Genesis 1:20-23

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 1:22

Verse 22 22.And God blessed them What is the force of this benediction he soon declares. For God does not, after the manner of men, pray that we may be blessed; but, by the bare intimation of his purpose, effects what men seek by earnest entreaty. He therefore blesses his creatures when he commands them to increase and grow; that is, he infuses into them fecundity by his word. But it seems futile for God to address fishes and reptiles. I answer, this mode of speaking was no other than that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:20-22

The mystery of life. I. ITS ORIGIN . 1. Not dead matter . Scripture, equally with science, represents life as having a physical basis; but, unlike modern evolutionists, never confounds vital force with the material mechanism in which it resides, and through which it operates. Advanced biologists account for life by molecular arrangement, chemical combination, spontaneous generation, or some such equally insufficient hypothesis. The rigorous necessities of truth and logic,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:20-23

The fifth day. I. LIVE UNDER THE BLESSING OF GOD . 1. Abundance . Swarming waters, swarming air? preparing for the swarming earth. "Be fruitful, and multiply." The absence of all restraint because as yet the absence of sin. God's law is liberty. The law of life is the primary law. If there be in man's world a contradiction between the multiplication of life and the happiness of life, it is a sign of departure from the original order. 2. Growth , improvement,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:21

And God created ( bara , is in Genesis 1:1 , to indicate the introduction of an absolutely new thing, viz; the principle of animal life) great whales . Tanninim , from tanan ; Greek, τει ì νω ; Latin, tendo ; Sansc; tan , to stretch. These were the first of the two classes into which the sheretzim of the previous verse were divided. The word is used of serpents ( Exodus 7:9 ; Deuteronomy 32:33 ; Psalms 91:13 ; Jeremiah 51:34 ), of the crocodile ( ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:21

Day six . Like day three, this is distinguished by a double creative act, the production of the higher or land animals and the creation of man, of the latter of which it is perhaps permissible to see a mute prediction in the vegetation which closed the first half of the creative week. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind . In these words the land animals are generically characterized as nephesh chayyah , or animated beings; in the terms... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 1:23

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. If of the previous creative days geological science has only doubtful traces, of this it bears irrefragable witness. When the first animal life was Introduced upon our globe may be said to be as yet sub judice . Principal Dawson inclines to claim for the gigantic foraminifer, eozoon canadense , of the Laurentian rocks, the honor of being one of the first aquatic creatures that swarmed in terrestrial waters, though Professor Huxley... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Genesis 1:20-23

- VII. The Fifth Day20. 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... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:20

Genesis 1:20. The moving creature that hath life Endued with self-motion and animal life. How much soever we may be astonished at the stupendous vastness and magnificence of inanimate matter, the least piece that is animated and has life, is still more admirable. But who can conceive the nature of life? We see it daily around us, but cannot comprehend it! We observe that it enables millions and millions of creatures to act, as it were, of themselves, and to seek and obtain such... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 1:21

Genesis 1:21. Great whales The Hebrew word here rendered whales is sometimes put to signify great dragons of the wilderness; (see Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 14:6; Malachi 1:3;) but it undoubtedly here means some very large inhabitants of the waters, and probably what we call whales, whose astonishing bulk and prodigious strength are amazing proofs of the power and glory of the Creator. read more

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