Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/130

 appear in swarms (v.i.).—] lit. 'living soul'; used here collectively, and with the sense of weakened, as often, to 'individual' or 'being' (ct. v.$30$ and see on 2$7$). The creation of the aquatic animals marks, according to OT ideas, the first appearance of life on the earth, for life is nowhere predicated of the vegetable kingdom.—over the earth in front of the firmament] i.e. in the atmosphere, for which Heb. has no special name.—21. created] indistinguishable from made in v.$25$.—the great sea monsters] The introduction of this new detail in the execution of the fiat is remarkable. here denotes actual marine animals; but this is almost the only passage where it certainly bears that sense (Ps. 148$7$). There are strong traces of mythology in the usage of the word: Is. 27$1$ 51$9$ (Gu. Schöpf. 30-33), Ps. 74$13$ (?); and it may have been originally the name of a class of legendary monsters like Ti'āmat. The mythological interpretation lingered in Jewish exegetical tradition (see below).—22. And God blessed them, etc.] In contrast with the plants, whose reproductive powers are included in their creation (v.$11ff.$), these living beings are endowed with the right of self-propagation by a separate act—a benediction (see v.$28$). The distinction is natural.—be fruitful, etc.] "There is nothing to indicate that only a

front of': see BDB, s., II. 7. a,—G inserts at the end of the v.—21. ] It is naturally difficult to determine exactly how far the Heb. usage of the word is coloured by mythology. The important point is that it represents a power hostile to God, not only in the pass. cited above, but also in Job 7$12$. There are resemblances in the Ar. tinnīn, a fabulous amphibious monster, appearing now on land and now in the sea (personification of the waterspout? RS$2$, 176), concerning which the Arabian cosmographers have many wonderful tales to relate (Mas'ūdī, i. 263, 266 ff.; Kazwīnī, Ethé's tr. i. 270 ff.). Ra., after explaining literally, adds by way of Haggada that these are 'Leviathan and his consort,' who were created male and female, but the female was killed and salted for the righteous in the coming age, because if they had multiplied the world would not have stood before them (comp. En. 60$7-9$, 4 Esd. 6$49-52$, Ber. R. c. 7). — Cf. 9$2$,