Psalms

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Psalm 8

1 For the music director, according to the gittith style; a psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth! You reveal your majesty in the heavens above.⁠ 2 From the mouths of children and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy.⁠ 3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made, and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, 4 Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them?⁠ Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them?⁠ 5 You made them a little less than the heavenly beings. You crowned mankind with honor and majesty.⁠ 6 you appoint them to rule over your creation; you have placed everything under their authority,⁠ 7 including all the sheep and cattle, as well as the wild animals,⁠ 8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that moves through the currents of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth!

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 2:20 and Psalm 8:7

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Genesis describes the creation of the animals of the land and air but not the water, contrasting with Psalm 8, which includes animals in the sea. The difference in Genesis may be deliberate, possibly to emphasize the search for a human partner.

Passages

Genesis 2:20

Hebrew Bible

19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Psalm 8:7

Hebrew Bible

5 You made them a little less than the heavenly beings. You crowned mankind with honor and majesty. 6 you appoint them to rule over your creation; you have placed everything under their authority, 7 including all the sheep and cattle, as well as the wild animals, 8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that moves through the currents of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth!

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... All human societies group organisms that share certain attributes into labeled taxa of varying degrees of specificity to form a classification system. Thus, a society will divide its entire plant or animal inventory into several primary level taxa (e.g., animals → mammals / fish / birds / invertebrates). These primary level taxa are subdivided into several, more exclusive secondary level taxa (e.g., invertebrates → insects / crustaceans / molluscs), some or all of which are subdivided into several, more exclusive tertiary level taxa (e.g., molluscs → clams / mussels / oysters), and so forth. The process of subdivision ends in a terminal level of specificity beyond which categoric distinctions are no longer made ... An Israelite who was looking at the world through the lens of the tripartite model would have seen it as an articulated totality – a single, broad, physical expanse having three sections. An Israelite who was looking at the world in this way would have seen and taken note of all three sections of the world. Thus, the land and its animals, the air and its animals, and the water and its animals would have all been situated in the foreground of the person’s perception of the world and their thoughts about it ..."

Richard Whitekettle, “The Case of the Missing Fish: Perception, Thought, and the Zoological/Physical Structure of the World in Ancient Israel,” SJOT 38.1 (2024): 25–47.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Genesis 2:20 and Psalm 8:7

Summary

Passages

Genesis 2:20

Psalm 8:7

References

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