The Fallible Synthetic Study Bible

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Genesis 1:9–13 — The Third Day. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Let the waters be gathered together. —The verb, as Gesenius shows, refers rather to the condensation of water, which, as we have seen, was impossible till the surface of the earth was made cool by the radiation of heat into the open expanse around it.

Ellicott reads qâvâh against the grain of "gather," hearing condensation — a window onto how flexible the verb's root sense is.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

In what way the gathering of the earthly waters in the sea and the appearance of the dry land were effected, whether by the sinking or deepening of places in the body of the globe, into which the water was drawn off, or by the elevation of the solid ground, the record does not inform us, since it never describes the process by which effects are produced.

The text reports the result, not the mechanism — a discipline the whole chapter keeps.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Instead of “place,” the LXX reads “gathering,” συναγωγήν , the word which is reproduced in the familiar term “synagogue.” It has been suggested that this may very possibly represent the original reading; and that, at any rate, the less usual word מִקְוֶה , miqveh = “gathering,” was more likely to be altered in transcription into the common word מָקוֹם , maqom = “place,” than vice versa .

A textual-critical note: the Hebrew "place" may render a Greek-attested "gathering."

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Not immediateness, but certainty of execution, is implied in the "it was so" appended to the creative fiat.

Catches the force of way·hî kên — accomplishment guaranteed, duration left open.

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And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yō·mer ham·ma·yim mit·ta·ḥaṯ haš·šā·ma·yim yiq·qā·wū ’el- ’e·ḥāḏ mā·qō·wm hay·yab·bā·šāh wə·ṯê·rā·’eh way·hî- ḵên

Word by word13 · parsed

אֱלֹהִ֗ים’ĕ·lō·hîmAnd GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

’ĕ·lō·hîm (H430), "God" — the plural-form name, here with a singular verb. The third day, like every day, opens with the bare creative word; Matthew Henry: "by a word spoken, it became full of God's riches."

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·mersaidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·yō·mer (H559), "and said" — the recurring fiat. As at vv. 3 and 6, the work begins with speech; nothing here is wrought by struggle, only by command.

הַמַּ֜יִםham·ma·yimLet the watersH4325

√ mayim — waterArticleNounmasculine plural

מִתַּ֤חַתmit·ta·ḥaṯunderH8478

√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Preposition-m

הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙haš·šā·ma·yimthe skyH8064

√ shâmayim — the sky (as aloftArticleNounmasculine plural

יִקָּו֨וּyiq·qā·wūbe gatheredH6960

√ qâvâh — to bind together (perhaps by twisting), iVerbNifalImperfectthird person masculine plural

yiq·qā·wū (H6960), Niphal of qâvâh, "be gathered/bound together." The verb's root sense (to twist, bind) yields both "gather" and, elsewhere, "wait/hope" (as a cord stretched out). The waters are not destroyed but harnessed.

אֶל־’el-intoH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

אֶחָ֔ד’e·ḥāḏoneH259

√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumbermasculine singular

מָק֣וֹםmā·qō·wmplaceH4725

√ mâqôwm — properly, a standing, iNounmasculine singular

הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑הhay·yab·bā·šāhso that the dry [land]H3004

√ yabbâshâh — dry groundArticleNounfeminine singular

hay·yab·bā·šāh (H3004), "the dry [ground]" — the solid surface, named by its dryness. The same rare noun (14 verses) recurs at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:22) and on Jonah's lips (Jonah 1:9); see the threads below.

וְתֵרָאֶ֖הwə·ṯê·rā·’ehmay appearH7200

√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)Conjunctive wawVerbNifalConjunctive imperfectthird person feminine singular

וַֽיְהִי־way·hî-And it wasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·hî- (H1961), "and it was" — the verb of pure existence. Paired with kên it forms the formula of accomplishment, "and it was so," sealing the fiat.

כֵֽן׃ḵênsoH3651

√ kên — properly, set uprightAdverb

ḵên (H3651), "so" — "properly, set upright." The Pulpit Commentary: "Not immediateness, but certainty of execution, is implied in the 'it was so.'"

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said God: "Let-be-gathered the-waters from-under the-heavens unto place one, and-let-appear the-dry-[ground]"; and-it-was so.

Where the English smooths the original

יִקָּו֨וּ The verb yiq·qā·wū is a Niphal (passive) of qâvâh — "let them be gathered/collected," rooted in the idea of binding together "perhaps by twisting." BSB's "be gathered" is right, but Charles Ellicott argues the verb "refers rather to the condensation of water," and John Gill hears in it the picture of waters made "to flow as by a straight line" to a decreed place. The word is more than a tidy collecting; it is a binding-up of the deep within bounds.
מָק֣וֹם mā·qō·wm, "place," stands in the Hebrew; but the LXX read instead συναγωγήν, "gathering" (the word behind "synagogue"), which matches miqveh ("gathering") in the next verse. Cambridge notes the rarer word "was more likely to be altered in transcription into the common word... than vice versa" — a textual seam invisible in the English "one place."
הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה hay·yab·bā·šāh is not simply "land" but "the dry" — feminine, from a root meaning "to be dry, to be ashamed/abashed" (Barnes lists yabēsh, "be dry," beside bôsh, "be abashed"). BSB supplies "[land]" in brackets; the Hebrew names the ground purely by its new quality — dryness — over against the water it has just escaped.
אֶחָ֔ד ’e·ḥāḏ, "one," is the same numeral that closes the Shema ("the LORD is one"). Here it governs "place": the scattered waters are bound into a single appointed reservoir. The English "one place" keeps it, but the word quietly stamps unity on the chaos — the first ordering act of Day Three.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

The plural form "seas" shows that the "one place" consists of several basins, all of which taken together are called the place of the waters.

Reads the plural yammîm as reconciling "one place" (v.9) with the many actual seas.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

The separation of the waters was begun on the second day, Genesis 1:6 , &c., but not perfected till this third day; therefore God’s approbation of that work is not mentioned there, but here only.

Explains why "it was good" is absent on Day Two and doubled on Day Three: the water-work is only now complete.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

Earth and sea are the two constituents of the globe, by the separation of which its formation was completed.

The naming of Earth and Seas marks the completion of the planet's basic form.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Yamim , from yom , to boil or foam, is applied in Scripture to any large collection of water

On the etymology of "Seas" — the foaming, boiling waters now bounded and named.

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God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of waters He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yiq·rā lay·yab·bā·šāh ’e·reṣ ū·lə·miq·wêh ham·ma·yim qā·rā yam·mîm ’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yar kî- ṭō·wḇ

Word by word12 · parsed

אֱלֹהִ֤ים׀’ĕ·lō·hîmGodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

וַיִּקְרָ֨אway·yiq·rācalledH7121

√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·yiq·rā (H7121), "called" — the naming verb. To name is to assign place and rule; the same verb governs both "Earth" and "Seas," stamping the two halves of the globe with God's own designation.

לַיַּבָּשָׁה֙lay·yab·bā·šāhthe dry [land]H3004

√ yabbâshâh — dry groundPreposition-l, ArticleNounfeminine singular

אֶ֔רֶץ’e·reṣearthH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)Nounfeminine singular

’e·reṣ (H776), "Earth" — first the dry ground, then by extension the world. The Pulpit Commentary traces the word through "Sansc., dhara; ... Latin, terra; ... English, earth."

וּלְמִקְוֵ֥הū·lə·miq·wêhand the gatheringH4723

√ miqveh — something waited for, iConjunctive waw, Preposition-lNounmasculine singular construct

ū·lə·miq·wêh (H4723), "and to the gathering" — root miqveh, "something waited for, a collection of water." The LXX rendered the v. 9 "place" with this same idea; the named thing is the gathered reservoir.

הַמַּ֖יִםham·ma·yimof watersH4325

√ mayim — waterArticleNounmasculine plural

קָרָ֣אqā·rāHe calledH7121

√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

יַמִּ֑יםyam·mîmseasH3220

√ yâm — a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of waterNounmasculine plural

yam·mîm (H3220), "Seas" — plural; Keil: "an intensive rather than a numerical plural... the great ocean." The seas "include the rivers which flow into the ocean, and the lakes."

אֱלֹהִ֖ים’ĕ·lō·hîmAnd GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

וַיַּ֥רְאway·yarsawH7200

√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·yar (H7200), "saw" — root râ’âh, the same verb used in v. 9 for the dry land's appearing (Niphal, "be seen"). God sees what He made appear.

כִּי־kî-thatH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

טֽוֹב׃ṭō·wḇ[it was] goodH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseAdjectivemasculine singular

ṭō·wḇ (H2896), "good" — the refrain of approval, here on Day Three's first act. Poole: God's approbation was "not mentioned" on Day Two "but here only," because the work begun then is now perfected.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-called God to-the-dry-[ground] "Earth," and-to-the-gathering-of the-waters he-called "Seas"; and-saw God that [it-was] good.

Where the English smooths the original

אֶ֔רֶץ ’e·reṣ, "Earth," is the same word used in 1:1 for the whole created realm; Albert Barnes notes its "primitive meaning... was land, the dry solid surface of matter on which we stand," only later stretched to the whole globe. God names the dry ground with the word that will come to mean the world.
וּלְמִקְוֵ֥ה ū·lə·miq·wêh, "and to the gathering," is a different word from mâqôwm ("place") in v. 9 — here miqveh, "something waited for / a collection." God does not name the water itself "Seas" but the gathered mass of it; the name belongs to the bounded collection, not the element.
יַמִּ֑ים yam·mîm is plural — "Seas," not "sea." Matthew Poole: "He called them not sea , but seas ." Keil reads it as "an intensive rather than a numerical plural," the one great ocean; Barnes reads the plural as showing the "one place" is really "several basins." The English keeps the plural but flags neither reading.
טֽוֹב׃ ṭō·wḇ, "good," appears here for Day Three's first work — and Matthew Poole observes the verdict was withheld on Day Two and given only now, "because" the separation of waters "was begun on the second day... but not perfected till this third day." The single word marks completion as much as quality.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The first is deshe, not “grass,” but a mere greenness, without visible seed or stalk, such as to this day may be seen upon the surface of rocks

Recovers deshe as the threshold of plant life, below stalk and seed.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

After its kind. - This phrase intimates that like produces like, and therefore that the "kinds" or species are fixed, and do not run into one another. In this little phrase the theory of one species being developed from another is denied.

Barnes presses lᵉmînô into a polemic against species-development — a reading we flag as his inference, not the bare lexeme.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

they were made to grow, and they grew as they do still out of the ground—not, however, by the slow process of vegetation, but through the divine power, without rain, dew, or any process of labor—sprouting up and flourishing in a single day.

On the manner of the plants' coming: by natural growth, yet at divine speed.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

So that we see it is the only the power of God's word that makes the earth fruitful, which naturally is barren.

The Geneva gloss (h): fruitfulness is gift, not the earth's own virtue.

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Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind.” And it was so.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yō·mer hā·’ā·reṣ taḏ·šê de·še maz·rî·a‘ ze·ra‘ ‘ê·śeḇ pə·rî ‘êṣ ‘ō·śeh pə·rî zar·‘ōw- lə·mî·nōw ’ă·šer ḇōw ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ way·hî- ḵên

Word by word20 · parsed

אֱלֹהִ֗ים’ĕ·lō·hîmThen GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·mersaidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

הָאָ֙רֶץ֙hā·’ā·reṣLet the earthH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular

תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤אtaḏ·šêbring forthH1876

√ dâshâʼ — to sproutVerbHifilImperfect Jussivethird person feminine singular

taḏ·šê (H1876), Hiphil of dâshâ’, "cause to sprout." A vanishingly rare verb — only Genesis 1:11 and Joel 2:22 in the entire Hebrew Bible — which makes the Joel echo a genuine verbal link (see threads).

דֶּ֔שֶׁאde·ševegetationH1877

√ desheʼ — a sproutNounmasculine singular

de·še (H1877), "vegetation / tender green." Keil: "a generic name for all grasses and cryptogamous plants." The first of the three (or two) orders of plant life named here.

מַזְרִ֣יעַmaz·rî·a‘seed-bearingH2232

√ zâraʻ — to sowVerbHifilParticiplemasculine singular

זֶ֔רַעze·ra‘. . .H2233

√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular

עֵ֚שֶׂב‘ê·śeḇplantsH6212

√ ʻeseb — grass (or any tender shoot)Nounmasculine singular

‘ê·śeḇ (H6212), "herb / plants" — the seed-bearing herbage, distinguished from de·še by its conspicuous seed. Barnes: "in the second, the seed is the striking characteristic."

פְּרִ֞יpə·rîand fruitH6529

√ pᵉrîy — fruit (literally or figuratively)Nounmasculine singular

עֵ֣ץ‘êṣtreesH6086

√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)Nounmasculine singular construct

‘êṣ (H6086), "tree" — construct, "tree of fruit." The third order: woody, fruit-bearing, with seed enclosed. The same word reappears in Joel 2:22.

עֹ֤שֶׂה‘ō·śeheach bearingH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

פְּרִי֙pə·rîfruitH6529

√ pᵉrîy — fruit (literally or figuratively)Nounmasculine singular

זַרְעוֹ־zar·‘ōw-with seedH2233

√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

לְמִינ֔וֹlə·mî·nōwaccording to its kindH4327

√ mîyn — a sort, iPreposition-lNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

lə·mî·nōw (H4327), "according to its kind" — root mîyn. The structural hinge of vv. 11–12: each order reproduces true to type. The phrase recurs through 1:21, 24, 25.

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

ב֖וֹḇōw

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

עַל־‘al-H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

הָאָ֑רֶץhā·’ā·reṣH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular

וַֽיְהִי־way·hî-And it wasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·hî- (H1961), "and it was" — with kên, "and it was so." The fiat of the second creative act of Day Three is sealed before its fulfillment is narrated in v. 12.

כֵֽן׃ḵênsoH3651

√ kên — properly, set uprightAdverb

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said God: "Let-sprout the-earth sprouting — herb seeding seed, [and] tree-of fruit making fruit according-to-its-kind, which its-seed [is] in-it, upon the-earth"; and-it-was so.

Where the English smooths the original

תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤א taḏ·šê is a Hiphil (causative) of dâshâ’ — "let it cause-to-sprout," cognate with the very noun de·še ("sprout") that follows. Hebrew here makes the verb and its object the same root: "let the earth sprout sprouting." BSB's "bring forth vegetation" smooths a deliberate figura etymologica. This verb dâshâ’ is exceedingly rare — only two verses in the whole Hebrew Bible (see the Joel thread).
דֶּ֔שֶׁא de·še is not "grass" in the modern sense but, says Charles Ellicott, "a mere greenness, without visible seed or stalk"; Keil calls it "the young, tender green, which shoots up after rain." BSB's "vegetation" is broad and serviceable, but the word names the first, simplest greening of the bare ground — life at its threshold.
לְמִינ֔וֹ lə·mî·nōw, "according to its kind," from mîyn ("species"). Albert Barnes: "In this little phrase the theory of one species being developed from another is denied." The phrase is a quiet but load-bearing claim — fixed kinds, reproducing true — that the English keeps but does not weight.
מַזְרִ֣יעַ maz·rî·a‘ is a Hiphil participle of zâra‘ ("to sow") — "seed-producing," literally "causing-seed." Paired with the noun ze·ra‘ ("seed") it again doubles the root: the herb is "seeding seed." The self-propagating power is built into the grammar, not merely stated.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

It appears from the text that the full plants, and not the seeds, germs, or roots, were created. The land sent forth grass, herb, tree, each in its fully developed form. This was absolutely necessary, if man and the land animals were to be sustained by grasses, seeds, and fruits.

Barnes argues the plants were created mature — full forms, not germs — as provision laid up before the creatures who would feed on them.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

the vegetation of the third day sprang from the soil in the same natural manner in which all subsequent vegetation has done, viz., by growth, which seems to resolve the well-known problem of whether the tree was before the seed, or the seed before the tree, in favor of the latter alternative

Reads the verb of fulfillment as favoring seed-before-tree — though against Barnes, who reads mature plants first; we let the two stand in tension.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

This clause is so often added, to show that all the disorders, evil and hurtful qualities, that now are in the creatures, are not to be imputed to God, who made all of them good; but to man’s sin, which hath corrupted their nature, and perverted their use.

Poole turns the repeated "good" into a theodicy: corruption is man's, not God's.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

This sentence is often repeated, to signify that God made all his creatures to serve for his glory and for the profit of man: but because of sin they were cursed, yet the elect, by Christ are restored

The Geneva gloss (i) reads the recurring "good" through fall and restoration in Christ — a christological turn on the creation refrain.

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The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·’ā·reṣ wat·tō·w·ṣê de·še maz·rî·a‘ ze·ra‘ ‘ê·śeḇ lə·mî·nê·hū wə·‘êṣ ‘ō·śeh- pə·rî ’ă·šer zar·‘ōw- ḇōw lə·mî·nê·hū ’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yar kî- ṭō·wḇ

Word by word18 · parsed

הָאָ֜רֶץhā·’ā·reṣThe earthH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular

hā·’ā·reṣ (H776), "the earth" — now the active subject: the ground God named in v. 10 obeys the word of v. 11. The fronted noun stresses the agent of fulfillment.

וַתּוֹצֵ֨אwat·tō·w·ṣêproducedH3318

√ yâtsâʼ — to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proximConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular

wat·tō·w·ṣê (H3318), Hiphil of yâtsâ’, "brought forth." The command's dâshâ’ becomes the fulfillment's yâtsâ’ — earth as the appointed channel of God's creative word.

דֶּ֠שֶׁאde·ševegetationH1877

√ desheʼ — a sproutNounmasculine singular

מַזְרִ֤יעַmaz·rî·a‘seed-bearingH2232

√ zâraʻ — to sowVerbHifilParticiplemasculine singular

זֶ֙רַע֙ze·ra‘. . .H2233

√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular

עֵ֣שֶׂב‘ê·śeḇplantsH6212

√ ʻeseb — grass (or any tender shoot)Nounmasculine singular

לְמִינֵ֔הוּlə·mî·nê·hūaccording to their kindsH4327

√ mîyn — a sort, iPreposition-lNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

lə·mî·nê·hū (H4327), "according to their kinds" — the species-rule, now applied to the herb as well as the tree.

וְעֵ֧ץwə·‘êṣand treesH6086

√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular

עֹֽשֶׂה־‘ō·śeh-bearingH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

פְּרִ֛יpə·rîfruitH6529

√ pᵉrîy — fruit (literally or figuratively)Nounmasculine singular

pə·rî (H6529), "fruit" — the tree's distinguishing mark, with its seed enclosed "in it." The word recurs in Joel 2:22 (see threads).

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

זַרְעוֹ־zar·‘ōw-with seedH2233

√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

ב֖וֹḇōw. . .

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

לְמִינֵ֑הוּlə·mî·nê·hūaccording to their kindsH4327

√ mîyn — a sort, iPreposition-lNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

אֱלֹהִ֖ים’ĕ·lō·hîmAnd GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

וַיַּ֥רְאway·yarsawH7200

way·yar (H7200), "saw" — God inspecting the fulfilled command, as in v. 10.

כִּי־kî-thatH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

טֽוֹב׃ṭō·wḇit was goodH2896

√ ṭôwb — good (as an adjective) in the widest senseAdjectivemasculine singular

ṭō·wḇ (H2896), "good" — the closing approval. Poole: the clause guards God from blame for the creation's later corruption, which is laid to "man's sin."

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-brought-forth the-earth sprouting — herb seeding seed according-to-their-kinds, and-tree making fruit which its-seed [is] in-it according-to-their-kinds; and-saw God that [it-was] good.

Where the English smooths the original

וַתּוֹצֵ֨א wat·tō·w·ṣê is a Hiphil of yâtsâ’ — "and it brought out / caused to go out." The command of v. 11 used dâshâ’ ("sprout"); the fulfillment in v. 12 switches to yâtsâ’ ("bring forth"). The earth is the medium that "brings out" what God commanded — Barnes: "not because it is endowed with any inherent power... but because it is the element in which they are to take root."
לְמִינֵ֔הוּ Here "according to their kinds" (lə·mî·nê·hū) — the suffix differs slightly from v. 11's lə·mî·nōw. Keil notes the form is "repeated in Genesis 1:12 in its old form... in the case of the fruit-tree, but is also appended to the herb." The fulfillment extends the "after its kind" rule even to the herb, which the command had left unmarked.
עֵ֣שֶׂב In v. 12 the herb (‘ê·śeḇ) is named with "according to their kinds" attached, where v. 11 had not specified kinds for it. The narrative of fulfillment is thus fuller than the fiat — the earth produces in ordered species exactly, beyond the bare letter of the command.
טֽוֹב׃ The verse closes, as v. 10 did, with "God saw that [it was] good" — kî ṭō·wḇ, the second "good" of Day Three. Matthew Poole reads the recurring formula as theodicy: it is "so often added, to show that all the disorders, evil and hurtful qualities, that now are in the creatures, are not to be imputed to God... but to man's sin."

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

And the evening and the morning were the third day. For exposition vid . ver. 5.

The formula is identical to the other days; the Pulpit Commentary refers its full treatment back to v. 5.

source ↗

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

The space of twenty four hours ran out, and were measured, either by the rotation of the body of light and heat around the earth, or of the earth upon its axis

Gill takes the day as a literal twenty-four hours, and frankly canvasses the rival dates the Jewish tradition assigned to creation.

source ↗

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

The earth was emptiness, but by a word spoken, it became full of God's riches, and his they are still.

Henry's summary of the whole Day-Three section (1:6–13): emptiness made full by the word.

source ↗

And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·hî- ‘e·reḇ way·hî- ḇō·qer šə·lî·šî yō·wm

Word by word6 · parsed

וַֽיְהִי־way·hî-And there wasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

way·hî- (H1961), "and there was" — the verb of existence now bounding a day. The same root closed each creative command ("it was so"); here it opens the time-formula.

עֶ֥רֶב‘e·reḇeveningH6153

√ ʻereb — duskNounmasculine singular

‘e·reḇ (H6153), "evening / dusk." The day begins at evening in the Hebrew reckoning; the formula is identical for each of the six days.

וַֽיְהִי־way·hî-and there wasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

בֹ֖קֶרḇō·qermorningH1242

√ bôqer — properly, dawn (as the break of day)Nounmasculine singular

ḇō·qer (H1242), "morning / dawn" — "the break of day." With ‘e·reḇ it forms the merism that measures one complete day.

שְׁלִישִֽׁי׃פšə·lî·šîthe thirdH7992

√ shᵉlîyshîy — thirdNumberordinal masculine singular

šə·lî·šî (H7992), "third" — the ordinal sealing the unit. The Pulpit Commentary defers exposition to v. 5, where the day-formula first appears: "For exposition vid . ver. 5."

י֥וֹםyō·wmdayH3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine singular

yō·wm (H3117), "day" — the bounded span. The word ranges "from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next," and figuratively a defined space of time; the debate over its length here is ancient and unsettled.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-there-was evening and-there-was morning — day third.

Where the English smooths the original

עֶ֥רֶב ‘e·reḇ is "dusk" — the root names the darkening, the fading of light, not a clock-hour. The day-formula begins with evening, as the Hebrew reckoning of days from sunset to sunset does. BSB's "evening" is exact, but the word's root (to grow dark, to mix) carries the sense of light yielding to shade.
בֹ֖קֶר ḇō·qer is "properly, dawn (as the break of day)" — the breaking-open of light, from a root meaning to cleave or break through. Set against ‘e·reḇ it frames the day between fading and breaking: darkness and the breaking of dawn. The pair is a fixed merism for the whole span of one day.
שְׁלִישִֽׁי׃פ šə·lî·šî, "third" — an ordinal, and the only word here new to the formula. The Masoretic text marks this verse with a closing petuchah (the "פ" appended to the surface), a paragraph break: Day Three is sealed as a complete literary unit before Day Four begins.
וַֽיְהִי־ The verse is built on two clauses of way·hî ("and there was") — the same existence-verb that sealed each fiat ("and it was so"). Here it measures time itself: "and-there-was evening, and-there-was morning." Being and time are spoken by the same word.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The waters bound, the dry land summoned — Genesis 1:9–10

Day Three opens with a second separation — not of waters above from waters below (that was Day Two), but of water from land. The verb is yiq·qā·wū ("let them be gathered"), a Niphal of qâvâh whose root is to bind, perhaps by twisting; Charles Ellicott, citing Gesenius, hears in it even "the condensation of water," while John Gill pictures the waters made "to flow as by a straight line, as the word... used signifies, unto the decreed place." The result is the appearing of hay·yab·bā·šāh, "the dry" — ground named purely by its new quality. Keil & Delitzsch guard the silence of the text on how this was done: "whether by the sinking or deepening of places in the body of the globe... or by the elevation of the solid ground, the record does not inform us, since it never describes the process by which effects are produced." In v. 10 God names the two halves of the globe — ’e·reṣ ("Earth") and the plural yam·mîm ("Seas"). Matthew Poole notices a telling detail: the verdict "it was good" is absent from Day Two and given only here, because the water-work "was begun on the second day... but not perfected till this third day." The first "good" of Day Three is the seal on a finished separation. (The textual seam at "one place," where the LXX read "gathering" — συναγωγήν — is noted by Cambridge and flagged in the apparatus.)

ii. The earth sprouts: life at the word — Genesis 1:11–12

The same day turns from geology to life. The command doubles its own roots for emphasis — taḏ·šê... de·še, "let the earth sprout sprouting," and maz·rî·a‘ ze·ra‘, "seeding seed." Charles Ellicott distinguishes the first stage, de·še, "not 'grass,' but a mere greenness, without visible seed or stalk," from the seed-herbs and fruit-trees that follow. Keil & Delitzsch insist the plants came not as germs but mature: "at the word of God not only tender grasses, but herbs, shrubs, and trees, sprang out of the earth, each ripe for the formation of blossom and the bearing of seed and fruit." Yet the manner was natural: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note "they were made to grow, and they grew as they do still out of the ground... sprouting up and flourishing in a single day." Over each order stands the refrain lə·mî·nōw, "according to its kind" — into which Albert Barnes reads a fixed-species claim: "In this little phrase the theory of one species being developed from another is denied." (We mark that as Barnes's inference drawn from mîyn, not as the bare meaning of the word.) In v. 12 the fulfillment outruns the fiat: the earth "brings forth" (yâtsâ’) even the herb "according to their kinds," a specification the command had left to the trees alone. The Geneva Study Bible hears in the earth's barrenness made fruitful a pure miracle of the word: "it is the only the power of God's word that makes the earth fruitful, which naturally is barren."

iii. "And God saw that it was good" — the doubled approval — Genesis 1:10, 1:12

Day Three is unique among the six in receiving the verdict "good" twice — once for the land-and-sea (v. 10), once for the vegetation (v. 12). Matthew Poole reads the recurring formula as deliberate theodicy: it is "so often added, to show that all the disorders, evil and hurtful qualities, that now are in the creatures, are not to be imputed to God, who made all of them good; but to man's sin." The Geneva gloss carries the same refrain forward through fall and restoration: the creatures "because of sin... were cursed, yet the elect, by Christ are restored." Matthew Henry gathers the whole movement into one line: "The earth was emptiness, but by a word spoken, it became full of God's riches, and his they are still." The third day fills what the second only began to order — and the double "good" measures the fullness.

iv. Evening and morning: the third day sealed — Genesis 1:13

The day closes with the unvarying formula: ‘e·reḇ ("evening / dusk") and ḇō·qer ("morning / dawn"), a merism bounding one complete day. The Masoretic scribes set a paragraph break (petuchah) after "third," sealing the unit. What that "day" measures is, candidly, the oldest open question in the chapter: John Gill takes it as "the space of twenty four hours," measured "either by the rotation of the body of light... around the earth, or of the earth upon its axis," and even canvasses the rival traditional dates for creation. The Pulpit Commentary simply refers the matter back to v. 5 ("For exposition vid. ver. 5"). The synthesis layer takes no side the text does not take; the word yôwm itself ranges, by Strong's own account, from a span "from one sunset to the next" to "a space of time defined by an associated term." The formula's real burden is rhythm — work, completion, rest of the verdict, and the close of a day — not chronometry.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

A fallible reading, offered to be tested (Sola Scriptura). Read on its own terms, Genesis 1:9–13 is the day creation turns generous. The first two days God divides — light from dark, waters from waters; but on the third He does something new: He makes the world fruitful, and He builds self-continuance into it. The grammar carries the theme. Three times the text doubles a root — the earth sprouts sprouting, the herb seeds seed, the tree fruits fruit — as if to say the gift is not a one-time deposit but a planted power that keeps giving. The refrain lᵉmînô ("after its kind") makes the same point from the other side: what God makes is stable, dependable, true to type, so that the world can be trusted to keep feeding what He will create on Days Five and Six. And here, for the only time in the week, "it was good" is spoken twice — the land good, the life good — as though Day Three is where bare order tips over into abundance. If this reading is right, the third day is a quiet portrait of how God gives: not grudgingly, not once, but with seed inside the fruit and fruit on the tree, a creation made to overflow. This is the tool's own synthesis and may be wrong; weigh it against the text.

On the third day God stops dividing and starts feeding — He plants the seed inside the fruit so the gift keeps giving itself. (An interpretive line from the synthesis layer, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

"Let the earth sprout": the rarest verb in the garden, re-spoken in Joel verbal / quotation — confirmed

The command of Genesis 1:11 — taḏ·šê... de·še, "let the earth sprout sprouting" — turns on the verb dâshâ’ (H1876), which occurs in only two verses of the entire Hebrew Bible. The other is Joel 2:22: "be not afraid... for the pastures of the wilderness do spring (dâshâ’), for the tree beareth her fruit." The Verifier confirms the pair shares not only this vanishingly rare verb but also ‘êṣ ("tree," H6086) and pᵉrî ("fruit," H6529) — the same cluster of creation-vocabulary. The rarity of dâshâ’ makes this a true verbal link, not a coincidence of common terms: Joel paints the renewal of a ruined land in the exact words of the world's first greening. Keil & Delitzsch independently cite Joel 2:22 (with 2 Samuel 23:4, Job 38:27, Psalm 23:2) as the witness for what de·še means — "the young, tender green, which shoots up after rain."

Genesis 1:11 · Joel 2:22

basis: shared rare lexeme H1876 dâshâ’ (in only 2 vv — Gen 1:11 and Joel 2:22) plus H6086 ʻêts and H6529 pᵉrî — Verifier-computed; rarity of dâshâ’ confirms a verbal link

The dry land appears: creation's separation re-enacted at the Red Sea structural / thematic — confirmed

Genesis 1:9 ends with hay·yab·bā·šāh appearing as the waters are bound into one place. That noun, yabbâshâh ("the dry [ground]," H3004), is uncommon — fourteen verses in all — and it clusters most densely at the Exodus crossing: "the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground" (Exodus 14:22, repeated 14:29, recalled in Exodus 15:19 and Nehemiah 9:11 and Psalm 66:6). The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes yabbâshâh and mayim ("waters"). The link is structural and typological, not a quotation: the redemption at the sea is told as a new creation — God again binds the waters and calls forth dry land for His people to walk on. The same hand that made a path through the deep in Genesis 1 makes one through the Red Sea.

Genesis 1:9 · Exodus 14:22 · Exodus 14:29 · Exodus 15:19

basis: shared lexemes H3004 yabbâshâh (uncommon, 14 vv) + H4325 mayim — Verifier-computed; waters-bound-and-dry-land-appears motif re-enacted, no quotation claim

"Who made the sea and the dry land": Jonah confesses the Creator of Day Three structural / thematic — confirmed

When the sailors demand Jonah's identity, he answers with the language of Genesis 1:9–10: "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land" (Jonah 1:9). The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes yabbâshâh ("dry land," H3004, 14 vv) and shâmayim ("heaven," H8064). Jonah's creed is built precisely on the two realms Day Three separated and named — sea and dry land — under the heaven of Day Two. The link is structural/thematic: not a citation but a confession that reaches back to the creative acts of this very unit, and a pointed irony, since the man who confesses the God of sea and dry land is fleeing across the one and will be cast into the other.

Genesis 1:9 · Jonah 1:9

basis: shared lexemes H3004 yabbâshâh (14 vv) + H8064 shâmayim — Verifier-computed; Jonah's creed echoes the sea/dry-land naming of Day Three, no quotation claim

"As the rain... as the showers upon the grass": the green of Day Three in Moses' song structural / thematic — confirmed

The first vegetation-word of Genesis 1:11, de·še ("tender green," H1877), with its companion ‘ê·śeḇ ("herb," H6212), reappears in Deuteronomy 32:2, where Moses likens his teaching to rain: "my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb (de·še), and as the showers upon the grass (‘ê·śeḇ)." The Verifier flags the pair as a verbal match on these two lexemes. We tier it cautiously, however: Deuteronomy 32:2 is a simile, not a citation of Genesis, and de·še (14 vv) is uncommon but not as rare as dâshâ’ (2 vv). The shared vocabulary is real and traceable; the relation is the reuse of Day-Three creation-imagery to picture the life-giving word — the same green the earth sprouted now standing for souls watered by instruction. The same word-pair recurs across the prophets and wisdom (Isaiah 37:27 / 2 Kings 19:26; Proverbs 27:25; 2 Samuel 23:4).

Genesis 1:11 · Deuteronomy 32:2 · Psalm 23:2

basis: shared lexemes H1877 desheʼ (14 vv) + H6212 ʻeseb (32 vv) — Verifier rates this "verbal"; downgraded here to structural/thematic because Deut 32:2 is a simile, not a citation, and desheʼ is uncommon rather than rare

Seed in itself, after its kind: the law of fixed kinds across the chapter structural / thematic — confirmed

Twice in this unit the phrase lə·mînô / lə·mînêhū ("according to its/their kind," from mîyn, H4327) governs the new life (Genesis 1:11, 1:12), with the self-propagating clause "whose seed is in itself." The same phrase then drives the rest of the creation week — the sea-creatures and birds (1:21), the land-animals (1:24), and the beasts, cattle, and creeping things (1:25), all made "after their kind." This is an internal structural thread: a single ordering principle, stated first of the plants on Day Three, becomes the refrain of the whole living creation. Albert Barnes reads the principle theologically — "like produces like... the 'kinds' or species are fixed, and do not run into one another" — and Matthew Poole finds in the seed-clause the means "sufficient in itself for the propagation of its kind, without any conjunction of male and female."

Genesis 1:11 · Genesis 1:12 · Genesis 1:21 · Genesis 1:24

basis: shared lexeme H4327 mîyn ("after its kind") recurring through Gen 1:11,12,21,24,25 — an internal structuring refrain of the creation account, not a quotation

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Seed in the fruit: the firstfruits of a new creation widely-held

Day Three plants the principle of seed — ze·ra‘ (H2233), "seed," sown in herb and fruit, "whose seed is in itself." The New Testament gathers up the seed-word and lets it run toward Christ. Paul reads the Genesis promise-line as fulfilled in one Seed: "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). And the resurrection itself is figured as the harvest of a planted seed: "Christ the firstfruits" (1 Corinthians 15:23), the buried grain that "if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The older expositors hear the creation-refrain already leaning this way; the Geneva Study Bible says the cursed creatures are, "by Christ... restored." The figure reads Day Three's seed-bearing life as a planted anticipation of the One who is sown in death and rises as firstfruits — and we mark it as a figural reading, not a claim that Genesis 1:11 names Christ.

Genesis 1:11 · Genesis 1:12 · John 12:24 · 1 Corinthians 15:23

Dry land out of the deep: the figure of resurrection and baptism ancient/widely-held

The ancient church read the binding of the waters and the appearing of the dry land (Genesis 1:9) as the first of a series of figures: God brings life out of the deep. The pattern recurs at the Flood (saved through water), at the Red Sea (Israel walking the dry land through the parted sea), and in the New Testament's reading of both — "baptism doth also now save us" (1 Peter 3:20–21), "our fathers were all... baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:1–2). As the threads above show, the very word yabbâshâh ("dry land") binds Genesis 1:9 to the Exodus crossing. The figure: the God who first called solid ground up out of the formless waters is the God who raises His people up out of the waters of death — in the sea, in the font, and finally in resurrection. This is a typological reading, attested early and widely; it does not assert that Genesis 1:9 quotes or predicts these texts.

Genesis 1:9 · Exodus 14:22 · 1 Corinthians 10:1 · 1 Peter 3:20

The good creation cursed and restored in Christ widely-held

The doubled "and God saw that it was good" of Day Three (vv. 10, 12) is read by the Reformation expositors through the arc of fall and redemption. Matthew Poole hangs the present "disorders, evil and hurtful qualities" not on the Creator but on "man's sin, which hath corrupted their nature, and perverted their use." The Geneva Study Bible completes the arc: the creatures "because of sin... were cursed, yet the elect, by Christ are restored, and serve to their wealth." The good creation of Day Three is thus read as the ground of a cosmic redemption — the creation that "groaneth and travaileth" awaiting "the manifestation of the sons of God" (Romans 8:19–22), to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption." The figure honors the "good" as original and the curse as intrusion, with Christ as the one who restores the good. We mark this as the widely-held Reformed reading drawn directly from the voices, not as the bare sense of the Hebrew.

Genesis 1:10 · Genesis 1:12 · Romans 8:19 · Romans 8:21

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

One thread is deliberately downgraded. The Verifier rates Genesis 1:11 ↔ Deuteronomy 32:2 as "verbal / quotation — confirmed" on the strength of two shared lexemes, de·še (H1877, 14 vv) and ‘ê·śeḇ (H6212, 32 vv). We have tiered it down to structural / thematic, exercising the rule to prefer under-claiming: Deuteronomy 32:2 is a simile ("as the small rain upon the tender herb"), not a citation of Genesis, and neither lexeme is rare enough on its own to force a quotation verdict. The shared vocabulary is genuine and worth recording; the relation is reuse of creation-imagery, not quotation. The contrast is instructive: the Joel 2:22 link (above) earns the verbal tier precisely because it rests on dâshâ’ (H1876), a verb found in only two verses of the whole Hebrew Bible.

A textual seam at "one place" (v. 9). The Hebrew reads mâqôwm ("place"), but the LXX read συναγωγήν ("gathering"), matching miqveh in v. 10. Cambridge notes the rarer word "was more likely to be altered in transcription into the common word... than vice versa," so the Greek may preserve the older reading. Our literal rendering keeps the Masoretic "place" and flags the variant rather than silently choosing.

Two unsettled questions left open. (1) How the dry land arose — by the sinking of the sea-beds or the rising of the land — is, as Keil & Delitzsch stress, simply not told: "the record... never describes the process by which effects are produced." Several voices (Ellicott, the Pulpit Commentary, Cambridge) supply nineteenth-century geology; we report their readings as their own, not as the text's. (2) The length of the "third day" (v. 13) is the oldest open question in the chapter; Gill reads twenty-four literal hours, while the word yôwm itself ranges, per Strong's, to "a space of time defined by an associated term." The synthesis layer takes no side the text does not take.

Typology held with restraint. The christ readings (the Seed, the dry land as resurrection/baptism, the good creation restored) are figural, drawn from the New Testament's own seed- and water-imagery and from the Reformation voices; they are marked widely-held or ancient/widely-held, never as claims that these Genesis verses directly name or predict Christ. The one cross-Testament thread we lean on (dry land → Exodus → baptism) is structural/typological by rule, since Greek↔Hebrew links cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)