Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/136

 divine utterance, which regulates in broad and general terms the relation of men and animals to the vegetable world. The plants are destined for food to man and beast. The passage is not wholly intelligible apart from 9$2ff.$ from which we see that its point is the restriction on the use of animal food, particularly on the part of man. In other words, the first stage of the world's history—that state of things which the Creator pronounced very good—is a state of peace and harmony in the animal world. This is P's substitute for the garden of Eden.

A distinction is made between the food of man and that of animals: to the former (a) seeding plants (probably because the seed is important in cultivation, and in cereals is the part eaten), and (b) fruit-bearing trees; to the latter all the greenness of herbage, i.e. the succulent leafy parts. The statement is not exhaustive: no provision is made for fishes, nor is there any mention of the use of such victuals as milk, honey, etc. Observe the difference from chs. 2. 3, where man is made to live on fruit alone, and only as part of the curse has herbs assigned to him.—31. The account closes with the divine verdict of approval, which

wrongly omitted by G.—] found only in P and Ezk., and always preceded by. It is strictly fem. inf., and perhaps always retains verbal force (see Dri. JPh. xi. 217). The ordinary cognate words for food are and .—30.  The construction is obscure. The natural interpretation is that $30$ expresses a contrast to $29$—the one specifying the food of man, the other that of animals. To bring out this sense clearly it is necessary (with Ew. al.) to insert before . The text requires us to treat in $29$ as a parenthesis (Di.) and as still under the regimen of the distant .—] G 🇬🇷—assimilating.—] here used in its primary sense of the soul or animating principle (see later on 2$7$), with a marked difference from vv.$20f. 24$.—] so 9$3$, = Ps. 37$2$. (verdure) alone may include the foliage of trees (Ex. 10$15$); = 'grass' (Nu. 22$4$). The word is rare (6 t.); a still rarer form may sometimes be confounded with it (Is. 37$27$ = 2 Ki. 17$26$?).—31. ] The art. with the num. appears here for the first time in the chap. On the construction, see Dri. T. § 209 (1), where it is treated as the beginning of a usage prevalent in post-biblical Heb., which often in a definite expression uses the art. with the adj. alone (, etc.). Cf. G-K. § 126 w (with footnote); Ho. Hex. 465; Dri. JPh. xi. 229 f.