SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:24
¶ Y dijo Dios: Produzca la tierra alma viviente segn su naturaleza, bestias y serpientes, y animales de la tierra segn su naturaleza; y fue así.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Genesis 1:24
Verse 24. Let the earth bring forth the living creature, &c.] hyj pn nephesh chaiyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half-reasoning elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal life. The word wtyj chaitho, in the latter part of the verse, seems to signify all wild animals, as lions, tigers, &c., and especially such as are carnivorous, or live on flesh, in contradistinction from domestic animals, such as are graminivorous, or live on grass and other vegetables, and are capable of being tamed, and applied to domestic purposes. See on ver. 29. These latter are probably meant by hmhb behemah in the text, which we translate cattle, such as horses, kine, sheep, dogs, &c. Creeping thing, mr remes, all the different genera of serpents, worms, and such animals as have no feet. In beasts also God has shown his wondrous skill and power; in the vast elephant, or still more colossal mammoth or mastodon, the whole race of which appears to be extinct, a few skeletons only remaining. This animal, an astonishing effect of God's power, he seems to have produced merely to show what he could do, and after suffering a few of them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence, that they might not destroy both man and beast. The mammoth appears to have been a carnivorous animal, as the structure of the teeth proves, and of an immense size; from a considerable part of a skeleton which I have seen, it is computed that the animal to which it belonged must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length! The bones of one toe are entire; the toe upwards of three feet in length. But this skeleton might have belonged to the megalonyx, a kind of sloth, or bradypus, hitherto unknown. Few elephants have ever been found to exceed eleven feet in height. How wondrous are the works of God! But his skill and power are not less seen in the beautiful chevrotin, or tragulus, a creature of the antelope kind, the smallest of all bifid or cloven-footed animals, whose delicate limbs are scarcely so large as an ordinary goose quill; and also in the shrew mouse, perhaps the smallest of the many-toed quadrupeds. In the reptile kind we see also the same skill and power, not only in the immense snake called boa constrictor, the mortal foe and conqueror of the royal tiger, but also in the cobra de manille, a venomous serpent, only a little larger than a common sewing needle.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 20-25 - God commanded the fish and fowl to be produced. This command he himsel executed. Insects, which are more numerous than the birds and beasts and as curious, seem to have been part of this day's work. The Creator's wisdom and power are to be admired as much in an ant as in a elephant. The power of God's providence preserves all things, an fruitfulness is the effect of his blessing.
Original Hebrew
ויאמר 559 אלהים 430 תוצא 3318 הארץ 776 נפשׁ 5315 חיה 2416 למינה 4327 בהמה 929 ורמשׂ 7431 וחיתו 2416 ארץ 776 למינה 4327 ויהי 1961 כן׃ 3651
