Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/189

 the form is not Heb., and the real meaning of the word is not settled by the etymology here given (v.i.).— commonly includes all animals (8$21$ etc.), but is here restricted to mankind (as Ps. 143$2$, Jb. 30$23$). Cf. however, , 'Lady of wild things,' a Greek epithet of the Earth-mother (Miss Harrison, Prol. 264).—21. Another detached notice describing the origin of clothing. It is, of course, not inconsistent with v.$7$, but neither can it be said to be the necessary sequel to that v.; most probably it is a parallel from another source.—coats of skin] "The simplest and most primitive kind of clothing in practical use" (Dri.).

An interesting question arises as to the connexion between this method of clothing and the loss of pristine innocence. That it exhibits God's continued care for man even after the Fall (Di. al.) may be true as regards the present form of the legend; but that is hardly the original conception. In the Phœn. legend of Usōos, the invention is connected with the hunting of wild animals, and this again with the institution of sacrifice: (Præp. Ev. i. 10; Orelli, p. 17 f.). Since sacrifice and the use of animal food were inseparably associated in Semitic antiquity, it may be assumed that this is conceived as the first departure from the Golden Age, when men lived on the spontaneous fruits of the earth. Similarly, Rob. Sm. (RS$2$, 306 ff.) found in the v. the Yahwistic theory of the introduction of the sacrifice of domestic animals, which thus coincided, as in Greek legend, with the transition from the state of innocence to the life of agriculture.

22-24. The actual expulsion.—22. Behold one of us] This is no 'ironica exprobatio' (Calv. al.), but a serious admission that man has snatched a divine prerogative not meant for him. The feeling expressed (cf. 11$6$) is akin to what the Greeks called the 'envy of the gods,' and more remotely to the OT attribute of the zeal or jealousy of Yahwe,—His resentment of all action that encroaches on His

21. Point, as in v.$17$.—22. ] Constr. before prep.; G-K. § 130 a.—] The so-called oriental punctuation (which distinguishes 1st pl. from 3rd sg. masc. suffix) has, 'from us' (B-D. p. 81). T$O$ and Σ ( treat the form as 3rd sing.: cf. Ra.'s paraphrase: "alone below, as I am alone above."—] 'in [respect of] knowing': gerundial inf.; Dav. § 93; G-K. § 114 o; Dri.