[This is my rough translation for my exegesis class. I’m not sure about the way I’ve divided verse 28. I can’t tell gramattically if what God says to them is the blessing, or if God blessed them and then said to them __. Anyway, here it is.]
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living, breathing beingsa according to her kind: domesticable animalsb and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind,” and it was so. 25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind and the domesticable animals according to their kind and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, so that they mightc have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the winged creatures of the heavens and over the beasts and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.
27 And God created the man in his image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them.
And God said to them, “Bear fruit and become many and fill the earth and subdue her and have dominiond overe the fish of the sea and overe the winged creatures of the heavens and overe every living thing that movesf on the earth.
29 And God said, “Behold, I am givingg you all the herbage sowing seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree which is among the fruit trees sowing seed; for you they will be for food.” 30 And for every living creature of the earth and for every winged creature of the heavens and for every creeping thing on the earth which is a living, breathing being, all green herbage (is) for food,” and it was so.
31 And God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.
- a This is my attempt at a conflation of the descriptive noun “nephesh” and the adjective “hayah.”
b(BDB 96-97)The word, “behema,” implies large animals as opposed to fish, birds, reptiles and wild animals, and as used by man. Therefore I found “cattle” (BDB 97) and “livestock” (Collins 48, ESV) to be too narrow and “beasts” to be too broad; hence the cumbersome “domesticable animals.”
cJussive taken as Causative or Consequential.
dFollowing ESV, Collins 48, footnote 38 rather than NAS to highlight vocabulary difference from “rule” in 1.16-18.
eThis is a special use of the “b” prefix which only occurs with certain classes of verbs, including verbs that convey the idea of ruling or having dominion.
fThis is the same word that has been translated “creeps” in the previous verses, but since it is referring to ‘every creature that ____ on earth,’ and since this phrase is obviously intended to make complete the list including animals of the air, and animals of the sea, it is appropriate to translate it using the more general term ‘move,’ or ‘move about.’ (BDB 943, Collins 48).
gPerformative Perfect, Collins 49, footnote 39.