Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
3. Every moving thing ] P assumes here that all animals are capable of furnishing food for man, and that there is no distinction between “clean” and “unclean” in the pre-Mosaic dispensation.
as the green herb ] See note on Gen 1:30. As, at the Creation, God said of the whole vegetable world, that it should be man’s food (“to you it shall be for meat,” Gen 1:29), so, now, He declares that the whole animal world shall be food for man. As He gave the vegetable, so now He gives the animal, life to man. But this gift is accompanied with two prohibitions.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Every moving thing which is wholesome and fit for food, and clean; an exception to be gathered both from the nature of the thing, and from the distinction of clean and unclean beasts, mentioned before and afterwards.
That liveth. This is added to exclude the use of those creatures which either died of themselves, or were killed by wild beasts, which is here forbidden implicitly, and afterwards expressly. See Exo 22:31; Lev 22:8.
Shall be meat for you: it is not a command that we must, but a permission that we may eat of them. A grant possibly given before the flood, but now expressed, either because the former allowance might seem to be forfeited, or because as men now grew more infirm and needed better nourishment, so the earth was grown more feeble by the flood, and its fruits yielded less and worse nourishment.
I have given you all things: understand this with the limitation above-mentioned. The green herbs were given before, Gen 1:29.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Every moving thing that livethshall be meat for youThe third part concerns the means ofsustaining life; man was for the first time, it would seem, allowedthe use of animal food, but the grant was accompanied with onerestriction.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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, Ge 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 Lu 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green of the herb have I given you all ( = ).” These words do not affirm that man then first began to eat animal food, but only that God then for the first time authorized, or allowed him to do, what probably he had previously done in opposition to His will. “ Only flesh in its soul, its blood ( in apposition to ), shall ye not eat; ” i.e., flesh in which there is still blood, because the soul of the animal is in the blood. The prohibition applies to the eating of flesh with blood in it, whether of living animals, as is the barbarous custom in Abyssinia, or of slaughtered animals from which the blood has not been properly drained at death. This prohibition presented, on the one hand, a safeguard against harshness and cruelty; and contained, on the other, “an undoubted reference to the sacrifice of animals, which was afterwards made the subject of command, and in which it was the blood especially that was offered, as the seat and soul of life (see note on Lev 17:11, Lev 17:14); so that from this point of view sacrifice denotes the surrender of one’s own inmost life, of the very essence of life, to God” ( Ziegler). Allusion is made to the first again in the still further limitation given in Gen 9:5: “ and only ( ) your blood, with regard to your souls ( indicative of reference to an individual object, Ewald, 310 a), will I seek (demand or avenge, cf. Psa 9:13) from the hand of every beast, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every one, his brother; ” i.e., from every man, whoever he may be, because he is his (the slain man’s) brother, inasmuch as all men are brethren. The life of man was thus made secure against animals as well as men. God would avenge or inflict punishment for every murder, – not directly, however, as He promised to do in the case of Cain, but indirectly by giving the command, “ Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, ” and thus placing in the hand of man His own judicial power. “This was the first command,” says Luther, “having reference to the temporal sword. By these words temporal government was established, and the sword placed in its hand by God.” It is true the punishment of the murderer is enjoined upon “man” universally; but as all the judicial relations and ordinances of the increasing race were rooted in those of the family, and grew by a natural process out of that, the family relations furnished of themselves the norm for the closer definition of the expression “man.” Hence the command does not sanction revenge, but lays the foundation for the judicial rights of the divinely appointed “powers that be” (Rom 13:1). This is evident from the reason appended: “ for in the image of God made He man.” If murder was to be punished with death because it destroyed the image of God in man, it is evident that the infliction of the punishment was not to be left to the caprice of individuals, but belonged to those alone who represent the authority and majesty of God, i.e., the divinely appointed rulers, who for that very reason are called Elohim in Psa 82:6. This command then laid the foundation for all civil government,
(Note: Hic igitur fons est, ex quo manat totum just civile et just gentium. Nam si Deus concedit homini potestatem super vitam et mortem, profecto etiam concedit potestatem super id, quod minus est, ut sunt fortunae, familia, uxor, liberi, servi, agri; Haec omnia vult certorum hominum potestati esse obnoxia Deus, ut reos puniant. Luther.)
and formed a necessary complement to that unalterable continuance of the order of nature which had been promised to the human race for its further development. If God on account of the innate sinfulness of man would no more bring an exterminating judgment upon the earthly creation, it was necessary that by commands and authorities He should erect a barrier against the supremacy of evil, and thus lay the foundation for a well-ordered civil development of humanity, in accordance with the words of the blessing, which are repeated in Gen 9:7, as showing the intention and goal of this new historical beginning.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. The Lord proceeds further, and grants animals for food to men, that they may eat their flesh. And because Moses now first relates that this right was given to men, nearly all commentators infer, that it was not lawful for man to eat flesh before the deluge, but that the natural fruits of the earth were his only food. But the argument is not sufficiently firm. For I hold to this principle; that God here does not bestow on men more than he had previously given, but only restores what had been taken away, that they might again enter on the possession of those good things from which they had been excluded. For since they had before offered sacrifices to God, and were also permitted to kill wild beasts, from the hides and skins of which, they might make for themselves garments and tents, I do not see what obligation should prevent them from the eating of flesh. But since it is of little consequence what opinion is held, I affirm nothing on the subject. (286) This ought justly to be deemed by us of greater importance, that to eat the flesh of animals is granted to us by the kindness of God; that we do not seize upon what our appetite desires, as robbers do, nor yet tyrannically shed the innocent blood of cattle; but that we only take what is offered to us by the hand of the Lord. We have heard what Paul says, that we are at liberty to eat what we please, only we do it with the assurance of conscience, but that he who imagines anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, (Rom 14:14.) And whence has this happened to man, that he should eat whatever food he pleased before God, with a tranquil mind, and not with unbridled license, except from his knowing, that it has been divinely delivered into his hand by the right of donation? Wherefore, (the same Paul being witness,) the word of God sanctifies the creatures, that we may purely and lawfully feed on them, (1Ti 4:5.) Let the adage be utterly rejected which says, ‘that no one can feed and refresh his body with a morsel of bread, without, at the same time, defiling his soul.’ Therefore it is not to be doubted, that the Lord designed to confirm our faith, when he expressly declares by Moses, that he gave to man the free use of flesh, so that we might not eat it with a doubtful and trembling conscience. At the same time, however, he invites us to thanksgiving. On this account also, Paul adds “prayer” to the “word,” in defining the method of sanctification in the passage recently cited.
And now we must firmly retain the liberty given us by the Lord, which he designed to be recorded as on public tables. For, by this word, he addresses all the posterity of Noah, and renders this gift common to all ages. And why is this done, but that the faithful may boldly assert their right to that which, they know, has proceeded from God as its Author? For it is an insupportable tyranny, when God, the Creator of all things, has laid open to us the earth and the air, in order that we may thence take food as from his storehouse, for these to be shut up from us by mortal man, who is not able to create even a snail or a fly. I do not speak of external prohibition; (287) but I assert, that atrocious injury is done to God, when we give such license to men as to allow them to pronounce that unlawful which God designs to be lawful, and to bind consciences which the word of God sets free, with their fictitious laws. The fact that God prohibited his ancient people from the use of unclean animals, seeing that exception was but temporary, is here passed over by Moses.
(286) The question which Calvin here dismisses as one of little importance has, in modern controversy, assumed a very different position; and most commentators have come to a decision, the reverse of that to which he inclines. His arguments appears chargeable with the want of firmness, which he imputes to others. The inference that the flesh of sacrifices was eaten, since otherwise it must have been wasted, is of no force, if we suppose the first sacrifices to have been all holocausts, or whole burnt offering unto the Lord. The garments or tents referred to as made from the skins of animals were, in all probability, those of the very animals which were thus sacrificed; so that there is no reason hence to conclude, that flesh was eaten before the deluge. But let the reader refer to Magee on the Atonement, Dissertation, No.li2 — Ed.
(287) By external prohibition, is probably meant such as might be enjoined by the magistrate during a time of scarcity, or for any purely civil purpose. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. Meat for you Animal food is here granted to man . It may have been used before, but is now for the first time expressly permitted . Man is permitted freely to eat whatever he desires in the vegetable and animal creation .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Liveth; that is, fit for food, 1Ti 4:4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Ver. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. ] God of his goodness grants here to mankind, after the flood, the use of flesh and wine, that the new and much weakened world might have new and more strengthening nourishment. For it is not to be doubted but that, by the deluge, a great decay was wrought both in the earth with its fruits, and also in man’s nature. Various ridges and scars, as it were, of God’s wrath and malediction abided and appeared in the earth. Sundry maladies also and infirmities befell man’s body, not felt before the flood. God therefore in great mercy provides, penum quoddam et pharmacopolium mundo senescenti , a new food and physic for the languishing world. “Every moving thing that liveth,” &c., only, that as the green herb have I given you all things; that is, as you may use them as freely as you used to do herbs, so you must use them soberly, and without curiosity; taking such things as are at hand, and eating to live, not living to eat, as the rich glutton, that fared deliciously every day: –
“ Ingluvies, et tempestas, barathrumque macelli .” – Horat.
a Flac. Illyric .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Every . . . all. Figure of speech Epanadiplosis (App-6), for emphasis. Same word in Hebrew.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Every: Lev 11:1-47, Lev 22:8, Deu 12:15, Deu 14:3-21, Act 10:12-15, 1Ti 4:3-5
even: Gen 1:29, Gen 1:30, Psa 104:14, Psa 104:15, Rom 14:3, Rom 14:14, Rom 14:17, Rom 14:20, 1Co 10:23, 1Co 10:25, 1Co 10:26, 1Co 10:31, Col 2:16, Col 2:21, Col 2:22, 1Ti 4:3, 1Ti 4:4
Reciprocal: Gen 1:26 – have dominion Psa 50:10 – every Jer 27:5 – and have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 9:3. Every moving thing Which is wholesome and fit for food, shall be meat for you: That liveth This may be added to exclude the use of those creatures which died of themselves, or were killed by wild beasts. These, which were afterward expressly forbidden to be eaten, (see Exo 22:31, Lev 22:8,) may here be forbidden implicitly. Hitherto man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the earth, fruits, herbs, and roots, and all sorts of corn and milk; such was the first grant, Gen 1:29. But the flood having perhaps washed away much of the virtue of the earth, and so rendered its fruits less pleasing, and less nourishing, God now enlarged the grant, and allowed man to eat flesh, which perhaps man himself never thought of till now. The Jewish doctors speak so often of the seven precepts of Noah, which they say were to be observed by all nations, that it may not be amiss to set them down here.
The first was against the worship of idols: the second against blasphemy; and requires to bless the name of God: the third against murder: the fourth against incest and all uncleanness: the fifth against theft and rapine: the sixth required the administration of justice: the seventh was against eating flesh with life. The Jews required the observation of these from the proselytes of the gate. But the precepts here given, all concern the life of man. Man must not prejudice his own life by eating that food which is unwholesome and prejudicial to his health.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:3 Every {c} moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
(c) By this permission man may with a good conscience use the creatures of God for his needs.