the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Genesis 9:3
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Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; As the green herb I have given you all.
"Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants, but now I give you everything for food.
You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things:
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you.
And al thing which is moued and lyueth schal be to you in to mete; Y have youe to you alle thingis as greene wortis,
Every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food; as the green herb I have given to you the whole;
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten.
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you; just as I gave you green plants before, so now I give you everything —
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.
Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things.
Euery thyng that moueth it selfe, and that liueth, shall be meate for you, euen as the greene hearbe haue I geue you all thinges.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you: as the green herb I give you everything.
In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth—it is yours.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be for food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.
Euery mouing thing that liueth, shalbe meat for you; euen as the greene herbe haue I giuen you all things.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. I give all to you as I gave you the green plants.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
As for every moving thing that hath life, yours, shall it be, for food, - Like the green herb, have I given you all things.
Euery thing that moueth and liueth, shall be meate for you: as the greene herbe, haue I giuen you all things.
Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food.
And every thing that moveth, and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you:
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
And every reptile which is living shall be to you for meat, I have given all things to you as the green herbs.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.
Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you.
Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I have now given you everything.
Every creeping thing which is alive shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green plant.
All that moueth and hath life, be youre meate. Euen as the grene herbe, so haue I geue you all.
"Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green plant.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.
"Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.
Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; as with the green plant, I give all to you.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Every: Leviticus 11:1-47, Leviticus 22:8, Deuteronomy 12:15, Deuteronomy 14:3-21, Acts 10:12-15, 1 Timothy 4:3-5
even: Genesis 1:29, Genesis 1:30, Psalms 104:14, Psalms 104:15, Romans 14:3, Romans 14:14, Romans 14:17, Romans 14:20, 1 Corinthians 10:23, 1 Corinthians 10:25, 1 Corinthians 10:26, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 2:16, Colossians 2:21, Colossians 2:22, 1 Timothy 4:3, 1 Timothy 4:4
Reciprocal: Genesis 1:26 - have dominion Psalms 50:10 - every Jeremiah 27:5 - and have
Cross-References
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; I give you everything, as I gave you the green plants and vegetables.
"For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting; from every animal [that kills a person] I will require it. And from man, from every man's brother [that is, anyone who murders] I will require the life of man.
And God said, "This is the token (visible symbol, memorial) of the [solemn] covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations;
"It shall come about, when I bring clouds over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the clouds,
and I will [compassionately] remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again will the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he was uncovered and lay exposed inside his tent.
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw [by accident] the nakedness of his father, and [to his father's shame] told his two brothers outside.
So he said, "Cursed be Canaan [the son of Ham]; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers."
He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you,.... That is, every beast, fowl, and fish, without exception; for though there was a difference at this time of clean and unclean creatures with respect to sacrifice, yet not with respect to food; every creature of God was good then, as it is now, and it was left to man's reason and judgment what to make use of, as would be most conducive to his health, and agreeable to his taste: and though there was a distinction afterwards made under the Levitical dispensation among the Jews, who were forbid the use of some creatures; yet they themselves say k, that all unclean beasts will be clean in the world to come, in the times of the Messiah, as they were to the sons of Noah, and refer to this text in proof of it; the only exception in the text is, that they must be living creatures which are taken, and used for food; not such as die of themselves, or are torn to pieces by wild beasts, but such as are taken alive, and killed in a proper manner:
even as the green herb have I given you all things; as every green herb was given for meat to Adam originally, without any exception, Genesis 1:29 so every living creature, without exception, was given to Noah and his sons for food. Some think, and it is a general opinion, that this was a new grant, that man had no right before to eat flesh, nor did he; and it is certain it is not before expressed, but it may be included in the general grant of power and dominion over the creatures made to Adam; and since what is before observed is only a renewal of former grants, this may be considered in the same light; or otherwise the dominion over the creatures first granted to Adam will be reduced to a small matter, if he had no right nor power to kill and eat them; besides, in so large a space of time as 1600 years and upwards, the world must have been overstocked with creatures, if they were not used for such a purpose; nor will Abel's offering the firstling and fattest of his flock appear so praiseworthy, when it made no difference with him, if he ate not of them, whether they were fat or lean; and who will deny that there were peace offerings before the flood, which the offerer always ate of? to which may be added the luxury of men before the flood, who thereby were given to impure and carnal lusts; and our Lord expressly says of the men of that age, that they were "eating and drinking", living in a voluptuous manner, which can hardly be accounted for, if they lived only on herbs, see Luke 17:22 though it must be owned, that it was a common notion of poets and philosophers l, that men in the golden age, as they call it, did not eat flesh, but lived on herbs and fruit.
k In Bereshit Rabba, apud Ainsworth in loc. l Pythagoras, apud Ovid. Metamorph. l. 15. Fab. 2. Porphyr. de abstinentia, l. 4. sect. 2.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- The Blessing of Noah
2. מורא môrā', “fear, reverence, awful deed.” חת chat, “dread, breaking of the courage.”
Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the Lord with burnt-offerings. In him, therefore, the race of man is to be begun anew. Accordingly, as at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to bless him. First. The grant of increase is the same as at first, but expressed in ampler terms. Second. Dominion over the other animals is renewed. But some reluctance on their part to yield obedience is intimated. “The fear and dread of you.” These terms give token of a master whose power is dreaded, rather than of a superior whose friendly protection is sought. “Into your hand are they given.” They are placed entirely at the disposal of man.
Genesis 9:3
The grant of sustenance is no longer confined to the vegetable, but extended to the animal kinds, with two solemn restrictions. This explains how fully the animals are handed over to the will of man. They were slain for sacrifice from the earliest times. Whether they were used for food before this time we are not informed. But now “every creeper that is alive” is granted for food. “Every creeper” is everything that moves with the body prone to the earth, and therefore in a creeping posture. This seems to describe the inferior animals in contradistinction to man, who walks erect. The phrase “that is alive” seems to exclude animals that have died a natural death from being used as food.
Genesis 9:4
The first restriction on the grant of animal food is thus expressed: “Flesh with its life, its blood, shall ye not eat.” The animal must be slain before any part of it is used for food. And as it lives so long as the blood flows in its veins, the life-blood must be drawn before its flesh may be eaten. The design of this restriction is to prevent the horrid cruelty of mutilating or cooking an animal while yet alive and capable of suffering pain. The draining of the blood from the body is an obvious occasion of death, and therefore the prohibition to eat the flesh with the blood of life is a needful restraint from savage cruelty. It is also intended, perhaps, to teach that the life of the animal, which is in the blood, belongs not to man, but to God himself, who gave it. He makes account of it for atonement in sacrifice; otherwise it is to be poured on the ground and covered with dust Leviticus 17:11-13.
Genesis 9:5-6
The second restriction guards human life. The shedding of human blood is sternly prohibited. “Your blood of your lives.” The blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the very life of your corporeal nature. “Will I require.” I, the Lord, will find the murderer out, and exact the penalty of his crime. The very beast that causes the death of man shall be slain. The suicide and the homicide are alike accountable to God for the shedding of man’s blood. The penalty of murder is here proclaimed - death for death. It is an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity. He that deprives another of any property is bound to make it good or to suffer the like loss.
The first law promulgated in Scripture was that between Creator and creature. If the creature refuse to the Creator the obedience due, he forfeits all the Creator has given him, and, therefore, his life. Hence, when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new development of that sin which was in him, and, being already condemned to the extreme penalty under the first transgression, had only a minor punishment annexed to his personal crime. And so it continued to be in the antediluvian world. No civil law is on record for the restriction of crime. Cain, indeed, feared the natural vengeance which his conscience told him his sin deserved. But it was not competent in equity for the private individual to undertake the enforcement of the penalties of natural law. So long as the law was between Creator and creature, God himself was not only the sole legislator, but the sole administrator of law.
The second law is that between creature and creature, which is here introduced on the occasion of giving permission to partake of animal food, as the first was published on that of granting the use of vegetable diet. In the former case, God is the administrator of the law, as he is the immediate and sovereign party in the legal compact. In the latter case, man is, by the express appointment of the Lord of all, constituted the executive agent. “By man shall his blood be shed.” Here, then, is the formal institution of civil government. Here the civil sword is committed to the charge of man. The judgment of death by the executioner is solemnly delegated to man in vindication of human life. This trust is conveyed in the most general terms. “By man.” The divine legislator does not name the sovereign, define his powers, or determine the law of succession. All these practical conditions of a stable government are left open questions.
The emphasis is laid solely on “man.” On man is impressively laid the obligation of instituting a civil constitution suited to his present fallen condition. On the nation as a body it is an incumbent duty to select the sovereign, to form the civil compact between prince and people, to settle the prerogative of the sovereign and the rights of the subjects, to fix the order of succession, to constitute the legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies, and to render due submission to the constituted authorities. And all these arrangements are to be made according to the principles of Scripture and the light of nature.
The reason why retribution is exacted in the case of man is here also given. “For in the image of God has he made man.” This points on the one hand to the function of the magistrate, and on the other to the claims of the violated law; and in both respects illustrates the meaning of being created in the image of God. Man resembles God in this, that he is a moral being, judging of right and wrong, endowed with reason and will, and capable of holding and exercising rights. Hence, he is in the first place competent to rule, and on his creation authorized to exercise a mild and moral sway over the inferior creatures. His capacity to govern even among his fellow-men is now recognized. The function of self-government in civil things is now conferred upon man. When duly called to the office, he is declared to be at liberty to discharge the part of a ruler among his fellow-men, and is entitled on the ground of this divine arrangement to claim the obedience of those who are under his sway. He must rule in the Lord, and they must obey in the Lord.
However, in the next place, man is capable of, and has been actually endowed with, rights of property in himself, his children, his industrial products, his purchases, his receipts in the way of gift, and his claims by covenant or promise. He can also recognize such rights in another. When, therefore, he is deprived of anything belonging to him, he is sensible of being wronged, and feels that the wrongdoer is bound to make reparation by giving back what he has taken away, or an equivalent in its place. This is the law of requital, which is the universal principle of justice between the wrongdoer and the wrong-sufferer. Hence, the blood of him who sheds blood is to be shed. And, in setting up a system of human government, the most natural and obvious case is given, according to the manner of Scripture, as a sample of the law by which punishment is to be inflicted on the transgressor in proportion to his crime. The case in point accordingly arises necessarily out of the permission to use animal food, which requires to be guarded on the one hand by a provision against cruelty to animals, and, on the other, by an enactment forbidding the taking away of human life, on the pain of death, by order of the civil magistrate. This case, then, turns out to be the most heinous crime which man can commit against his fellow-man, and strikingly exemplifies the great common principle of retributive justice.
The brute is not a moral being, and has, therefore, no proper rights in itself. Its blood may therefore be shed with impunity. Nevertheless, man, because he is a moral being, owes a certain negative duty to the brute animal, because it is capable of pain. He is not to inflict gratuitous or unnecessary suffering on a being susceptible of such torture. Hence, the propriety of the blood being shed before the flesh is used for food. Life, and therefore the sense of pain, is extinguished when the blood is withdrawn from the veins.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 9:3. Every moving thing - shall be meat — There is no positive evidence that animal food was ever used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind, and it has been continued to all his posterity ever since. It is not likely that this grant would have been now made if some extraordinary alteration had not taken place in the vegetable world, so as to render its productions less nutritive than they were before; and probably such a change in the constitution of man as to render a grosser and higher diet necessary. We may therefore safely infer that the earth was less productive after the flood than it was before, and that the human constitution was greatly impaired by the alterations which had taken place through the whole economy of nature. Morbid debility, induced by an often unfriendly state of the atmosphere, with sore and long-continued labour, would necessarily require a higher nutriment than vegetables could supply. That this was the case appears sufficiently clear from the grant of animal food, which, had it not been indispensably necessary, had not been made. That the constitution of man was then much altered appears in the greatly contracted lives of the postdiluvians; yet from the deluge to the day of Abraham the lives of several of the patriarchs amounted to some hundreds of years; but this was the effect of a peculiar providence, that the new world might be the more speedily repeopled.
