Genesis 1:23

_AND GOD BLESSED THEM, SAYING, BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY, AND FILL THE WATERS IN THE SEAS, AND LET FOWL MULTIPLY IN THE EARTH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

20-25 God commanded the fish and fowl to be produced. This command he himself executed. Insects, which are more numerous than the birds and beasts, and as curious, seem to have been part of this day's work. The Creator's wisdom and power are to be admired as much in an ant as in an elephant. The power of God's providence preserves all things, and fruitfulness is the effect of his blessing....

- VII. The Fifth Day 20. שׁרץ _shārats_, “crawl, teem, swarm, abound.” An intransitive verb, admitting, however, an objective noun of its own or a like signification. נפשׁ _nephesh_, “breath, soul, self.” This noun is derived from a root signifying to breathe. Its concrete meaning is, therefore, “that which breathes,” and consequently has a body, without which there can be no breathing; hence, “a breathing body,” and even a body that once had breath Numbers 6:6. As breath is the accompaniment and sign of life, it comes to denote “life,” and hence, a living body, “an animal.” And as life properly signifies animal life, and is therefore essentially connected with feeling, appetite, thought, נפשׁ nephesh

EXPOSITION GENESIS 1:20 DAY FIVE. The waters and the air, separated on the second day, are on this filled with their respective inhabitants. AND GOD SAID. Nature never makes an onward movement, in the sense of an absolutely new departure, unless under the impulse of the word of Elohim. These words distinctly claim that the creatures of the sea and of the air, even if evolved from material elements, were produced in obedience to Divine command, and not spontaneously generated by the _potentia vitae _of either land, sea, or sky. LET THE WATERS BRING FORTH ABUNDANTLY THE MOVING CREATURE. Literally, swarm with swarmers, or crawl with crawlers. The fundamental signification of _sharatz _is to creep or swarm, and hence to multiply (Gesenius); or, _vice versa_,_ _to multiply in

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 September; and according to Bishop Usher the twenty seventh of October....

Genesis 1:1. _In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth._ When that «beginning» was, we cannot tell. It may have been long ages before God fitted up this world for the abode of man, but it was not self-existent; it was created by God, it sprang from the will and the word of the all-wise Creator. Genesis 1:2. _And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep._ When God began to arrange this world in order, it was shrouded in darkness, and it had been reduced to what we call, for want of a better name, «chaos.» This is just the condition of every soul of man when God begins to deal with him in his grace; it is formless, and empty of all good things. «There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE CREATION ACCOUNT The manner in which the book of Genesis begins leaves no doubt that it is the revelation of God. The creation account is historical truth. The question is how was it given? An answer to this question claims that the Jews obtained the account from the records of other nations concerning the origin of the universe and that they altered it according to their own religious ideas. This is an impossibility. The ancient heathen nations considered God and the universe one and had absolutely no knowledge of the existence of God independent of the universe, nor did they know anything of a creation of the world. Here is something wholly different from all the theories, mythologies and other inventions of the human race. How then was it given? By revelation of God is the only answer. No human being knew anything about the origin of the heavens and t...

On the fifth day were created the denizens of the water and the atmosphere; the creatures that move in swarms in the water, all winged creatures, including insects, and the sea monsters, especially, perhaps, such as belong to mythology, and fishes. The rendering bring forth abundantly is inaccurate; the margin gives the sense, though it would be better to translate with Driver. Let the waters swarm with swarming things (even) living souls. The term is used of creatures that move in swarms whether in the water (as here) or out of it. The RV often renders it creeping things (similarly the verb), which is the proper rendering of a noun (_remes)_ Genesis 1:24, the verb of which is translated moveth in Genesis 1:21. On the distinction see Driver's article, _Creeping Things,_ in HDB. The rendering creature that ha

EVENING... MORNING. See on Genesis 1:5 FIFTH. The No. of grace (App-10). No blessing till the 5th day, when there was living soul to bless. fifth day, or "day five". See note on Genesis 1:5....

The Fifth Day. The Creation of Water Animals and Flying Animals 20. _Let the waters … life_ The rendering, "bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life," fails to give the full meaning of the original. Literally, the words mean "let the waters swarm swarms, even living soul": and the purpose of the command is that the waters are to teem with myriads of living animals. Hence the R.V. margin, "swarm with swarms of living creatures" is closer to the original; but it fails to reproduce the phrase "living soul," in apposition to the word translated "swarms." No translation is satisfactory which fails to give prominence to the thought, that the waters are to teem with things endowed with a wondrous new gift, the active principle of animal life, which the Hebrews called _nephesh_, and which is nearly represented by the Greek ψυχή. We might, therefore, translate "let the waters swa...