Genesis 1:31

Hebrew Bible

29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so. 31 God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Onkelos Genesis 1:31

Targum

29 The Lord said, “Behold, I have given you every plant upon all the earth whose seed can be sown, and every tree that has fruit whose seed can be sown. They Shall be yours to eat. 30 To all the beasts of the earth, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that crawls on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants to eat.” And this was so. 31 The Lord saw all that He had made, and found it well established. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

 Notes and References

"... Onkelos explains the biblical 'very good.' The created world was not simply pleasing: it was firmly established. Nachmanides reads more into the Targum than is warranted when he interprets the targumic words to mean that despite the fact that evil would exist, the world was so ordered that even evil would be necessary for the preservation of the 'good,' and that even death and the evil inclination would provide benefits. Sforno suggests that Scripture's 'very good' signifies that the end result of creation far exceeds the results of each part of it, which were only described as 'good.' Maimonides tells us that God did not create evil; evil is a human creation. 'Very good,' according to Maimonides, means the creation fitted its purpose and would never change or cease being, for the laws of nature were permanently fixed ..."

Drazin, Israel, and Stanley M. Wagner Onkelos on the Torah, Genesis: Understanding the Bible Text (p. 9) Gefen, 2006

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