68: Does the Mosaic Cosmogony 



text. The first of these words is shereiz, 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 iiicrease, or to multiply abundant- 

 ly^ being the very verb which is rendered bring forth abundant- 

 ly 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 f' 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 f 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 mean- 

 ing 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 trans- 

 lation of the term is not foivl but flying things 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 ha- 

 gedolim)," which Hebrew wordp, our translators, following the 

 Septuagint, which has given for them rot xhth tx fAiyocXu,^ have 

 rendered great whales. We have abundant resources to shew 



