Genesis 1:21 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 1:21
And God created great 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.
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
moveth
הָֽרֹמֶ֡שֶׂתha.ro.Me.set
H7430
properly · definite article + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
waters
הַמַּ֜יִםha.Ma.yim
H4325
water · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
abundantly
שָׁרְצ֨וּsha.re.Tzu
H8317
to wriggle · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
kind
לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗םle.mi.ne.Hem
H4327
a sort · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
winged
כָּנָף֙ka.Naf
H3671
an edge or extremity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fowl
ע֤וֹףof
H5775
a bird (as covered with feathers · noun, common masculine singular construct
kind
לְמִינֵ֔הוּle.mi.Ne.hu
H4327
a sort · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
God
אֱלֹהִ֖ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
saw
וַיַּ֥רְאvai.Yar'
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
good
טוֹבṭôwb
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 104:24-26 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Genesis 1:25 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…
Genesis 8:19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Genesis 8:17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that cree…
Genesis 6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come…
Genesis 7:14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his k…
Genesis 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Exodus 1:7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:20-23
Each day, hitherto, has produced very noble and excellent beings, which we can never sufficiently admire; but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day, of which these verses give us an account. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but rose and advanced gradually from that which was less excellent to that which was more so, teaching us to press towards perfection and endeavour that our last works may be our best works. It was on the fifth day that the fish and fowl were created, and both out of the waters. Though there is one kind of flesh of fishes, and another of birds, yet they were made together, and both out of the w…
FIFTH DAY. The signs of animal life appeared in the waters and in the air. (Gen 1:20-23)
moving creature--all oviparous animals, both among the finny and the feathery tribes--remarkable for their rapid and prodigious increase.
fowl--means every flying thing: The word rendered "whales," includes also sharks, crocodiles, &c.; so that from the countless shoals of small fish to the great sea monsters, from the tiny insect to the king of birds, the waters and the air were suddenly made to swarm with creatures formed to live and sport in their respective elements.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:21
And God created great whales - התנינם הגדלים hattanninim haggedolim. Though this is generally understood by the different versions as signifying whales, yet the original must be understood rather as a general than a particular term, comprising all the great aquatic animals, such as the various species of whales, the porpoise, the dolphin, the monoceros or narwal, and the shark. God delights to show himself in little as well as in great things: hence he forms animals so minute that 30,000 can be contained in one drop of water; and others so great that they seem to require almost a whole sea to float in.
John Gill on Genesis 1:21
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 writers, relates many things of the extraordinary size of whales; of one in the Indian sea five times bigger than the largest elephant, one of its ribs being twenty cubits (r); from Theocles, of one that was larger than a galley with three oars (s); and from Onesicritus and Orthagoras, of one that was half a furlong in length (t); and Pliny (u) speaks of one sort called the "balaena", and of one of them…
The Church Fathers
In the pine cone nature seems to express an image of itself. It preserves its peculiar properties which it received from that divine and celestial command, and it repeats in the succession and order of the years its generation until the end of time is fulfilled.
The Word of God permeates every creature in the constitution of the world. Hence, as God had ordained, all kinds of living creatures were quickly produced from the earth. In compliance with a fixed law they all succeed each other from age to age according to their aspect and kind. The lion generates a lion; the tiger, a tiger; the ox, an ox; the swan, a swan; and the eagle, an eagle. What was once enjoined became in nature a habit for all time. Hence the earth has not ceased to offer the homage of its service. The original species of living creatures is reproduced for future ages by successive generations of its kind.
"And God made the great whales, and every soul of the creeping animals which the waters brought forth according to their kind, and every winged flying thing according to its kind." And concerning these too, as concerning those which we spoke of above, one must judge that we ought to bring forth also "the great whales" and "the soul of the creeping things according to their kind." By these great whales I think there are indicated impious thoughts and any wicked senses against God. All of which nevertheless must be brought forth before the sight of God and placed before him, so that we may divide and separate the good from the evil, so that to each its own place may be assigned by the Lord, as is shown from the things that follow.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dragon — (1.) Heb. tannim, plural of tan. The name of some unknown creature inhabiting desert places and ruins (Job 30:29; Ps. 44:19; Isa. 13:22; 34:13; 43:20; Jer. 10:22; Micah 1:8; Mal. 1:3); probably, as…
Fish — Called dag by the Hebrews, a word denoting great fecundity (Gen. 9:2; Num. 11:22; Jonah 2:1, 10). No fish is mentioned by name either in the Old or in the New Testament. Fish abounded in the…
Genesis — The five books of Moses were collectively called the Pentateuch, a word of Greek origin meaning “the five-fold book.” The Jews called them the Torah, i.e., “the law.” It is probable that the division…
Whale — The Hebrew word tan (plural, tannin) is so rendered in Job 7:12 (A.V.; but R.V., “sea-monster”). It is rendered by “dragons” in Deut. 32:33; Ps. 91:13; Jer. 51:34; Ps. 74:13 (marg., “whales;” and…
Birds · Creation of, on the fifth creative day — Creation of, on the fifth creative day
Creation · Order of: Fifth day, making birds, insects, and fishes — Order of: Fifth day, making birds, insects, and fishes
Dragon · Interpreted as whale, in — Interpreted as whale, in
Fish · Creation of — Creation of
Fishes · Created by God — Created by God
Propagation · Of species, enjoined — Of species, enjoined
Sea, The · God: Made the birds and fished out of — God: Made the birds and fished out of
Water · God originally: Created fowls and fishes, &c from
And God created A question here arises out of the word created. For we have before contended, that because the world was created, it was made out of nothing; but now Moses says that things formed from other matter were created. They who truly and properly assert that the fishes were created because the waters were in no way sufficient or suitable for their production, only resort to a subterfuge: for, in the meantime, the fact would remain that the material of which they were made existed before; which, in strict propriety, the word created does not admit. I therefore do not restrict the creation here spoken of to the work of the fifth day, but rather suppose it to refer to that shapeless an…
The Fifth Day. - "God said: Let the waters swarm with swarms, with living beings, and let birds fly above the earth in the face (the front, i.e., the side turned towards the earth) of the firmament." ישׁרצוּ and יעופף are imperative. Earlier translators, on the contrary, have rendered the latter as a relative clause, after the πετεινὰ πετόμενα of the lxx, "and with birds that fly;" thus making the birds to spring out of the water, in opposition to Gen 2:19. Even with regard to the element out of which the water animals were created the text is silent; for the assertion that שׁרץ is to be understood "with a causative colouring" is erroneous, and is not sustained by Exo 8:3 or Psa 105:30. Th…
Contrary to the pagan idea that the great sea creatures were co-eternal with God, Genesis states that God created them and is sovereign over them. The Hebrew word tanninim (“creatures”) elsewhere refers to crocodiles (Ezek 29:3), powerful monsters (Jer 51:34), or the sea creature Leviathan (Isa 27:1; cp. Job 41:1-34).
Rashi on Genesis 1:21
התנינים THE HUGE CREATURES — the large fishes that are in the sea; and according to the statement of the Agada (Bava Batra 74b) it means here the Leviathan and its consort which He created male and female. He, however, killed the female and preserved it in salt for the benefit of the righteous in the time to come, for had they been permitted to be fruitful and to multiply the world could not have endured because of them.
נפש חיה — that have vitality.
— God originally: Created fowls and fishes, &c from
Whale · Created — Created
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
