single pair of each kind was originally produced" (Ben.); the language rather suggests that whole species, in something like their present multitude, were created.
24, 25. Seventh work: Terrestrial animals.—24. Let the earth bring forth living creatures] נפש חיה (again coll.) is here a generic name for land animals, being restricted by what precedes—'living animals that spring from the earth.' Like the plants (v.12), they are boldly said to be produced by the earth, their bodies being part of the earth's substance (27. 19); this could not be said of fishes in relation to the water, and hence a different form of expression had to be employed in v.20.—The classification of animals (best arranged in v.25) is threefold: (1) wild animals, חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ (roughly, carnivora); (2) domesticated animals, בְּהֵמָה (herbivora); (3) reptiles, רֵמֶשׂ הָאֲדָמָה, including perhaps creeping insects and very small quadrupeds (see Dri. DB, i. 518). A somewhat similar threefold division appears in a Babylonian tablet—'cattle of the field, beasts of the field and creatures of the city' (Jen. KIB, vi. 1, 42 f.; King, Cr. Tab. 112 f.).—25. God saw that it was good] The formula distinctly marks the separation of this work from the creation of man, which follows on the same day. The absence of a benediction corresponding to
Lv. 1110; נ׳ though without art. is really determined by כל (but see Dri.
T. § 209 (1)).—אשר שרצו] א׳, acc. of definition, as שֶׁרֶץ in v.20.—22. פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ]
highly characteristic of P (only 3 times elsewhere).
24. The distinctions noted above are not strictly observed throughout the OT. בהמה (from a root signifying 'be dumb'—Ar. and Eth.) denotes collectively, first, animals as distinguished from man (Ex. 919 etc.), but chiefly the larger mammals; then, domestic animals (the dumb creatures with which man has most to do), (Gn. 3423 366 etc.). Of wild animals specially it is seldom used alone (Dt. 3224, Hab. 217), but sometimes with an addition (אֶרֶץ, שָׂרֶה, יַעַר) which marks the unusual reference. As a noun of unity, Neh. 212. 14. See BDB, s.v.—חַיְתוֹ אָרֶץ] an archaic phrase in which וֹ represents the old case ending of the nom., u or um (G-K, § 90 n). So Ps. 792; חיתו in other combinations Is. 569, Zeph. 214, Ps. 10411; Ps. 5010 10420. In sense it is exactly the same as the commoner חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ 125. 30 92. 10 etc.), and usually denotes wild animals, though sometimes animals in general—(ζῶον).—רמש and שרץ naturally overlap; but the first name is derived from the manner of movement, and the second from the tendency to swarm (Dri. l.c.).
