What Does Genesis 1:31 Mean?
And God saw all that he had made, and look, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.THE KEY
The final verdict names the whole creation as exceedingly good, after it is seen in its entirety.
THE MEANING
You exist within the whole that God sees and calls exceedingly good; that verdict includes embodied life and the world around you. Goodness belongs here to the fullness of what is made, not only to one isolated part.
THE ROOT
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
ט־ו־ב
Good, pleasant, beneficial; what is fit for well-being.
This root can name goodness as a quality and also what is good or beneficial. Here the verdict embraces everything made, so goodness describes the created whole, not just a single part.
ALSO GROWS
tuv: Goodness; what is good.
טוּב
This noun shows goodness as something present in the world to be seen, not only an abstract judgment.
tovah: A good thing, benefit, or welfare.
טוֹבָה
This branch gives goodness a concrete sense of benefit and well-being, widening the verdict beyond moral approval.
רָאָה
ra'ah
GROWS FROM
ר־א־ה
To see, perceive, or regard.
“saw” in this verse is ra'ah. The verse places seeing before the verdict: God perceives everything made and calls it good. This root also forms words for a seer and for appearance, joining the act of seeing with what comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: A seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
This branch names the one who perceives, echoing the verse’s full view of what has been made.
mar'eh: Appearance or sight.
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what is seen, linking the creation’s visible reality with the verdict spoken over it.
THE PATTERN
The created order is recognized as good in its parts and named exceedingly good when seen as a whole.
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God parted the light from the darkness.How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you make them all; the earth is full of your possessions.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.THE THREAD
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God parted the light from the darkness.The same Hebrew roots appear in both verses: רָאָה (ra’ah, “see or perceive”) and טוֹב (tov, “good or beneficial”). The earlier verdicts over parts of creation gather here into one judgment on everything made: exceedingly good.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us