Genesis 1:11

And God said, let the earth bring forth grass,.... Which had been impregnated by the Spirit of God that moved upon it when a fluid; and though now become dry land, it retained sufficient moisture in

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. Let the waters under the heaven ... i:e., which extended far and wide under the whole heavens.

Let the earth bring forth; the sense is: For the present let it afford matter, out of which I will make grass (as man’ s rib afforded matter, out of which God made woman); and for the future let it receive virtue or power of producing it out of that matter which I have made, and suited to that end. Grass; that which groweth of itself without seed or manuring, and is the food of beasts. The herb yielding seed, for the propagation of their several kinds, to wit, mature and perfect herbs, which alone yield seed. So afterwards God made man, not in the state of children, but of grown and perfect age. After his kind, i.e. according to the several kinds of fruits. Whose seed is in itself; now is by my constitution, and shall be for the future. In some part of itself, either in the root, or branch, or leaf, or bud, or fruit. The sense is, which is sufficient of itself for the propagation of its kind, without any conjunction of male and female.

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.Ver. 11,12. Let the earth bring forth, &c.] "Grass for the cattle, and herb for the use of man" and both these before either man or beast were created. He made meat before mouths. He fills for us two bottles of milk before we come into the world. Herbs and other creatures we have still to eat and to enjoy. Our land flows not with "milk" only, for necessity; but with "honey" too, for delight. Nature, amidst all, is content with a little; grace, with less. Sing we merrily with him Hoc mihi pro certo, quod vitam qui dedit, idem Et velit et possit suppeditare eibum. This to me, for certain, because he who gave life, the same And he wishes and is able to supply needs. Georg. Farbric. Chemnicensis

(11) Let the earth bring forth grass.—This is the second creative act. The first was the calling of matter into existence, which, by the operation of mechanical and chemical laws, imposed upon it by the Creator, was arranged and digested into a cosmos, that is, an orderly and harmonious whole. These laws are now and ever in perpetual activity, but no secondary or derived agency can either add one atom to the world-mass or diminish aught from it. The second creative act was the introduction of life, first vegetable, and then animal; and for this nothing less than an Almighty power would suffice. Three stages of it are enumerated. 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, and which, when examined by the microscope, is found to consist of a growth of plants of a minute and mean type. But all endogenous plants belong to this class, and are but the development of this primary greenness. Far higher in the scale are the seed-bearing plants which follow, among which the most important are the cerealia; while in the third class, vegetation reaches its highest development in the tree with woody stem, and the seed enclosed in an edible covering. Geologists inform us that cryptogamous plants, which were the higher forms of the first class, prevailed almost exclusively till the end of the carbonaceous period; but even independently of this evidence we could scarcely suppose that fruit-trees came into existence before the sun shone upon the earth; while the cerealia are found only in surface deposits in connection with vestiges of man. Vegetation, therefore, did not reach its perfection until the sixth day, when animals were created which needed these seeds and fruits for their food. But so far from there being anything in the creative record to require us to believe that the development of vegetation was not gradual, it is absolutely described as being so; and with that first streak of green God gave also the law of vegetation, and under His fostering hand all in due time came to pass which that first bestowal of vegetable life contained. It is the constant rule of Holy Scripture to include in a narrative the ultimate as well as the immediate results of an act; and moreover, in the record of these creative days we are told what on each day was new, while the continuance of all that preceded is understood. The dry land called into existence on the third day was not dry enough to be the abode of terrestrial animals till the sixth day, and not till then would it bear such vegetation as requires a dry soil; and the evidence of geology shows that the atmosphere, created on the second day. was not sufficiently free from carbonic acid and other vapours to be fit for animals to breathe, until long ages of rank vegetation had changed these gases into coal.

Verse 11. Let the earth bring forth grass -- herb -- fruit-tree, c.] In these general expressions all kinds of vegetable productions are included. Fruit-tree is not to be understood here in the restricted sense in which the term is used among us it signifies all trees, not only those which bear fruit, which may be applied to the use of men and cattle, but also those which had the power of propagating themselves by seeds, &c. Now as God delights to manifest himself in the little as well as in the great, he has shown his consummate wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation. Who can account for, or comprehend, the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibres, the bark, the rind, the air-vessels, the sap-vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, are so many mysteries. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels could not produce a single grain of wheat: A serious and reflecting mind can see the grandeur of God, not only in the immense cedars on Lebanon, but also in the endlessly varied forests that appear through the microscope in the mould of cheese, stale paste, &c., &c.

11. Let the earth … grass] The creation of the vegetable world follows naturally and logically upon the emergence of the earth out of the waters. The most common and beautiful thing in nature, in the East, is the instantaneous appearance of fresh green blade and shoot, after the rain has fallen upon some parched and apparently lifeless soil. This phenomenon suitably marks the commencement of organic life in the Hebrew cosmogony. It is doubtful whether we should distinguish in this verse three, or two, types of vegetation. Assuming that the former is to be preferred, we may distinguish (1) the grasses, (2) the herbs, (3) the trees. According to another view, the main class of vegetation (“grass”) is described under two heads, (1) the herbs, (2) the fruit-trees. This classification of the vegetable world into three (or two) orders marks the beginnings of what we call botany. The “herb” and the “fruit-tree” are described in popular language, according to the mode of their propagation by seed or fruit. after its kind] The word is collective, and the phrase means according to their various species. Cf. Genesis 1:21; Genesis 1:25; Genesis 6:20 (P). We should notice the emphasis that is here laid upon the fact that both the main orders of the vegetable kingdom and their subdivisions have their origin in the Divine command. The food of the Oriental is almost entirely vegetable.

11. Let… earth bring forth grass — In explaining this entire narrative as a supernatural preparation of the soil, climate, and vegetation of the region where the first man appeared, we do not go