Genesis 1:11

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים תַּֽדְשֵׁא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ־בוֹ עַל־הָאָרֶץ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤א הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ דֶּ֔שֶׁא עֵ֚שֶׂב מַזְרִ֣יעַ זֶ֔רַע עֵ֣ץ פְּרִ֞י עֹ֤שֶׂה פְּרִי֙ לְמִינ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר זַרְעוֹ־ב֖וֹ עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός Βλαστησάτω ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου, σπεῖρον σπέρμα κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ’ ὁμοιότητα, καὶ ξύλον κόρπιμον ποιοῦν καρπόν, οὗ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ κατὰ γένος εἰς ὁμοιότητα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· καὶ ἐγένετο οὕτως.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et ait: Germinet terra herbam virentem, et facientem semen, et lignum pomiferum faciens fructum juxta genus suum, cujus semen in semetipso sit super terram. Et factum est ita.

Spanish

Y dijo Dios: Produzca la tierra hierba verde, hierba que dé simiente; árbol de fruto que dé fruto según su género, que su simiente esté en él, sobre la tierra: y fué así.

English

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.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The third day continues with a command addressed to the earth itself: to sprout vegetation. The text distinguishes two types — seed-bearing plants and fruit trees whose seed sits inside the fruit, "according to its kind" — and closes with the formula "and it was so."

Key words

tad.She' ("let it sprout", H1876) — hiphil jussive.
De.she' ("vegetation", H1877) — the noun paired with the preceding verb.
maz.Ri.a' ("[which] bears seed", H2232) — hiphil participle.
Ze.ra' ("seed", H2233) — the key term of botanical continuity.
mi.N ("kind", H4327) — with suffix: "according to its kind."

What the text says

The command uses the jussive, the volitive form the morphology glosses as "let him…," here tagged feminine ("she") because the subject is 'A.retz ("earth", H0776), a feminine noun. The verb is hiphil, the causative conjugation: the earth is not merely the setting but the party ordered to cause sprouting. Verb and object share the same consonantal sequence (tad.She'… De.she'), a pairing of related terms also reflected in their adjacent lexicon numbers (H1876, H1877).

The vegetation unfolds in two categories. First: 'E.sev ("plant[s]", H6212), defined by the participle maz.Ri.a' ("[which] bears seed", H2232) — "the one doing," per the morphology. Second: 'etz ("tree[s] of", H6086) of pe.Ri ("fruit", H6529), described with another participle, 'O.seh ("producing", H6213). A clause with the relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834) specifies that its seed is "in it," upon the earth. The verse ends with the fulfillment formula built on y.hi- ("it was", H1961) and Khen ("so", H3651).

Differences between versions

The Septuagint applies "according to kind" to the plants as well and adds "according to likeness" (κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ' ὁμοιότητα), where the provided Hebrew text has "according to its kind" only after the fruit tree. The Vulgate renders "herbam virentem" ("green plant"): the nuance "green" does not correspond to a separate word in this verse's Hebrew word list. The BSB, for its part, distributes the phrase across both categories: "seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind."

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.