Bible Strands
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind.” And it was so.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God issues a command to the earth to produce vegetation following the separation of dry land and seas. This directive occurs during the third creative act, establishing the physical environment for subsequent life.
The words — The Hebrew verb תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤א (tad.She') commands the ground to "let it sprout," while the noun דֶּ֔שֶׁא (De.she') specifies the resulting "vegetation." These terms frame the immediate production of seed-bearing plants and fruit trees.
The thread — The pattern of God commanding the earth to yield crops appears in Psalms 104:14 and Psalms 147:8, where soil and rain produce grass and provisions. Hebrews 6:7 applies this same agricultural imagery to describe land that yields a useful harvest through divine favor.
Why it lands — The text records God’s spoken command and the earth’s direct compliance without elaboration. A reader must acknowledge that biological order originates from divine instruction rather than autonomous natural processes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Cross-references
- Psalms 104:14 He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
- Hebrews 6:7 For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.
- Psalms 147:8 who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
- Genesis 1:29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food.
- Psalms 65:9 You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.
- Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- Matthew 6:30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
- Job 28:5 Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- Matthew 7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
- Mark 4:28 All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within.