h fowls, and reptiles. A. M. 1. 22 And God blessed them, saying, B. C. 4004. Be frutiful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 21 And And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth after their kind, and every winged fowl the living creature after his kind, cattle, and after his kind and God saw that it was creeping thing, and beast of the earth after good. his kind and it was so. d Or, creeping. e Heb. soul. f Heb. let fowl fly. - Heb. Chapter vi. 20; vii. 14; viii. 19; Psalm civ. 26.face of the firmament of heaven, On August 22, 1792, he found that in forty-one minutes of time not less than 258,000 stars had passed through the field of view in his telescope. What must God be, who has made, governs, and supports so many worlds! For the magnitudes, distances, revolutions, fc., of the sun, moon, planets, and their satellites, see the preceding TABLES. Verse 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly] There is a meaning in these words which is seldom noticed. Innumerable millions of animalcula are found in water. Eminent naturalists have discovered not less than 30,000 in a single drop! How inconceivably small must each be, and yet each a perfect animal, furnished with the whole apparatus of bones, muscles, nerves, heart, arteries, veins, lungs, viscera in general, animal spirits, &c., &c. What a proof is this of the manifold wisdom of God! But the fecundity of fishes is another point intended in the text; no creatures are so prolific as these. A TENCH lay 1,000 eggs, a CARP 20,000, and Leuwenhoek counted in a middling sized COD 9,384,000! Thus, according to the purpose of God, the waters bring forth abundantly. And what a merciful provision is this for the necessities of man! Many hundreds of thousands of the earth's inhabitants live for a great part of the year on fish only. Fish afford, not only a wholesome, but a very nutritive diet; they are liable to few diseases, and generally come in vast quantities to our shores when in their greatest perfection. In this also we may see that the kind providence of God goes hand in hand with his creating energy. While he manifests his wisdom and his power, he is making a permanent provision for the sustenance of man through all his generations. Verse 21. And God created great whales] D viii. 17. Li Chapter of birds, whether intended to live chiefly on land or in water, The structure of a single feather affords a world of wonders; and as God made the fowls that they might fly in the firmament of heaven, ver. 20, so he has adapted the form of their bodies, and the structure and disposition of their plumage, for that very purpose. The head and neck in flying are drawn principally within the breastbone, so that the whole under part exhibits the appearance of a ship's hull. The wings are made use of as sails, or rather oars, and the tail as a helm or rudder. By means of these the creature is not only able to preserve the centre of gravity, but also to go with vast speed through the air, either straight forward, circularly, or in any kind of angle, upwards or downwards. In these also God has shown his skill and his power in the great and in the little-in the vast ostrich and cassowary, and in the beautiful humming-bird, which in plumage excels the splendour of the peacock, and in size is almost on a level with the bee. Verse 24. Let the earth bring forth the living creature, &c.] 'n val nephesh chaiyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half-reasoning elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal life. The word 1 chaitho, in the latter part of the verse, seems to signify all wild animals, as lions, tigers, &c., and especially such as are carnivorous, or live on flesh, in contradistinction from domestic animals, such as are graminivorous, or live on grass and other vegetables, and are capable of being tamed, and applied to domestic purposes. See on ver. 29. These latter are probably meant by Though this is behemah in the text, which we translate cattle, such as generally understood by the different versions as sig-horses, kine, sheep, dogs, &c. nifying whales, yet the original must be understood remes, all the different genera of serpents, worms, and rather as a general than a particular term, comprising such animals as have no feet. In beasts also God all the great aquatic animals, such as the various spe- has shown his wondrous skill and power; in the vast cies of whales, the porpoise, the dolphin, the monoceros elephant, or still more colossal mammoth or mastodon, or narwal, and the shark. God delights to show him- the whole race of which appears to be extinct, a few self in little as well as in great things: hence he forms skeletons only remaining. This animal, an astonishanimals so minute that 30,000 can be contained in ing effect of God's power, he seems to have produced one drop of water; and others so great that they seem merely to show what he could do, and after suffering to require almost a whole sea to float in. a few of them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence, that they might not destroy both man and beast. The mammoth appears to have been a carnivorous animal, as the structure of the .hattanninim haggedolim הגדלים Verse 22. Let fowl multiply in the earth.] It is truly astonishing with what care, wisdom, and minute skill God has formed the different genera and species רמש,Creeping thing 1 in the image of God. A. M. 1. B. C. 4004. dominion over the fish of the sea, m1 Cor. xi. 7.- Chap. v. 2; Mal. ii. 15; Matt. xix. 4; Mark x. 6. Chap. v. 1; ix. 6; Psa. c. 3; Eccles. vii. 29; Acts xvii. 26, Chap. ix. 2; Psa. viii. 6. 28, 29; 1 Cor. xi. 7; Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10; James iii. 9. teeth proves, and of an immense size; from a considerable part of a skeleton which I have seen, it is computed that the animal to which it belonged must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length! The bones of one toe are entire; the toe upwards of three feet in length. But this skeleton might have belonged to the megalonyx, a kind of sloth, or bradypus, hitherto unknown. Few elephants have ever been found to exceed eleven feet in height. How wondrous are the works of God! But his skill and power are not less seen in the beautiful chevrotin, or tragulus, a creature of the antelope kind, the smallest of all bifid or cloven-footed animals, whose delicate limbs are scarcely so large as an ordinary goose quill; and also in the shrew mouse, perhaps the smallest of the many-toed quadrupeds. In the reptile kind we see also the same skill and power, not only in the immense snake called boa constrictor, the mortal foe and conqueror of the royal tiger, but also in the cobra de manille, a venomous serpent, only a little larger than a common sewing needle. Verse 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, &c.] Every thing both in the animal and vegetable world was made so according to its kind, both in genus and species, as to produce its own kind through endless generations. Thus the several races of animals and plants have been kept distinct from the foundation of the world to the present day. This is a proof that all future generations of plants and animals have been seminally included in those which God formed in the beginning. It refers to his soul. This was made in the image and Gregory Nyssen has very properly observed that the superiority of man to all other parts of creation is seen in this, that all other creatures are represented as the effect of God's word, but man is represented as the work of God, according to plan and consideration : Let us make MAN in our IMAGE, after our likeness. See his Works, vol. i., p. 52, c. 3. Verse 26. And God said, Let us make man] is evident that God intends to impress the mind of man with a sense of something extraordinary in the formation of his body and soul, when he introduces the account of his creation thus; Let US make man. The word D Adam, which we translate man, is intended to designate the species of animal, as 'n chaitho, marks the wild beasts that live in general a solitary life; behemah, domestic or gregarious animals; and remes, all kinds of reptiles, from the largest snake to the microscopic eel. Though the same kind of organization may be found in man as appears in the lower animals, yet there is a variety and complication in the parts, a delicacy of structure, a nice arrangement, a judicious adaptation of the dif-nience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; ferent members to their great offices and functions, a dignity of mien, and a perfection of the whole, which are sought for in vain in all other creatures. See chap. iii. 22. In our image, after our likeness] What is said above refers only to the body of man, what is here said And let them have dominion] Hence we see that the dominion was not the image. God created man capable of governing the world, and when fitted for the office, he fixed him in it. We see God's tender care and parental solicitude for the comfort and wellbeing of this masterpiece of his workmanship, in creating the world previously to the creation of man. He prepared every thing for his subsistence, conve so that, comparing little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it. It has been supposed by some that God speaks here to the angels, when he says, Let us make man; but to make this a likely interpretation these persons must God's approval A. M. 1. B. C. 4004. CHAP. I. of what he had made. 28 And God blessed them, and which is the fruit of a tree yielding B. C. 4004. seed; to you it shall be for meat. God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given Behold, I have given you every herba bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the viii. 5. t A. M. 1. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is "life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. xiv. 17. Psa. cxlv. 15, 16; cxlvii. 9.-Job xxxviii. 41.- -u Heb. a living soul. Psa. civ. 24; Lam. iii. 38; 1 Tim. iv. 4. prove, 1. That angels were then created. 2. That mode of existence, manner of propagation, habits, mode angels could assist in a work of creation. 3. That of sustenance, &c., &c., properly and permanently angels were themselves made in the image and like-established and secured; for every thing was formed ness of God. If they were not, it could not be said, to the utmost perfection of its nature, so that nothing in our image, and it does not appear from any part in could be added or diminished without encumbering the the sacred writings that any creature but man was operations of matter and spirit on the one hand, or renmade in the image of God. See the note on Psalm dering them inefficient to the end proposed on the other; and God has so done all these marvellous works as to be glorified in all, by all, and through all. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.] The word ereb, which we translate evening, comes from the root y arab, to mingle; and properly signifies that state in which neither absolute darkness nor full light prevails. It has nearly the same grammatical signification with our twilight, the time that elapses from the setting of the sun till he is eighteen degrees below the horizon, and the last eighteen degrees before he arises. Thus we have the morning and evening twilight, or mixture of light and darkness, in which neither prevails, because, while the sun is within eighteen degrees of the horizon, either after his setting or before his rising, the atmosphere has power to refract the rays of light, and send them back on the earth. The Hebrews extended the meaning of this term to the whole duration of night, because it was ever a mingled state, the moon, the planets, or the stars, tempering the darkness with some rays of light. From the ereb of Moses came the Epeßos, Erebus, of Hesiod, Aristophanes, and other heathens, which they deified and made, with Nox or night, the parent of all things. Verse 28. And God blessed them] Marked them as being under his especial protection, and gave them power to propagate and multiply their own kind on the earth. A large volume would be insufficient to contain what we know of the excellence and perfection of man, even in his present degraded fallen state. Both his body and soul are adapted with astonishing wisdom to their residence and occupations; and also the place of their residence, as well as the surrounding objects, in their diversity, colour, and mutual relations, to the mind and body of this lord of the creation. The contrivance, arrangement, action, and re-action of the different parts of the body, show the admirable skill of the wondrous Creator; while the various powers and faculties of the mind, acting on and by the different organs of this body, proclaim the soul's Divine origin, and demonstrate that he who was made in the image and likeness of God, was a transcript of his own excellency, destined to know, love, and dwell with his Maker throughout eternity. Verse 29. I have given you every herb-for meat.] It seems from this, says an eminent philosopher, that man was originally intended to live upon vegetables only; and as no change was made in the structure of men's bodies after the flood, it is not probable that any change was made in the articles of their food. It may also be inferred from this passage that no animal whatever was originally designed to prey on others; for nothing is here said to be given to any beast of the earth besides green herbs.-Dr. Priestley. Before sin entered into the world, there could be, at least, no violent deaths, if any death at all. But by the particular structure of the teeth of animals God prepared them for that kind of aliment which they were to subsist on after the FALL. Verse 31. And, behold, it was very good.] tob meod, Superlatively, or only good; as good as they could be. The plan wise, the work well executed, the different parts properly arranged, their nature, limits, The morning-p boker; From p bakar, he looked out; a beautiful figure which represents the morning as looking out at the east, and illuminating the whole of the upper hemisphere. The evening and the morning were the sixth day.— It is somewhat remarkable that through the whole of this chapter, whenever the division of days is made, the evening always precedes the morning. The reason of this may perhaps be, that darkness was pre-existent to light, (verse 2, And darkness was upon the face of the deep,) and therefore time is reckoned from the first act of God towards the creation of the world, which took place before light was called forth into existence. It is very likely, for this same reason, that the Jews began their day at six o'clock in the evening in imitation of Moses's division of time in this chapter. Cæsar Conclusion of GENESIS. the work of creation in his Commentaries makes mention of the same pe- READER, thou hast now before thee the most ancient culiarity existing among the Gauls: Galli se omnes ab and most authentic history in the world; a history that Dite patre prognatos prædicant: idque ab Druidibus contains the first written discovery that God has made proditum dicunt: ob eam causam spatia omnis tempo- of himself to mankind; a discovery of his own being, ris, non numero dierum, sed noctium, finiunt ; et dies in his wisdom, power, and goodness, in which thou and natales, et mensium et annorum initia sic observant, ut the whole human race are so intimately concerned. noctem dies subsequatur; De Bell. Gall. lib. vi. Ta- How much thou art indebted to him for this discovery citus likewise records the same of the Germans: Nec he alone can teach thee, and cause thy heart to feel its dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant: sic obligations to his wisdom and mercy. Read so as to constituant, sic condicunt, nox ducere diem videtur; understand, for these things were written for thy learnDe Mor. Germ. sec. ii. And there are to this day ing; therefore mark what thou readest, and inwardly some remains of the same custom in England, as for digest-deeply and seriously meditate on, what thou instance in the word se'nnight and fortnight. See hast marked, and pray to the Father of lights that he also Eschyl. Agamem. ver. 273, 287. may open thy understanding, that thou mayest know these holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Thus ends a chapter containing the most extensive, most profound, and most sublime truths that can possibly come within the reach of the human intellect. God made thee and the universe, and governs all How unspeakably are we indebted to God for giving things according to the counsel of his will; that will us a revelation of his WILL and of his wORKS! Is it is infinite goodness, that counsel is unerring wisdom. possible to know the mind of God but from himself? While under the direction of this counsel, thou canst It is impossible. Can those things and services which not err; while under the influence of this will, thou are worthy of and pleasing to an infinitely pure, per- canst not be wretched. Give thyself up to his teachfect, and holy Spirit, be ever found out by reasoning ing, and submit to his authority; and, after guiding and conjecture? Never! for the Spirit of God alone thee here by his counsel, he will at last bring thee to can know the mind of God; and by this Spirit he has his glory. Every object that meets thy eye should revealed himself to man; and in this revelation has teach thee reverence, submission, and gratitude. The taught him, not only to know the glories and perfec-earth and its productions were made for thee; and the tions of the Creator, but also his own origin, duty, and interest. Thus far it was essentially necessary that God should reveal his wILL; but if he had not given a revelation of his WORKS, the origin, constitution, and nature of the universe could never have been adequately known. The world by wisdom knew not God; this is demonstrated by the writings of the most learned and intelligent heathens. They had no just, no rational notion of the origin and design of the universe. Moses alone, of all ancient writers, gives a consistent and rational account of the creation; an account which has been confirmed by the investigation of the most accurate philosophers. But where did he learn this? "In Egypt." That is impossible; for the Egyptians themselves were destitute of this knowledge. The remains we have of their old historians, all posterior to the time of Moses, are egregious for their contradictions and absurdity; and the most learned of the Greeks who borrowed from them have not been able to make out, from their conjoint stock, any consistent and credible account. Moses has revealed the mystery that lay hid from all preceding ages, because he was taught it by the inspiration of the Almighty. providence of thy heavenly Father, infinitely diversi- created anew in Christ Jesus. God CHAPTER II. The seventh day is consecrated for a Sabbath, and the reasons assigned, 1–3. A recapitulation of the six days' work of creation, 4-7. The garden of Eden planted, 8. Its trees, 9. Its rivers, and the countries watered by them, 10-14. Adam placed in the garden, and the command given not to eat of the tree of knowledge on pain of death, 15-17. God purposes to form a companion for the man, 18. The different animals brought to Adam that he might assign them their names, 19, 20. The creation of the woman, The institution of marriage, 23, 24, The purity and innocence of our first parents, 25. 21, 22. 38 The appointment and A. M. 1. B. C. 4004. THUS the heavens and the earth | sanctified it; because that in it he were finished, and all the had rested from all his work which God created and made. d A. M. 1. B. C. 4004. host of them. 2 b And on the seventh day God ended his work 4 These are the generations of the heawhich he had made; and he rested on the sevens and of the earth when they were created, venth day from all his work which he had made. in the day that the LORD God made the earth 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and and the heavens, Neh. ix. 14; Isa. lviii. 13.- d Heb. created to make.- Le Chap. i. 1; Psa. xc. 1, 2. sion that he communicates some good; but when man is said to bless God, we surely cannot imagine that he bestows any gifts or confers any benefit on his Maker. When God is said to bless, either in the Old or New Testament, it signifies his speaking good to man; and this comprises the whole of his exceeding great and precious promises. And when man is said to bless God, it ever implies that he speaks good or him, for the giving and fulfilment of his promises. This observation will be of general use in considering the various places where the word occurs in the sacred writings. Reader, God blesses thee when by his promises he speaks good To thee; and thou dost bless him when, from a consciousness of his kindness to thy body and soul, thou art thankful to him, and speakest good or his name. Verse 1. And all the host of them.] The word bost signifies literally an army, composed of a number of companies of soldiers under their respective leaders; and seems here elegantly applied to the various celestial bodies in our system, placed by the Divine wisdom under the influence of the sun. From the original word xx tsaba, a host, some suppose the Sabeans had their name, because of their paying Divine honours to the heavenly bodies. From the Septuagint version of this place, mas o kooμos avтwv, all their ornaments, we learn the true meaning of the word kooμos, commonly translated world, which signifies a decorated or adorned whole or system. And this refers to the beautiful order, harmony, and regularity which subsist among the various parts of creation. This translation must impress the reader with a very favourable opinion of these ancient Greek translators; had they not examined therested; hence Sabbath, the name of the seventh day, works of God with a philosophic eye, they never could have given this turn to the original. Verse 2. On the SEVENTH day God ended, &c.] It is the general voice of Scripture that God finished the whole of the creation in six days, and rested the seventh! giving us an example that we might labour six days, and rest the seventh from all manual exercises. It is worthy of notice that the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Samaritan, read the sixth day instead of the seventh; and this should be considered the genuine reading, which appears from these versions to have been originally that of the Hebrew text. How the word sixth became changed into seventh may be easily conceived from this circumstance. It is very likely that in ancient times all the numerals were signified by letters, and not by words at full length. This is the case in the most ancient Greek and Latin MSS., and in almost all the rabbinical writings. When these numeral letters became changed for words at full length, two letters nearly similar might be mistaken for each other; 1 vau stands for six, zain for seven; how easy to mistake these letters for each other when writing the words at full length, and so give birth to the reading in question. Verse 3. And God blessed the seventh day] The original word 1 barach, which is generally rendered to bless, has a very extensive meaning. It is frequently used in Scripture in the sense of speaking good of or to a person; and hence literally and properly rendered by the Septuagint evλoynaev, from ev, good or well, and Leyw, I speak. So God has spoken well of the Sabbath, and good to them who conscientiously observe it. Blessing is applied both to God and man: when God is said to bless, we generally understand by the expres Because that in it he had rested] shabath, he signifying a day of rest-rest to the body from labour and toil, and rest to the soul from all worldly care and anxieties. He who labours with his mind by worldly schemes and plans on the Sabbath day is as culpable as he who labours with his hands in his accustomed calling. It is by the authority of God that the Sabbath is set apart for rest and religious purposes, as the six days of the week are appointed for labour. How wise is this provision! It is essentially necessary, not only to the body of man, but to all the animals employed in his service: take this away and the labour is too great, both man and beast would fail under it. Without this consecrated day religion itself would fail, and the human mind, becoming sensualized, would soon forget its origin and end. Even as a political regulation, it is one of the wisest and most beneficent in its effects of any ever instituted. Those who habitually disregard its moral obligation are, to a man, not only good for nothing, but are wretched in themselves, a curse to society, and often end their lives miserably. See the notes on Exod. xx. 8; xxiii. 12; xxiv. 16; and xxxi. 13; to which the reader is particularly desired to refer. As God formed both the mind and body of man on principles of activity, so he assigned him proper employment; and it is his decree that the mind shall improve by exercise, and the body find increase of vigour and health in honest labour. He who idles away his time in the six days is equally culpable in the sight of God as he who works on the seventh. The idle person is ordinarily clothed with rags, and the Sabbath-breakers frequently come to an ignominious death. Reader, beware. Verse 4. In the day that the Lord God made, &c.] The word in Yehovah is for the first time mentioned |