Genesis 9:3
in Genesis 9Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.
KJV
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
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This verse in Genesis 9
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them.
This site's exposition
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
on Genesis 9:1-3
The blessing of 1:28 is spoken again over Noah, and two things have changed. The words about subduing the earth and ruling the creatures are gone, and in their place the fear and dread of man falls on every living creature. Everything that lives and moves is now food, where 1:29 gave only the green plants. Man eats meat from here on.
This site's exposition
I now give you all things
Irenaeus held that mankind ate no meat before the flood. Now everything that lives and moves is food, clean and unclean alike. Matthew Henry sets beside this that every creature God made is good, citing 1 Timothy 4.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Lo! I have given you all things as the green herb to eat, but flesh in the blood thereof shall ye not eat; meaning this: Lately I interdicted you from eating many things, but now I permit you to eat of all things, and to …
Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank, seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge, as Moses also affirms: "The people ate and drank, and rose up to play." And again: "Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was beloved kicked: he waxed fat, he grew thick, he was enlarged, and he forsook God who had made him." For it was told you by Moses in the book of Genesis, that God granted to Noah, being a just man, to eat of every animal, but not of flesh with the blood, which is dead. And as he was ready to say, "as the green herbs," I anticipated him: "Why do you not receive this statement, 'as the green herbs,' in the sense in which it was given by God, to wit, that just as God has granted the herbs for sustenance to man, even so has He given the animals for the diet of flesh? But, you say, a distinction was laid down thereafter to Noah, because we do not eat certain herbs. As you interpret it, the thing is incredible. And first I shall not occupy myself with this, though able to say and to hold that every vegetable is food, and fit to be eaten. But although we discriminate between green herbs, not eating all, we refrain from eating some, not because they are common or unclean, but because they are bitter, or deadly, or thorny. But we lay hands on and take of all herbs which are sweet, very nourishing and good, whether they are marine or land plants. Thus also God by the mouth of Moses commanded you to abstain from unclean and improper and violent animals: when, moreover, though you were eating manna in the desert, and were seeing all those wondrous acts wrought for you by God, you made and worshipped the golden calf. Hence he cries continually, and justly, 'They are foolish children, in whom is no faith.'"
And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
(2.) That every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, 1 Tim. iv. Afterwards some meats that were proper enough for food were prohibited by the ceremonial law; but from the beginning, it seems, it was not so, and therefore is not so under the gospel.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you--The third part concerns the means of sustaining life; man was for the first time, it would seem, allowed the use of animal food, but the grant was accompanied with one restriction.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| רֶ֙מֶשׂ֙ | remes | creeping thing | H7431 → | 17 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| הוּא־ | hu'- | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| חַ֔י | chai | [is] alive | H2416 → | 498 times |
| לָכֶ֥ם | lakhem | for <the> you | ||
| יִהְיֶ֖ה | yihyeh | it will become | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לְאָכְלָ֑ה | leokhlah | <into> food | H402 → | 18 times |
| כְּיֶ֣רֶק | keyerek | like [the] greenery of | H3418 → | |
| עֵ֔שֶׂב | ʾesev | plant[s] | H6212 → | 33 times |
| נָתַ֥תִּי | natati | I give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לָכֶ֖ם | lakhem | to <the> you | ||
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כֹּֽל׃ | kol | everything | H3605 → | 5413 times |
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
רֶ֙מֶשׂ֙creeping thing
remesH7431 →17 times
אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
הוּא־it
hu'-H1931 →1879 times
חַ֔י[is] alive
chaiH2416 →498 times
לָכֶ֥םfor <the> you
lakhem
יִהְיֶ֖הit will become
yihyehH1961 →3559 times
לְאָכְלָ֑ה<into> food
leokhlahH402 →18 times
כְּיֶ֣רֶקlike [the] greenery of
keyerekH3418 →
עֵ֔שֶׂבplant[s]
ʾesevH6212 →33 times
נָתַ֥תִּיI give
natatiH5414 →2011 times
לָכֶ֖םto <the> you
lakhem
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
כֹּֽל׃everything
kolH3605 →5413 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 10:31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.
it leads to
- Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
- Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men,
- 1 Peter 4:11
If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through…
- Deuteronomy 12:7
There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
- Deuteronomy 12:18
Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within…
- Colossians 3:17
Through
Romans 14:14I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
it leads to
- Titus 1:15
To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
- 1 Timothy 4:4
For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,
- Romans 14:2
For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables.
- Titus 1:15
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies6
About Genesis
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 2; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 5; Irenaeus, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Section 22; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter XX and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.