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 92ff. 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 (עשב) assigned to him.—31. The account closes with the divine verdict of approval, which
wrongly omitted by G.—אכלה] found only in P and Ezk., and always
preceded by לְ. It is strictly fem. inf., and perhaps always retains
verbal force (see Dri. JPh. xi. 217). The ordinary cognate words for
food are אֹכֶל and מַֽאֲכָל.—30. ולכל וגו׳ 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 נתתי before
את־כל־ירק. The text requires us to treat לכם יהיה לאכלה in 29 as a parenthesis
(Di.) and את־כל־ירק as still under the regimen of the distant נתתי.—רוֹמֵש]
G ἑρπετῷ τῷ ἕρποντι—assimilating.—נֶפֶשׁ] here used in its primary
sense of the soul or animating principle (see later on 27), with a marked
difference from vv.20f. 24.—ירק עשב] so 93, = י׳ דָּשֶׁא Ps. 372. יֶרֶק (verdure)
alone may include the foliage of trees (Ex. 1015); י׳ הַשֶּׂרָה = 'grass' (Nu.
224). The word is rare (6 t.); a still rarer form יָרָק may sometimes be
confounded with it (Is. 3727 = 2 Ki. 1726?).—31. יום הששי] 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 (כנסת הגדולה, etc.). Cf. G-K. § 126 w (with
footnote); Ho. Hex. 465; Dri. JPh. xi. 229 f.
