Gen 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. God created great whales ..... For the second time the word "created," bara, is used in this chapter to indicate the introduction of something entirely new, the creation of living creatures. In carrying out His word, God created the great sea animals, tanninim. The translation "whales" is too limited in scope. The word has different meanings, like "serpent" (Ex. 7.9, 10, 12) and "dragon" (Isa. 51.9; Eze. 29.3), but must mean "sea monster" in this passage and in Ps. 148.7. Moveth ..... The verb "to move," ramas, is especially descriptive of creeping animals (Gen. 9.2), either on land (Gen. 7.14) or in the water (Ps. 69.34), though here it clearly signifies aquatic creatures. After their kind ..... As in the case of the plants created on the third day, the statement is made that the fish as well as the birds were created "after their kind," explicitly indicating that the distinct kinds of animals we see were established at creation and not through a process of development as evolutionists maintain (see on v. 12). Why birds and fish were created on the same day is not to be explained by any supposed similarity between the air and the water as Luther, Calvin, and others thought. Again, it is not stated that only a single pair was created of each kind; on the contrary, the words, "Let the waters swarm with living creatures," seem to indicate that the animals were created, not only in a rich variety of kinds, but in large numbers of individuals. The fact that but one human being was created at first, by no means warrants the conclusion that the animals were created singly also. God saw that it was good ..... The earth must have appeared most pleasing to the Creator when He beheld it at the end of this fifth day. Not only verdant hills, sparkling streams, and blue lakes, but living creatures, moving, swimming, and flying, gave to this world for the first time the quality of life it had not possessed before. Here were creatures that could even sing the praises of their Creator, who

revealed some measure of understanding, by finding the right kind of food (Matt. 6.26), by building nests as shelters (Matt. 8.20), and by knowing their times of migration (Jer. 8.7). The mighty works of God performed on the previous days were truly wonderful, but nature received an ornament on the fifth day. Without the vegetation created on the third day the world would present an extremely uninviting appearance. Much more would it be devoid of attraction and cheerfulness if the myriads of living beings with which it is populated were absent. Every one of these small or large creatures should teach us a lesson concerning the marvelous handiwork of the great God, to whom, as the author and preserver of all life, we owe adoration. These creatures should give us a wholesome respect for life, which we cannot impart but should carefully protect and not destroy. Gen 1.22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. God blessed them ..... The fifth day's work not only was pronounced to be good by the Creator but received a blessing, which was given neither to the inanimate products of God's creation nor to the plants. This benediction, which focuses on their propagation and increase, "be fruitful, and multiply," became a standard formula of blessing (chs. 35.11; 48.4). Gen 1.23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Gen 1.24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. The living creature ..... Like the third day, the sixth is distinguished by a double creative act, the production of the land animals and the creation of man. After the sea and air were filled with living creatures, nephesh chayyah (see v. 20), the word of God went forth to the earth, to produce living beings after their kind. These are divided into three classes: Cattle ..... From behemah, derived from the root baham, "to be dumb," meaning "dumb animal." The word generally denotes the larger domesticated quadrupeds

(see Gen. 47.18; Ex. 13.12; etc.), but occasionally the larger land animals as a whole (Prov. 30.30; Eccl. 3.19; etc.). Creeping thing ..... From remes, which denotes the smaller animals that move either without feet, or with feet that are scarcely perceptible, such as worms, insects, and reptiles. Here the land remes are meant, the remes of the sea having been created on the previous day. Beast of the earth ..... From chayetho eretz. This old and unusual Hebrew term denotes the freely roving wild animals. Gen 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: and God saw that it was good. The beast of the earth ..... The order of creation of living creatures here given differs from that of v. 24, the last group of the previous verse being the first one here enumerated. This is a well-known arrangement in Hebrew speech called "inverted parallelism" (see Gen. 10.1, 2, 6, 21; Prov. 14.16, 17). After his kind ..... The statement refers to all three classes of living creatures, each of which has its distinct kinds. These inspired words refute the evolution theory, which declares that higher forms of life developed from lower ones and which suggests that it may yet be possible to produce living matter out of inanimate earth. Although scientific study confirms the Biblical declaration that all animate organisms are made out of the earth, containing nothing else in elements than what the earth possesses, scientists have never been able to produce from lifeless matter one single cell that was able to live and reproduce its kind. God saw that it was good ..... With the usual word of approbation the short record of the creation of all land animals closes, and the author hastens to the account of the creation of man, in which the work of creation culminates.