Genesis 1:11-12

1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: ¹  plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, ²  and ³  trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so. 1:12 The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:29

1:29 Then God said, “I now ⁴  give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ⁵ 

Psalms 104:14-15

104:14 He provides grass ⁶  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ⁷ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ⁸ 

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ⁹ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ¹⁰ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 28:25-29

28:25 Once he has leveled its surface,

does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant,

sow the seed of the cumin plant,

and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places? ¹² 

28:26 His God instructs him;

he teaches him the principles of agriculture. ¹³ 

28:27 Certainly ¹⁴  caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed. ¹⁵ 

Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick,

and cumin seed with a flail.

28:28 Grain is crushed,

though one certainly does not thresh it forever.

The wheel of one’s wagon rolls over it,

but his horses do not crush it.

28:29 This also comes from the Lord who commands armies,

who gives supernatural guidance and imparts great wisdom. ¹⁶ 

[1:11]  ¹ tn The Hebrew construction employs a cognate accusative, where the nominal object (“vegetation”) derives from the verbal root employed. It stresses the abundant productivity that God created.

[1:11]  ² sn After their kinds. The Hebrew word translated “kind” (מִין, min) indicates again that God was concerned with defining and dividing time, space, and species. The point is that creation was with order, as opposed to chaos. And what God created and distinguished with boundaries was not to be confused (see Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:9-11).

[1:11]  ³ tn The conjunction “and” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation to clarify the relationship of the clauses.

[1:29]  ⁴ tn The text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh), often archaically translated “behold.” It is often used to express the dramatic present, the immediacy of an event – “Look, this is what I am doing!”

[1:29]  ⁵ sn G. J. Wenham (Genesis [WBC], 1:34) points out that there is nothing in the passage that prohibits the man and the woman from eating meat. He suggests that eating meat came after the fall. Gen 9:3 may then ratify the postfall practice of eating meat rather than inaugurate the practice, as is often understood.

[104:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

[104:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

[104:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

[104:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

[28:25]  ¹² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “place wheat [?], and barley [?], and grain in its territory.” The term שׂוֹרָה (shorah) is sometimes translated “[in] its place,” but the word is unattested elsewhere. It is probably due to dittography of the immediately following שְׂעֹרָה (sÿo’rah, “barley”). The meaning of נִסְמָן (nisman) is also uncertain. It may be due to dittography of the immediately following כֻסֶּמֶת (kussemet, “grain”).

[28:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “he teaches him the proper way, his God instructs him.”

[28:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB).

[28:27]  ¹⁵ sn Both of these seeds are too small to use the ordinary threshing techniques.

[28:29]  ¹⁶ sn Verses 23-29 emphasize that God possesses great wisdom and has established a natural order. Evidence of this can be seen in the way farmers utilize divinely imparted wisdom to grow and harvest crops. God’s dealings with his people will exhibit this same kind of wisdom and order. Judgment will be accomplished according to a divinely ordered timetable and, while severe enough, will not be excessive. Judgment must come, just as planting inevitably follows plowing. God will, as it were, thresh his people, but he will not crush them to the point where they will be of no use to him.