66 Does the Mosaic Cosmogony 



for the words translated " Let the earth bring forth'''' are (ta- 

 deslie 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 plants and as used here in contradistinc- 

 tion to both herbs and trees bearing seeds, it is surely not recom- 

 mending 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 Deutero- 

 nomy 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 g7'ass (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 quo- 

 tations 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 

 examined, 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 oc- 

 curs, and by the Septuagint in some instances, desirable or beau- 

 t'l/iil 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. 



