Genesis 1:20

Genesis 1:20, in plain English

God commands the waters to teem with living creatures and the sky to be filled with birds. Now life itself—moving, active, conscious life—begins to populate creation.

Why it's here

The order is important: sky and land structures first, now the creatures that will inhabit them. Each realm is prepared before it's filled. This shows forethought and design. For your readers, this would suggest that God prepares the way for what matters most (life, and eventually, humans).

Who's speaking

The narrator describing God's command for animals

Where it sits in the story

We're approaching humans now, but notice that plants and animals come first. We're not the center of the universe; we're part of a much larger creation that matters in itself. Our role is to be stewards of all this, not owners. This perspective is crucial for how we understand our place in God's design.

The scholarly reading

God commands the waters to teem with creatures and the sky to be filled with birds—delegating to the waters and sky the generative capacity to produce animal life.

Language and setting

The שָׁרַץ (shorets), rendered 'teem,' suggests swarming profusion—not sparse life but abundant, exuberant vitality. As with vegetation on day three, God grants to water and sky their own generative capacity: 'Let the waters teem with living creatures' (יִשְׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם שֶׁרֶץ, yishrots-u ha-mayim sheret). The specification of 'birds' (עוֹף, of) alongside water-creatures is notable—both are associated with the second element of creation (sky and water), suggesting a coherent logic: the creatures populate the domains already prepared. The Hebrew נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (nefesh chayah), rendered 'living creatures,' literally means 'living souls'—introducing for the first time the concept that animals possess nephesh (life-force, vitality). This is theologically crucial: animals are not mere matter but possess animated existence, yet it remains distinct from human existence (which receives the divine image in verse 27).

Voice

The priestly narrator, extending the pattern of delegated creation to the animal kingdom.

Significance

The profusion of animal life demonstrates divine generosity and the inherent goodness of creation. In later biblical theology, animals are God's creatures with their own standing before Him (Job 38-41; Psalm 104); they are included in the covenant (Genesis 9:9-11; Isaiah 11:6-9). The abundant life in water and sky anticipates the eschatological vision of universal restoration where all creation will be redeemed.

18to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

19And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20And God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”

21So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters teemed according to their kinds, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

22Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

Read all of Genesis 1 — The story of everything starts here. Before there was anything — light, land, life — there was a voice speaking into the dark.