21st Century Bible Hebrew -- verse vocabulary

Genesis 1:20-21

כ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יִשְׁרְצ֣וּ הַמַּ֔יִם שֶׁ֖רֶץ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֑ה וְעוֹף֙ יְעוֹפֵ֣ף עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רְקִ֥יעַ הַשָּׁמָֽיִם:

כא וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים וְאֵ֣ת כָּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַֽחַיָּ֣ה ׀ הָֽרֹמֶ֡שֶׂת אֲשֶׁר֩ שָֽׁרְצ֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗ם וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־ע֤וֹף כָּנָף֙ לְמִינֵ֔הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב:

Translation: Gd said the waters will swarm with swarming things, soul of life; and fliers will fly over the earth against the raqia of heaven.

Gd created the large taninim; and all souls of life that creep that swarm the waters for their kinds, and all the fliers of wing for its kind, Gd manifested its goodness.

This lesson has the new vocabulary.

יִשְׁרְצוּ	swarm, imperfect aspect, 3rd plural
שֶׁרֶץ	swarming thing, noun, singular
שָׁרְצוּ	swarm, perfect aspect, 3rd plural
נֶפֶשׁ	soul
חַיָּה	life, wild animal
עוֹף	flying thing
יְעוֹפֵף	flies, progressive aspect, hollow verb
הַתַּנִּינִם	see discussion
הַגְּדֹלִים	large (you tell me the number, gender, and state)
הָרֹמֶשֶׂת	creeps (you tell me the number, gender, and state)
אֲשֶׁר	that, which (relative clause)
לְמִינֵהֶם	for their sort/kind, 3rd plural
לְמִינֵהוּ	for its sort/kind, 3rd singular
אֵת כָּל	all
כָּנָף	wing

Ha-taninim is not whales. We get that from the horrible Septuagint which uses kiti, related to “cetaceans” used for dolphins porpoises and whales.

What are taninim and why do they get special billing?

In Exodus we will find Mosheh and Aharon producing taninim and the magicians of Egypt do the same. This is generally agreed to be serpents, especially as the same word turns up in Deuteronomy 32:33 it is used in parallel with a word meaning “cobra”.  No, there is no rage of whales in Deuteronomy. In fact, there, Septuagint uses the genitive plural of drakon, which might seem to mean “dragon” but actually, it means snake.

Or tanin means crocodile, and that would fit here since these are water creatures. But imagine Mosheh and Aharon turning their staffs into crocs, or the magicians of Egypt hiding crocs up their sleeves!

But why are they special compared to other things that live in the water? Well, if tanin means a crocodile, we know for a fact that they live in water, but they need dry land to lay and hatch their eggs. Snake eggs incubate for 62 days.

Why do we care? well, I think this is kind of a spoiler alert, like with the imperfect aspect verb and the waters withdrawing from the land. A time is coming up when these creatures might not survive, and they are called out separately because they did survive. So all on their own, they are evidence of Gd in his works.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2020 All Rights Reserved