INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 1 This chapter contains an account of the creation of the universe, and all things in it; asserts the creation of the heaven and earth in general, and describes the state and condition of the earth in its first production, Genesis 1:1 and then proceeds to declare the work of... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH. By the heaven some understand the supreme heaven, the heaven of heavens, the habitation of God, and of the holy angels; and this being made perfect at once, no mention is after made of it, as of the earth; and it is supposed that the angels were... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EARTH WAS WITHOUT FORM, AND VOID,.... It was not in the form it now is, otherwise it must have a form, as all matter has; it was a fluid matter, the watery parts were not separated from the earthy ones; it was not put into the form of a terraqueous globe it is now, the sea apart, and the ear... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID,.... This phrase is used, nine times in this account of the creation; it is admired by Longinus the Heathen in his treatise "of the Sublime", as a noble instance of it; and it is most beautifully paraphrased and explained in Psalms 33:6 as expressive of the will, power, authority, and e... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAW THE LIGHT, THAT IT WAS GOOD,.... Very pleasant and delightful, useful and beneficial; that is, he foresaw it would be good, of great service, as Picherellus k interprets it; for as yet there were no inhabitants of the earth to receive any advantage by it; see Ecclesiastes 11:7 besides, i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD CALLED THE LIGHT DAY, AND THE DARKNESS HE CALLED NIGHT,.... Either by the circulating motion of the above body of light, or by the rotation of the chaos on its own axis towards it, in the space of twenty four hours there was a vicissitude of light and darkness; just as there is now by the li... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS,.... On which the Spirit of God was sitting and moving, Genesis 1:2 part of which were formed into clouds, and drawn up into heaven by the force of the body of fire and light already produced; and the other part left on the earth, not... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD MADE THE FIRMAMENT,.... By a word speaking, commanding it into being, producing it out of the chaos, and spreading it in that vast space between the heaven of heavens and our earth z. AND DIVIDED THE WATERS WHICH WERE UNDER THE FIRMAMENT FROM THE WATERS WHICH WERE ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT; the l... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD CALLED THE FIRMAMENT HEAVEN,.... Including the starry and airy heavens: it has its name from its height in the Arabic language, it being above the earth, and reaching to the third heaven; though others take the word "shamaim" to be a compound of two words, "sham" and "maim", that is, there a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THE WATERS UNDER THE HEAVEN BE GATHERED TOGETHER UNTO ONE PLACE,.... Which are before called the waters under the firmament; and which were either on the surface of the earth, or in the bowels of it, or mixed with it, which by the compressure of the expanse or air were separated fr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD CALLED THE DRY LAND EARTH,.... The whole chaos, that was a turbid fluid, a mixture of earth and water, a rude unformed mass of matter, was called earth before; but now that part of the terraqueous globe, which was separated from the waters, and they from it, is called "earth": which has its... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THE EARTH BRING FORTH GRASS,.... Which had been impregnated by the Spirit of God that moved upon it when a fluid; and though now become dry land, it retained sufficient moisture in it, and was juicy and fit to produce vegetables; and especially as it had the advantage of the expand... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH GRASS,.... In great abundance at once; the hills and vales were clothed with it, and so a rich provision was made the beasts and cattle of the earth two or three days before they were created: [AND] HERB YIELDING SEED AFTER HIS KIND, AND THE TREE YIELDING FRUIT, WHOSE SE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE THIRD DAY. The space of twenty four hours ran out, and were measured, either by the rotation of the body of light and heat around the earth, or of the earth upon its axis: and this was according to Capellus the twentieth day of April, and, according to Bishop... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE LIGHTS IN THE FIRMAMENT OF THE HEAVEN,.... In the upper part of it, commonly called the starry heaven: some writers, both Jewish and Christian, and even modern astronomers, understand this only of the appearance of them, and not of the formation of them; they suppose they... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LET THEM BE FOR LIGHTS IN THE FIRMAMENT OF THE HEAVEN,.... To continue there as luminous bodies; as enlighteners, as the word signifies, causing light, or as being the instruments of conveying it, particularly to the earth, as follows: TO GIVE LIGHT UPON THE EARTH; and the inhabitants of it, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD MADE TWO GREAT LIGHTS,.... This was his own work which he himself did, and not by another; and may be particularly observed to express the folly of idolaters in worshipping these luminaries which were the creations of God, and were placed by him in the heaven to serve some purposes on earth... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SET THEM IN THE FIRMAMENT OF THE HEAVEN,.... He not only ordered that there they should be, and made them that there they might be, but he placed them there with his own hands; and they are placed, particularly the sun, at such a particular distance as to be beneficial and not hurtful: had i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TO RULE OVER THE DAY, AND OVER THE NIGHT,.... The one, namely the sun, or greater light, to rule over the day, and the moon and stars, the lesser lights, to rule over the night: this is repeated from Genesis 1:16 to show the certainty of it, and that the proper uses of these lights might be obse... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE FOURTH DAY. Made by the rotation of the earth on its own axis, in the space of twenty four hours: this according to Capellus was the twenty first of April, and according to Bishop Usher the twenty sixth of October; or, as others, the fourth of September: and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THE WATERS BRING FORTH ABUNDANTLY,.... The waters gathered together in one place, the waters of the ocean, and those in rivers, pools and lakes, and which, before their collection into those places, had been sat on, moved, and impregnated by the Spirit of God; so that they could, a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES,.... Which the Targums of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret of the Leviathan and its mate, concerning which the Jews have many fabulous things: large fishes are undoubtedly meant, and the whale being of the largest sort, the word is so rendered. Aelianus, from various writer... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD BLESSED THEM,.... With a power to procreate their kind, and continue their species, as it is interpreted in the next clause; SAYING, BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY, AND FILL THE WATERS IN THE SEAS: and these creatures do multiply exceedingly, and vast quantities there are of them in the mighty w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE FIFTH DAY. The sun now in the firmament, where it was fixed the day before, having gone round the earth, or the earth about that, in the space of twenty four hours; and according to Capellus this was the twenty second of April; or, as others, the fifth of Sep... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET THE EARTH BRING FORTH THE LIVING CREATURE AFTER HIS KIND,.... All sorts of living creatures that live and move upon the earth; not that the earth was endued with a power to produce these creatures of itself, without the interposition of God: for though it might be impregnated with... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD MADE THE BEAST OF THE EARTH AFTER HIS KIND,.... The wild beasts, and the several sorts of them; beginning the account with the last mentioned, as is frequent in the Hebrew language, and so he made all the rest: AND CATTLE AFTER THEIR KIND, AND EVERYTHING THAT CREEPETH UPON THE EARTH AFTER H... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID, LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS,.... These words are directed not to the earth, out of which man was made, as consulting with it, and to be assisting in the formation of man, as Moses Gerundensis, and other Jewish writers f, which is wretchedly stupid; nor to the angel... [ Continue Reading ]
SO GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE,.... Which consisted both in the form of his body, and the erect stature of it, different from all other creatures; in agreement with the idea of that body, prepared in covenant for the Son of God, and which it was therein agreed he should assume in the fulness of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD BLESSED THEM,.... The man and the woman he had made, with all the blessings of nature and Providence; with all the good things of life; with his presence, and with communion with himself in a natural way, through the creatures; and particularly with a power of procreating their species, as f... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAID,.... That is, to Adam and Eve, whom he had made in his image and likeness, and to whom he had given the dominion of the earth and sea, and all things in them: BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY HERB BEARING SEED, WHICH IS UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH; every herb or plant which had a seed... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TO EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH,.... Wild or tame, the cattle on a thousand hills; God took care and provided for these, being all his creatures, and designed to answer some end or other by their creation: AND TO EVERY FOWL OF THE AIR; that flies in it; AND TO EVERY CREEPING THING UPON THE EARTH;... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD SAW EVERYTHING THAT HE HAD MADE,.... Either all that he had made on the several six days of the creation, he took a survey of them, looked over them again, as workmen do when they have finished their work, to see if anything is amiss or wanting; not that anything of this nature can be suppos... [ Continue Reading ]