sunset to sunset in the phrase לילה ויום (νυχθήμερον), Isaiah 27³ 34¹⁰, Esther 4¹⁶. Priestly-Code regularly employs the form ‘day and night’; and if Leviticus 23³² can be cited as a case of the later reckoning, Exodus 12¹⁸ is as clearly in favour of the older (see Marti, Encyclopædia Biblica, 1036; König, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, lx. 605 ff.). There is therefore no presumption in favour of the less natural method in this passage.—קָ֫רָא] Mil‛el, to avoid concurrence of two accented syllables.—♦לַ֫יְלָה] (also Mil‛el) a reduplicated form (לַיְלַי; compare Aramaic ליליא): see Nöldeke, Mandäische Grammatik § 109; Prätorius, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, iii. 218; König ii. § 52 c.—יום אחד] ‘a first day,’ or perhaps better ‘one day.’ On אהד as ordinal, see Gesenius-Kautzsch §§ 98 a, 134 p; Davidson § 38, R. 1; but compare Wellhausen Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels⁶ 387.
6–8. Second work: The firmament.—The second fiat calls into existence a firmament, whose function is to divide the primæval waters into an upper and lower ocean, leaving a space between as the theatre of further creative developments. The “firmament” is the dome of heaven, which to the ancients was no optical illusion, but a material structure, sometimes compared to an “upper chamber” (Psalms 104¹³, Amos 9⁶) supported by “pillars” (Job 26¹¹), and resembling in its surface a “molten mirror” (Job 37¹⁸). Above this are the heavenly waters, from which the rain descends through “windows” or “doors” (Genesis 7¹¹ 8², 2 Kings 72. 19) opened and shut by God at His pleasure (Psalms 78²³). The general idea of a forcible separation of heaven and earth is widely diffused; it is perhaps embodied in our word ‘heaven’ (from heave?) and Old English ‘lift.’ A graphic illustration of it is found in Egyptian pictures, where the god Shu is seen holding aloft, with outstretched arms, the dark star-spangled figure of the heaven-goddess, while the earth-god lies prostrate beneath (see Jeremias Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients², 7).¹ But the special form in which it appears here is perhaps not fully intelligible apart from the Babylonian creation-myth, and the climatic phenomena on which it is based (see below, page 46).
Another interpretation of the firmament has recently been propounded (Winckler, Himmels- und Weltbild der Babylonier, 25 ff.; Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients², 164, 174) which identifies it with the Babylonian šupuk šamē, and explains both of the Zodiac. The view seems based on the highly artificial Babylonian theory of a point-for-point correspondence between heaven and earth, according to which the Zodiac represents a heavenly earth, the northern heavens a heavenly heaven (atmospheric), and the southern a heavenly ocean. But whatever be the truth about šupuk šamē, such a restriction of the meaning of רקיע is inadmissible in Hebrew. In Psalms 19², Daniel 12³ it might be possible; but even there it is unnecessary, and in almost every other case it is absolutely excluded. It is so emphatically in this chapter, where the firmament is named heaven, and birds (whose flight is not restricted to 10° on either side of the ecliptic) are said to fly ‘in front of the firmament.’
6. רָקִיעַ] (LXX στερέωμα, Vulgate firmamentum) a word found only in Ezekiel, Priestly-Code, Psalms 19² 150¹, Daniel 12³. The absence of article shows that it is a descriptive term, though the only parallels to such a use would be Ezekiel 122 f. 25 f. 10¹ (compare Phœnician מרקע = ‘dish’ [Blechschale]: Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, i. 90¹; see Lidzbarski 370, 421). The idea is solidity, not thinness or extension: the sense ‘beat thin’ belongs to the Piel (Exodus 39³ etc.); and this noun is formed from the Qal, which means either (intransitive) to ‘stamp with the foot’ (Ezekiel 6¹¹), or (transitive), ‘stamp firm,’ ‘consolidate’ (Isaiah 42⁵ etc.). It is curious that the verb is used of the creation of the earth, never of heaven, except Job 37¹⁸.—ויחי מבדיל] on participle expressing permanence, see Driver A Treatise on the use of the Tenses in Hebrew § 135, 5.—בֵּין־לְ: König Historisch-comparative Syntax der hebräischen Sprache § 319 n.—וַיַּבְדֵּל] LXX supplies as subject ὁ θεός.—7. ויהי כן] transposed in LXX to end of verse ⁶, its normal position,—if indeed it be not a gloss in both places (Wellhausen).—8. LXX also inserts here the formula of approval: on its omission in Hebrew, see above, pages 8, 9.
9, 10. Third work: Dry land and sea.—The shoreless lower ocean, which remained at the close of the second day, is now replaced by land and sea in their present configuration. The expressions used: gathered together ... appear—seem to imply that the earth already existed as a solid mass covered with water, as in Psalms 1045. 6; but Dillmann thinks the language not inconsistent with the idea of a muddy mixture of earth and water, as is most naturally suggested by verse ². Henceforth the only remains of the original chaos are the subterranean waters (commonly called Tĕhôm, but in Psalms 24² ‘sea’ and ‘streams’), and the circumfluent ocean on which the heaven rests (Job 26¹⁰, Psalms 139⁹, Proverbs 8²⁷), of which, however, earthly seas are parts.
Wellhausen’s argument, that verses 6–10 are the account of a single work (above, page 9 f.), is partly anticipated by Abraham Ibn Ezra, who points out that what is here described is no true creation, but only a manifestation of what was before hidden and a gathering of what was dispersed. On the ground that earth and heaven were made on one day (2⁴), he is driven to take ויאמר as pluperfect, and assign verses 9. 10 to the second day. Some such idea may have dictated the omission of the formula of approval at the close of the second day’s work.
9. יִקָּווּ] in this sense, only Jeremiah 3¹⁷. For מָקוֹם read with LXX מִקְוֶה = ‘gathering-place,’ as in verse ¹⁰. Nestle (Marginalien und Materialien, 3) needlessly suggests for the latter מִקְרֶה, and for יקוו, יִקָּרוּ.—מִתַּחַת] not ‘from under’ but simply ‘under’ (see verse ¹⁰); Gesenius-Kautzsch § 119 c².—וְתֵרָאֶה] jussive unapocopated, as often near the principal pause; Gesenius-Kautzsch § 109 a.—At the end of the verse LXX adds: καὶ συνήχθη τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑποκάτω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς αὐτῶν καὶ ὤφθη ἡ ξηρά: i.e. וַיִּקָּווּ הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶל־מִקְוֵיהֶם וַתֵּרָא הַיַּבָּשָׁה. The addition is adopted by Ball, and the plural αὐτῶν proves at least that it rests on a Hebrew original, ὕδωρ being singular in Greek (Wellhausen).—10. יַמִּים] the plural (compare Genesis 49¹³, Deuteronomy 33¹⁹, Psalms 463 f. [where it is construed as singular] 24² etc.) is mostly poetic and late prose; it is probably not numerical, but plural of extension like מַיִם, שָׁמַיִם, and therefore to be rendered as singular.
11–13. Fourth work: Creation of plants.—The appearing of the earth is followed on the same day, not inappropriately, by the origination of vegetable life. The earth itself is conceived as endowed with productive power—a recognition of the principle of development not to be explained as a mere imparting of the power of annual renewal (Dillmann); see to the contrary verse ¹² compared with verse ²⁴.—11. Let the earth produce verdure] דֶּשֶׁא means ‘fresh young herbage,’ and appears here to include all plants in the earliest stages of their growth; hence the classification of flora is not threefold—grass, herbs, trees (Dillmann, Driver, al.)—but twofold, the generic דשא including the two kinds עֵשֶׂב and עֵץ (Delitzsch, Gunkel, Holzinger, etc.). The distinction is based on the methods of reproduction; the one kind producing seed merely, the other fruit which contains the seed.—The verse continues (amending with the help of LXX): grass producing seed after its kind, and fruit-tree producing fruit in which (i.e. the fruit) is its (the tree’s) seed after its (the tree’s) kind.—after its kind] v.i.—upon the earth] comes in very awkwardly; it is difficult to find any suitable point of attachment except with the principal verb, which, however, is too remote.
11. תַּֽדְשֵׁא דֶּשֶׁא] literally ‘vegetate vegetation,’ the noun being accusative cognate with the verb.—תַּֽ׳ is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; on the pointing with Metheg (Baer-Delitzsch page 74) see König i. § 42, 7. Peshiṭtå ((‡ Syriac word)) must have read תוצא as verse ¹².—דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב] LXX (βοτάνην χόρτου) and Vulgate treat the words as in annexion, contrary to the accents and the usage of the terms. It is impossible to define them with scientific precision; and the twofold classification given above—herb and tree—is more or less precarious. It recurs, however, in Exodus 9²⁵ 1012. 15 (all Yahwist), and the reasons for rejecting the other are, first, the absence of וְ before עשב; and, second, the syntactic consideration that דשא as cognate accusative may be presumed to define completely the action of the verb.—דשׁא denotes especially fresh juicy herbage¹ (Proverbs 27²⁵) and those grasses which never to appearance get beyond that stage. עשב, on the other hand (unlike דּ׳), is used of human food, and therefore includes cultivated plants (the cereals, etc.) (Psalms 104¹⁴).—עץ] read וִעֵץ with The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch, LXX Vulgate, Peshiṭtå, and 3 Hebrew MSS (Ball).—למינו, למינהו] On form of suffix see Gesenius-Kautzsch § 91 d. LXX in verse ¹¹ inserts the word after זרע (rendering strangely κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ’ ὁμοιότητα,—and so verse ¹²), and later in the verse (κατὰ γένος εἰς ὁμοιότητα) transposes as indicated in the translation above.—מין] a characteristic word of Priestly-Code, found elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 1413. 14. 15. 18 (from Leviticus 11), and (dubiously) Ezekiel 47¹⁰,—everywhere with suffix. The etymology is uncertain. If connected with תְּמוּנָה (form, likeness), the meaning would be ‘form’ (Latin, species); but in usage it seems to mean simply ‘kind,’ the singular suffix here being distributive: “according to its several kinds.” In Syriac the corresponding word denotes a family or tribe. For another view, see Friedrich Delitzsch, Prolegomena eines neuen hebräisch-aramäischen Wörterbuchs zum Alten Testament 143 f.—12. ותוצא] One is tempted to substitute the rare ותדשא as in verse ¹¹ (so Ball).—After עץ LXX adds פרי: Ball deletes the פרי in verse ¹¹.
14–19. Fifth work: The heavenly luminaries.—On the parallelism with the first day’s work see above, page 8 f. The verses describe only the creation of sun and moon; the clause and the stars in verse ¹⁶ appears to be an addition (v.i.). The whole conception is as unscientific (in the modern sense) as it could be—(a) in its geocentric standpoint, (b) in making the distinction of day and night prior to the sun, (c) in putting the creation of the vegetable world before that of the heavenly bodies. Its religious significance, however, is very great, inasmuch as it marks the advance of Hebrew thought from the heathen notion of the stars to a pure monotheism. To the ancient world, and the Babylonians in particular, the heavenly bodies were animated beings, and the more conspicuous of them were associated or identified with the gods. The idea of them as an animated host occurs in Hebrew poetry (Judges 5²⁰, Isaiah 40²⁶, Job 38⁷ etc.); but here it is entirely eliminated, the heavenly bodies being reduced to mere luminaries, i.e. either embodiments of light or perhaps simply ‘lamps’ (v.i.). It is possible, as Gunkel thinks, that a remnant of the old astrology lurks in the word dominion; but whereas in Babylonia the stars ruled over human affairs in general, their influence here is restricted to that which obviously depends on them, viz. the alternation of day and night, the festivals, etc. Compare Job 38³³, Psalms 1367–9 (Jeremiah 31³⁵). It is noteworthy that this is the only work of creation of which the purpose is elaborately specified.—luminaries (מְא[וֹ]רֹת)] i.e. bearers or embodiments of light. The word is used most frequently of the sevenfold light of the tabernacle (Exodus 25⁶ etc.); and to speak of it as expressing a markedly prosaic view of the subject (Gunkel) is misleading.—in the firmament, etc.] moving in prescribed paths on its lower surface. This, however, does not justify the interpretation of רקיע as the Zodiac (above, page 22).—to separate between the day, etc.]. Day and night are independent entities; but they are now put under the rule of the heavenly bodies, as their respective spheres of influence (Psalms 121⁶).—for signs and for seasons, etc.] מוֹעֲדִים (seasons) appears never (certainly not in Priestly-Code) to be used of the natural seasons of the year (Hosea 2¹¹, Jeremiah 8⁷ are figurative), but always of a time conventionally agreed upon (see Exodus 9⁵), or fixed by some circumstance. The commonest application is to the sacred seasons of the ecclesiastical year, which are fixed by the moon (compare Psalms 104¹⁹). If the natural seasons are excluded, this seems the only possible sense here; and Priestly-Code’s predilection for matters of cultus makes the explanation plausible.—אֹתֹת (signs) is more difficult, and none of the explanations given is entirely satisfactory (v.i.).—16. for dominion over the day ... night] in the sense explained above; and so verse ¹⁸.—and the stars] Since the writer seems to avoid on principle the everyday names of the objects, and to describe them by their nature and the functions they serve, the clause is probably a gloss (but v.i.). On the other hand, it would be too bold an expedient to supply an express naming of the planets after the analogy of the first three works (Tuch).
The laboured explanation of the purposes of the heavenly bodies is confused, and suggests overworking (Holzinger). The clauses which most excite suspicion are the two beginning with והיו (the difficult 14b and 15aα);—note in particular the awkward repetition of למארות וגו׳. The functions are stated with perfect clearness in 16–18: (a) to give light upon the earth, (b) to rule day and night, and (c) to separate light from darkness. I am disposed to think that 14b was introduced as an exposition of the idea of the verb משׁל, and that 15aα was then added to restore the connexion. Not much importance can be attached to the insertions of LXX (v.i.), which may be borrowed from verse 17 f..
14. יהי מארת] (∥ יהי אור in verse ³). On the breach of concord, see Gesenius-Kautzsch § 145 o; Davidson § 113 b.—מאור] a late word, is used of heavenly bodies in Ezekiel 32⁸, Psalms 74¹⁶; it never means ‘lamp’ exactly, but is often applied collectively to the seven-armed lampstand of the tabernacle; once it is used of the eyes (Proverbs 15³⁰), and once of the divine countenance (Psalms 90⁸).—ברקיע הש׳] the genitive is not partitive but explicative: Davidson § 24 (a).—LXX inserts at this point: εἰς φαῦσιν τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἄρχειν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς, καί.—לאתת] In Jeremiah 10² אתות השמים are astrological portents such as the heathen fear, and that is commonly taken as the meaning here, though it is not quite easy to believe the writer would have said the sun and moon were made for this purpose.¹ If we take אֹת in its ordinary sense of ‘token’ or ‘indication,’ we might suppose it defined by the words which follow. Tuch obtains a connexion by making the double ו = both ... and (“as signs, both for [sacred] seasons and for days and years”): others by a hendiadys (“signs of seasons”). It would be less violent to render the first ו und zwar (videlicet): “as signs, and that for seasons,” etc.; see Brown-Driver-Briggs, s. וְ 1. b, where some of the examples come, at any rate, very near the sense proposed. Olshausen arrives at the same sense by reading לְמוֹ׳ simply (Monatsberichte der Königlich-Preussischen Akadamie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin., 1870, 380).—16. ואת הכ׳] Driver (Hebrew ii. 33) renders “and the lesser light, as also the stars, to rule,” etc. The construction is not abnormal; but would the writer have said that the stars rule the night?—18. וּֽלְהַבדיל] On the comparative sheva see König i. § 10, 6 e.
20–23. Sixth work: Aquatic and aërial animals.—Let the waters swarm with swarming things—living creatures, and let fowl fly, etc.] The conjunction of two distinct forms of life under one creative act has led Gunkel to surmise that two originally separate works have been combined in order to bring the whole within the scheme of six days. Bennett (rendering and fowl that may fly) thinks the author was probably influenced by some ancient tradition that birds as well as fishes were produced by the water (so Rashi and Abraham Ibn Ezra on 2¹⁹). The conjecture is attractive, and the construction has the support of all Greek versions and Vulgate; but it is not certain that the verb can mean “produce a swarm.” More probably (in connexions like the present: see Exodus 7²⁸ [Yahwist] [English Version 8³], Psalms 105³⁰) the sense is simply teem with, indicating the place or element in which the swarming creatures abound, in which case it cannot possibly govern עוֹף as objective.—שֶׁרֶץ has a sense something like ‘vermin’: i.e. it never denotes ‘a swarm,’ but is always used of the creatures that appear in swarms (v.i.).—נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה] literally, ‘living soul’; used here collectively, and with the sense of נפש weakened, as often, to ‘individual’ or ‘being’ (contrast verse ³⁰ and see on 2⁷). The creation of the aquatic animals marks, according to Old Testament ideas, the first appearance of life on the earth, for life is nowhere predicated of the vegetable kingdom.—over the earth in front of the firmament] i.e. in the atmosphere, for which Hebrew has no special name.—21. created] indistinguishable from made in verse ²⁵.—the great sea monsters] The introduction of this new detail in the execution of the fiat is remarkable. הַתַּנִינִם here denotes actual marine animals; but this is almost the only passage where it certainly bears that sense (Psalms 148⁷). There are strong traces of mythology in the usage of the word: Isaiah 27¹ 51⁹ (Gunkel Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit 30–33), Psalms 74¹³(?); and it may have been originally the name of a class of legendary monsters like Ti’āmat. The mythological interpretation lingered in Jewish exegetical tradition (see below).—22. And God blessed them, etc.] In contrast with the plants, whose reproductive powers are included in their creation (verse 11 ff.), these living beings are endowed with the right of self-propagation by a separate act—a benediction (see verse ²⁸). The distinction is natural.—be fruitful, etc.] “There is nothing to indicate that only a single pair of each kind was originally produced” (Bennett); the language rather suggests that whole species, in something like their present multitude, were created.
20. ישרצו ... שרץ] On syntax see Davidson § 73, R. 2. The root has in Aramaic the sense of ‘creep,’ and there are many passages in Old Testament where that idea would be appropriate (Leviticus 1129. 41–43 etc.); hence Robertson Smith (Lectures on the Religion of the Semites², 293), ‘creeping vermin generally.’ But here and Genesis 8¹⁷ 9⁷, Exodus 1⁷ 7²⁸, Psalms 105³⁰ it can only mean ‘teem’ or ‘swarm’; and Driver (Genesis 12) is probably right in extending that meaning to all the passages in Hebrew Genesis 120 f., Exodus 7²⁸, Psalms 105³⁰ are the only places where the construct with cognitive accusative appears; elsewhere the animals themselves are subject of the verb. The words, except in three passages, are peculiar to the vocabulary of Priestly-Code.—But for the fact that שֶׁרָץ never means ‘swarm,’ but always ‘swarming thing,’ it would be tempting to take it as construct state before נפש חיה (LXX, Aquila, Vulgate). As it is, נ׳ ח׳ has all the awkwardness of a gloss (see 2¹⁹). The phrase is applied once to man, 2⁷ (Yahwist); elsewhere to animals,—mostly in Priestly-Code (Genesis 121. 24. 30 910. 12. 15. 16, Leviticus 1110. 46 etc.).—ועוף יעופף] The order of words as in verse ²² (והעוף ירב), due to emphasis on the new subject. The use of descriptive imperfect (LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Vulgate) is mostly poetic, and for reasons given above must here be refused.—על פני] = ‘in front of’: see Brown-Driver-Briggs, s. פנה, II. 7, a,—LXX inserts ויהי כן at the end of the verse.—21. התנינם] It is naturally difficult to determine exactly how far the Hebrew usage of the word is coloured by mythology. The important point is that it represents a power hostile to God, not only in the passages cited above, but also in Job 7¹². There are resemblances in the Aramaic tinnīn, a fabulous amphibious monster, appearing now on land and now in the sea (personification of the waterspout? Lectures on the Religion of the Semites², 176), concerning which the Arabian cosmographers have many wonderful tales to relate (Mas‛ūdī, i. 263, 266 ff.; Kazwīnī, Ethé’s translation i. 270 ff.). Rashi, after explaining literally, adds by way of Haggada that these are ‘Leviathan and his consort,’ who were created male and female, but the female was killed and salted for the righteous in the coming age, because if they had multiplied the world would not have stood before them (compare Enoch 607–9, 4 Esdras 649–52, Bereshith Rabba chapter 7).¹—ואת כל־נפש הח׳ Compare 9¹⁰, Leviticus 11¹⁰; נ׳ though without article is really determined by כל (but see Driver A Treatise on the use of the Tenses in Hebrew § 209 (1)).—אשר שרצו] א׳, accusative of definition, as שֶׁרֶץ in verse ²⁰.—22. פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ] highly characteristic of Priestly-Code (only 3 times elsewhere).