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for the words translated "Let the earth bring forth" are (ta. deshe haaretz), which, in accordance with the obvious sense in Joel, would be better rendered "Let the earth shoot out." From this meaning of the verb, then, the noun would signify the springing or shooting plant, and as used here in contradistinction to both herbs and trees bearing seeds, it is surely not recommending any forced interpretation to suggest that it is meant to express that class of vegetables, which all botanists recognise as being naturally distinguished by the obscurity of their means of reproduction.

It tends to support this interpretation, that the Hebrew has a different term for grass, the common food of cattle (chatzir), which the lexicographers have shewn is derived from its tubular structure. Thus, in Job xl. 15, we have "he eateth grass (chatzir) as an ox;" and, Psalm civ. 14, "He causeth grass (chatzir) to grow for the cattle."

In several passages besides this of Genesis, we find deshe contradistinguished from both oeseb and chatzir, as in Deuteronomy xxx. 2. “As the small rain upon the tender herb (deshe), and as the showers upon the grass (oeseb);" and Psalm xxxvii. 2,"They shall soon be cut down like the grass (chatzir), and wither like the green herbe (deshe);" and 2d Kings xix. 26, "They were as the herb (oeseb) of the field, as the green herb (deshe), as the grass (chatzir) on the house tops." These quotations shew the want of uniformity with which the English translators have rendered these terms, and go to support the sense we would assign to deshe.

But we must not conceal that there are three passages in which this word occurs, that might seem to imply, until closely cxamined, that we should not be warranted to restrict the sense of it in the manner proposed. One is in the 23d Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in the pastures of tender grass * (deshe)." On this we have to observe, that the word rendered here in the pastures, has been rendered by the Vulgate, in various places where it occurs, and by the Septuagint in some instances, desirable or beautiful places, and their accuracy in doing this seems confirmed by the circumstance, that the Hebrew has another term for pas

*The marginal translation, which is the literal one.

ture; and if this interpretation of that word be admitted, then deshe might signify here plants rather fitted for lying down on, as the mosses and ferns, than for pasture, which would make out a consistent image expressed in this clause or sentence, in opposition to the one derived from the abundance of pasture, which is evidently already sufficiently completed in the terms, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This passage, then, when rightly understood, rather serves to confirm the meaning which we have suggested for deshe. Another Another passage is Job vi. 5, "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass (deshe), or loweth the ox over his fodder ?" but no stress can be laid upon this, when we consider that both the ass and the horse eat, of choice, various species of ferns and equiseta, a fact which it is not unreasonable to suppose might be known to the author of a book which contains so much accurate and interesting natural history as this of Job. The plants, whatever they might be, which formed a supply for the wild ass, are at least obviously set in contradistinction to those which formed the fodder of the ox. The third passage is Jeremiah l. 11, "because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass (deshe)." But there is in a great number of manuscripts a various reading for deshe here, by which the meaning becomes," ye are grown fat, like a heifer thrashing, or treading, out the corn;" and several circumstances shew the latter reading to be the more probably correct

one.

It remains, then, very highly probable, upon the whole, that deshe, in the 11th and 12th verses, is intended to express the cryptogamous vegetation.

In our observations on the terms employed in the history of the creation of the animals, we shall arrive at some important conclusions that are more absolutely certain.

The first thing that we would observe in regard to this, is, that there are two distinct words, of very different origin, which the English translators have rendered, promiscuously, creeping creatures or things, and also moving creatures, following, no doubt, the authority of the Septuagint, which has given iętra for both; thus occasioning a great confusion instead of a clear and perspicuous order of creations exhibited in the Hebrew

text. The first of these words is sheretz, as in verse 20th, in the history of the fifth day's work, " God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature (sheretz),” in the margin the creeping creature. This word is from a verb, which signifies to bring forth or to increase, or to multiply abundantly, being the very verb which is rendered bring forth abundantly in the 20th verse," Let the waters bring forth abundantly,” (is heretzu hamaim). We find the verb obviously having this meaning in other passages, of which we shall quote examples : Gen. viii. 17, "That they may breed abundantly (vesharetzu) in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply in the earth;" Exod. i. 7, “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly (vaisheretzu), and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them;" Exod. viii. 3, "And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly (vesharatz), * and the frogs shall come up both on thee and on thy people, and upon all thy servants."

*

From all this it appears that the proper translation of the noun sheretz is not the creeping, but the rapidly multiplying creature. The creatures expressed by this noun were part of those which were created during the fifth epoch.

The other word translated creeping thing is (remes), and the creatures expressed by the noun were created during the sixth epoch. We shall afterwards shew that it has a very different meaning from sheretz.

In the history of the fifth day's work the translators have rendered the Hebrew word (oph), by fowl. This limits its meaning so as to include only the birds. But the term includes also the winged insects, as is evident from Leviticus xi. 20, “All fowls (haoph) that creep, going upon four."-The proper translation of the term is not fowl but flying thing, including the tribes of all kinds that can raise themselves up into the air; as is indeed rendered obviously by the expression in the 21st verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis itself (cal oph canaph), "every flying thing that hath wings."

In the 21st verse it is said, "God created (hathananim hagedolim)," which Hebrew words, our translators, following the Septuagint, which has given for them τα κητη τα μεγαλα, have rendered great whales. We have abundant resources to shew

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that this translation is erroneous. In fact, neither the Greek nor the English translators have been consistent with themselves in translating the Hebrew word (than) or (thanin), for it occurs in both these forms. We find them in other places translating it severally by the terms deaxwv, and dragon. It would be tedious to quote the passages where they have thus varied from themselves. We shall refer to Ezekiel xxix. 3. for the latter sense, "I am against thee, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great dragon (hathanim hagadol) that lieth in the midst of his rivers, where the Septuagint has τον δράκοντα τον μεγαν. The figure in this passage is evidently borrowed from the crocodile of the Nile, and this circumstance of itself would shew that dragon, in place of whale, would be a better translation in Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more comprehensive meaning. We find two words formed from it, one of which (Leviathan) is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvious from descriptions of Job chap. xli. and of Isaiah chap. xxvii. 1, in which last passage (thanin) is also used,—and the other (Pethan) is the specific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the reference to its poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. In this last passage we also find poison ascribed to the thanin; "Their wine is the poison of dragons (thaninim), and the cruel venom of asps (pethanim);" so that here it is evidently meant to express a serpent, as in Ezekiel and Isaiah, as we have seen above, it signifies one of the lacertine species.

These references, which we could have greatly extended, were it necessary, are sufficient to prove that (than) or (thanin) was a sort of generic, or rather classical, name, to designate the serpent and lizard tribes; and that instead of great whales in the 21st verse, the translators should have given the words great reptiles *.

The result of our criticism is, that the work of the fifth epoch, as described in Genesis, was the creation of the inhabitants of the waters; of the birds, winged insects, and reptiles; in fact, of the oviparous races named in detail, with some omissions,

* There is only one passage in which (than) means, with certainty, any thing else than a serpent or reptile, which is Lamentations iv. 3, where probably a seal is meant; but the passage is highly poetical, and no authority can be given to it to supersede the uniform meaning of the term in all the earlier writers, which we have established in the text.

which are to be accounted for by the uniformly condensed and brief form of the whole narration.

We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded with the creation of man.

In the English translation we find creeping things again included among the beings which were created during this period, and these English terms, in their most commonly received acceptation, imply some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have seen that the Septuagint countenances the interpretation creeping things; but the Hebrew term (remes) does not. This is derived from a verb which signifies to move, and which is so far from being limited in its application to the insects or the reptiles, that, in Psalm civ. 20, 21, we find it applied to the beasts of the forest and the young lions: "Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep (tiremos). The young lions roar after their prey." In the 24th and 25th verses, (remes) is grouped with cattle (behemach), and beast of the earth (haith haaretz). Proofs are abundant, and too tedious to be all referred to, that by (behemah) the Hebrews generally expressed the larger herbivorous animals, and by (haith haaretz) the larger beasts of prey. (For the former see Genesis xxxiv. 23, and for the latter Leviticus xxvi. 22). Thus we find races of mammalia expressed by these terms, and to comprehend the whole class we must understand (remes) as referring to its other tribes. It is at least no race of insects that can be meant by the term, for, in point of fact, where any of these are obviously meant in other Hebrew passages, either the name (sheretz) is given to them as in Leviticus xi. 42, "Whatsoever doth multiply feet among all creeping things," (hasheretz), or the name (oph), as we have already seen.

It is true that remes is applied to the oviparous tribes, but not as a noun or name, but as a verb to express their motion, just as in some passages above quoted, we have seen sheretz applied as a verb, but not a name to mammalia.

Previously to setting down the following table of coincidences between the 1st chapter of Genesis and the results of geological observation, it is necessary to make a remark on one passage in Humboldt's table of geological formations, which possesses a classical celebrity over Europe. In that table, following an

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