What Does Genesis 7:14 Mean?
They, and every living thing after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the ground after its kind, and every winged one after its kind, every bird, every wing.
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
They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls a beast “a living one,” gathering life in many forms without flattening its kinds into sameness.
THE MEANING
Life is held together in its variety: beasts, cattle, ground-crawlers, and winged creatures each remain according to their kind. The line holds both each creature and its particular way of moving, from what crawls close to the ground to every wing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging requires sameness. Here, distinct kinds are held together without losing their differences.
THE ROOT
חַיָּה
chayyah
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive.
“living thing” in this verse is chayyah. “Beast” is חַיָּה (chayyah), a living creature. The Hebrew keeps each animal within the larger reality of life, even as it names the kinds separately.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living, alive.
חַי
The same root names the state shared by every creature gathered here.
chayyim: Life, living.
חַיִּים
This form makes clear that the word for an animal belongs to the same word-family as life itself.
רֶמֶשׂ הָרֹמֵשׂ
remes haromes
GROWS FROM
רמש
To creep or move low along the ground.
“creeps upon the ground” in this verse is remes haromes. The creature and its movement repeat the same root: רֶמֶשׂ הָרֹמֵשׂ (remes haromes), “the crawler that crawls.” The wording holds the living thing together with the movement that marks its kind.
ALSO GROWS
remes: A creeping or crawling creature.
רֶמֶשׂ
This is the creature named in the verse.
romes: Creeping, crawling.
רֹמֵשׂ
This participle uses the same root to name the creature’s motion.
כָּנָף
kanaph
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; also an edge or extremity.
The closing phrase is literally “every bird, every wing.” כָּנָף (kanaph) can name a wing and an outer edge, so the wording gives the range of winged life a sense of breadth.
ALSO GROWS
kanaph: Wing.
כָּנָף
The verse gathers every winged form into its account of living kinds.
kenafot: Edges or corners, as of a garment.
כְּנָפוֹת
The same noun can describe the outermost parts, echoing the verse’s sweep across every winged form.
THE PATTERN
Life is gathered across its varieties while each kind retains its distinction.
And God said, "Let the earth bring out living soul after its kind, cattle, creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind." And it was so.Not all flesh is the same flesh; but there is one flesh of humans, another flesh of the herd, another flesh of the winged, and another of fish.Every living thing, every creeping thing, and every bird, and whatever creeps upon the earth, by their families, went out of the ark.THE THREAD
And God said, "Let the earth bring out living soul after its kind, cattle, creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind." And it was so.“Beast” here and “living creature” in Genesis 1:24 use חַיָּה (chayyah), from חיה (ch-y-h, to live). The same word-family places each distinct kind within the shared reality of living.
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