21st Century Bible Hebrew -- blessing the crocs

Genesis 1:20-23

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:

כב וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹהִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֨יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ:

כג וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם חֲמִישִֽׁי:

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.

Gd blessed them saying: fruit and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, flyer multiply on earth.

There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

I added two verses here to point out a couple of things.

First, here are examples of what I said about that little word et.  The taninim use the version with the segol to set them apart from the other animals.

Then each of the other two types of life forms get the tseire version with kal, meaning “all” not “every”.  The translation on the Mechon Mamre page is the 1917 JPS version which is despised as basically a slightly edited version of the KJV, which is based on the horrible Septuagint. JPS got this wrong.

In verse 22 you get otam, the direct object pronoun. When you see it, there is usually a version of et nearby. It’s not 100% in either direction, but it’s very common and we have it here.

Now I have another reason for you why the taninim are called out separately. We all know that crocs need dry land for part of their life cycle. But verse 20 obviously sees them as water creatures. We know (spoiler alert if you never read Genesis before) that the time will come when the taninim will be seriously stressed. It’s the same issue as having the imperfect when the seas withdraw from the dry land. The dry land will go away – temporarily, it’s true, but for longer than the hatching cycle of either crocs or serpents. He might not want to, but Noach is going to have to take these animals into the ark. Unlike another type of animal. Go read the flood story and see if you can tell me what it is.

I’ll do 2 lessons on verbs next and then give you the new vocabulary from verses 22 and 23.

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