Genesis 1:25
וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּ וְאֶת־הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ וְאֵת כָּל־רֶמֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָה לְמִינֵהוּ וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֩ אֶת־חַיַּ֨ת הָאָ֜רֶץ לְמִינָ֗הּ וְאֶת־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ וְאֵ֛ת כָּל־רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃
καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ θηρία τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος καὶ τὰ κτήνη κατὰ γένος καὶ πάντα τὰ ἑρπετὰ τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος αὐτῶν· καὶ ἴδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλά.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et fecit Deus bestias terræ juxta species suas, et jumenta, et omne reptile terræ in genere suo. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum,
E hizo Dios animales de la tierra según su género, y ganado según su género, y todo animal que anda arrastrando sobre la tierra según su especie: y vió Dios que era bueno.
God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 1:25 narrates the making of the land animals in three groups — wild animals of the earth, livestock, and creeping things of the ground — each one "according to its kind," and closes with the formula of divine approval. Two narrative verb forms drive the sequence: "he made" and "he saw."
Key words
- i.Ya.'as ("he made", H6213) — qal verb in narrative form: "and then he made."
- chai.Yat ("[the] animal[s] of", H2416) — feminine noun in construct with "the earth."
- be.he.Mah ("livestock", H0929) — the domestic animal.
- Re.mes (" creeping thing of", H7431) — in construct with "the ground."
- mi.Na ("kind", H4327) — repeated three times, once per group.
What the text says
The verse opens with the narrative vav that chains the storyline: i.Ya.'as ("he made", H6213), a qal narrative form ("and then…"), has 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430) as its subject. Three direct objects follow, each introduced by the untranslated object marker 'et- (H0853): the animals of the earth, the livestock, and every creeping thing of the ground. Each group carries the kind-formula: the preposition le. ("to", H9005) plus mi.Na ("kind", H4327) with a possessive suffix.
Notably, the Hebrew uses two different words for the terrain here: 'A.retz ("earth", H0776) with the wild animals and 'a.da.Mah ("ground", H0127) with the creeping things. The closing — i.Yar' ("he saw", H7200) in narrative form, followed by ki- ("that", H3588) and Tov ("[it was] good", H2895) — repeats the approval formula. The morphology provided analyzes Tov here as a qal perfect verb — a completed action — rather than as an adjective.
Differences between versions
The LXX closes with ὅτι καλά, a plural form ("that they were good"), where the Hebrew has the singular Tov; the Vulgate renders "quod esset bonum" and the RV1909 "que era bueno," both singular. In the kind-formula, the LXX adds the possessive only to the third group (κατὰ γένος αὐτῶν), while the Hebrew carries a suffix on all three; in the Vulgate as provided, "jumenta" (the livestock) appears without a kind-phrase of its own. And where the Hebrew distinguishes 'A.retz and 'a.da.Mah, the LXX (γῆς), the Vulgate (terræ), and the RV1909 ("tierra") each use a single word for both terms.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.