Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
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.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Vs.20-23
....admires the Creator's wisdom and power as much
in an ant as in an elephant....
Let the waters bring forth abundantly - There
is a meaning in these words which is seldom noticed. Innumerable
millions of animalcula are found in water. Eminent naturalists have
discovered not less than 30,000 in a single drop! How inconceivably
small must each be, and yet each a perfect animal, furnished with the
whole apparatus of bones, muscles, nerves, heart, arteries, veins,
lungs, etc., etc. What a proof is
this of the manifold wisdom of God!
And God created great whales - הגדלים התנינם hattanninim haggedolim
. Though this is generally understood by the different versions as
signifying whales, yet the original must be understood rather as a
general than a particular term, comprising all the great aquatic
animals, such as the various species of whales, the porpoise, the
dolphin.
Let fowl multiply in the earth - It is
truly astonishing with what care, wisdom, and minute skill God has
formed the different genera and species of birds, whether intended to
live chiefly on land or in water.
God blessed them, saying, Be
fruitful and multiply - God will bless his own works, and not forsake
them; and what he does shall be for a perpetuity, Eccl. 3:14.
---We have the thoughts that soar like fowl in the open firmament of
heaven,
---and other thoughts that dive into the mysteries of God, as the
fish dive in the sea,
and these are after-development, after-growths of
that same power which at the first said, “Let there be light.”