And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Ver. 21. And God created great whales.] In creating whereof, creavit Deus vastitates et stupores. For, as Pliny a writes of them, when they swim and show themselves above water, they seem to be so many islands, an nare insulas putes and have been so esteemed by seafaring men, to their great danger and disadvantage. Into the rivers of Arabia, saith Pliny, b there have come whales 600 feet long, and 360 feet broad. This is "that leviathan" that plays in the sea, besides other "creeping" or moving "things innumerable". Psa 104:25 This one word of God's mouth, Fiat, hath made such infinite numbers of fishes, that their names may fill a dictionary. Philosophers tell us that whatsoever creature is upon the earth, there is the like thereof in the sea, yea, many that are nowhere else to be found; but with this difference, that those things that on the earth are hurtful, the like thereunto in the waters are hurtless, as eels, those water snakes, are without poison, &c., yea, they are wholesome and delicious food. Piscis comes of paseo; and in Hebrew the same word ברכה signifieth a pond or fishpool, and blessing. Many islands are maintained, and people fed by fish, besides the wealth of the sea. The ill-favoured oyster hath sometimes a bright pearl in it. In allusion whereunto "we have our treasure," that pearl of price, the gospel, saith Paul, οστραξινοις σξευασιν, "in oyster-shells". 2Co 4:7 And albeit now "every creature of God is good," and "to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe"; 1Ti 4:3-4 yet under the Law, those fish only were reputed clean that had fins and scales. Deu 14:9 So saith St. Bernard, c are those only clean in the sight of God, that have the scales of patience, and fins of cheerfulness. qui squamas et loricam habent patientiae, et pinnulas hilaritatis
And every winged fowl.] Birds were made of all Sour elements, yet have more of the earth. Gen 2:19 And therefore that they are so light, and do so delight in the air, it is so much the more marvellous. They sing not at all till they have taken up a stand to their mind; nor shall we praise God till content with our estate. They use not to sing when they are on the ground, but when got into the air, or on the tops of trees. Nor can we praise God aright, unless weanedly affected to the world. It was a good speech of heathen Epictetus, d Si luscinia essem, facerem quod luscinia. Cure autem homo rationalis sim, quid faciam? Laudabo Deum, nec cessabo unquam; vos vero, ut idem faciatis, hortor. But concerning the creation of birds, there is in Macrobius e a large dispute and disquisition, whether were first, the egg or the bird? And here reason cannot resolve it, since neither can the egg be produced without the bird, nor yet the bird without the egg. But now both Scripture and nature determine it, that all things were at first produced in their essential perfection.
a Pliny, l. ix. c. 3. - Ad quas nautae appellentes nonnunquam magnum incurrunt discrimen.
b Pliny, l. xxxii, c. 1. - Cur pisces vocat reptiles? Repere communiter dicuntur omnia αποδα, vel quae habent pedes breviores ut mures, &c.
c Bern., Serm. in Dei Sancti Andreae
d Epist. Enchirid
e Morneus, De Verit. Relig. c. 9.