Category
VERSES ABOUT NATURE
Think about this: God created everything. The earth, the sky, the whole world—it all belongs to Him. He made it all, just like Exodus 20:11 says: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." He created it all perfectly, and He deserves all the praise for the amazing things He's done.
You know, we should really stand in awe of God and give Him glory. The time is coming when He will judge the world, so let's worship the One who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
When you're out enjoying nature – at the beach, in the mountains, or just looking at a beautiful tree – remember who made it all so beautiful and perfect. Let's give God all the glory He deserves.
A righteous man takes care of his animal, but the wicked? Even his compassion is cruel.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”
You grow grass for the cattle; and for people you grow the plants they need to bring forth bread from the earth,
Look at the birds flying about! They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they are?
If you see the donkey which belongs to someone who hates you lying down helpless under its load, you are not to pass him by but to go and help him free it. (v)
but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion eat straw like an ox (but the serpent — its food will be dust). They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain,” says Adonai.
Go to the ant, you lazybones! Consider its ways, and be wise.It has no chief, overseer or ruler;yet it provides its food in summer and gathers its supplies at harvest-time.
Aren’t sparrows sold for next to nothing, five for two assarions? And not one of them has been forgotten by God.
What variety there is in your works, Adonai! How many [of them there are]! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creations.
“On that day,” says Adonai “you will call me Ishi [My Husband]; you will no longer call me Ba‘ali [My Master].
So shouldn’t I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left — not to mention all the animals?”
“If, as you are walking along, you happen to see a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground with chicks or eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the chicks or the eggs, you are not to take the mother with the chicks.You must let the mother go, but you may take the chicks for yourself; so that things will go well with you, and you will prolong your life. (iii)
“For six days, you are to work. But on the seventh day, you are to rest, so that your ox and donkey can rest, and your slave-girl’s son and the foreigner be renewed.
Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it.
The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; calf, young lion and fattened lamb together, with a little child to lead them.
your livestock and the wild animals on your land; everything the land produces may be used for food.
Who provides food for the raven when his young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
But the seventh year, you are to let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people can eat; and what they leave, the wild animals in the countryside can eat. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
“You are not to eat any animal that dies naturally; although you may let a stranger staying with you eat it, or sell it to a foreigner; because you are a holy people for Adonai your God. “You are not to boil a young animal in its mother’s milk. (v)
for all forest creatures are mine already, as are the animals on a thousand hills;I know all the birds in the mountains; whatever moves in the fields is mine.
He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering his lambs with his arm, carrying them against his chest, gently leading the mother sheep.”
You made him but little lower than the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor,you had him rule what your hands made, you put everything under his feet —sheep and oxen, all of them, also the animals in the wilds,
However, no animal is to be slaughtered together with its young on the same day, neither cow nor ewe.
To them he said, “Which of you, if a son or an ox falls into a well, will hesitate to haul him out on Shabbat?”
The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland, for my chosen people to drink,
So he went up to him, put oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. Then he set him on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
for in the Torah of Moshe it is written, “You are not to put a muzzle on an ox when it is treading out the grain.” If God is concerned about cattle,
I am not rebuking you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are always before me.I have no need for a bull from your farm or for male goats from your pens;
After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing — just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway.
There the hoot owl will nest, lay her eggs, hatch and gather her young in its shade. There the vultures will assemble, every one with its mate.
But he answered, “If you have a sheep that falls in a pit on Shabbat, which of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out?How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, what is permitted on Shabbat is to do good.”
He veils the sky with clouds; he provides the earth with rain; he makes grass grow on the hills;
Cow and bear will feed together, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
“If someone removes the cover from a cistern or digs one and fails to cover it, and an ox or donkey falls in,the owner of the cistern must make good the loss by compensating the animal’s owner; but the dead animal will be his.
I will have them feed in good pastures; their grazing ground will be on the high mountains of Isra’el. They will rest in good grazing grounds and feed in rich pastures on Isra’el’s mountains.
So from the ground Adonai, God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name. (S: iii)
Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, for the rights of all who need an advocate.
Think about the ravens! They neither plant nor harvest, they have neither storerooms nor barns, yet God feeds them. You are worth much more than the birds!
God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.”
and leave you in the desert, you and all your Nile fish. You will fall in the open field and not be gathered or buried; but I will give you as food to wild animals and birds.
They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of the knowledge of Adonai as water covering the sea.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, your judgments are like the great deep. You save man and beast, Adonai.
who teaches us more than he teaches wild animals and makes us wiser than the birds in the air?’
but those who hope in Adonai will renew their strength, they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings; when they are running they won’t grow weary, when they are walking they won’t get tired.
My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing for the courtyards of Adonai; my heart and body cry for joy to the living God.
God remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down.
The angel of Adonai said to him, “Why did you hit your donkey three times like that? I have come out here to bar your way, because you are rushing to oppose me.The donkey saw me and turned aside these three times; and indeed, if she hadn’t turned away from me, I would have killed you by now and saved it alive!”
“From everything living, from each kind of living being, you are to bring two into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they are to be male and female.the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.Of each kind of bird, each kind of livestock, and each kind of animal creeping on the ground, two are to come to you, so that they can be kept alive.
“If you see your brother’s donkey or ox collapsed on the road, you may not behave as if you hadn’t seen it; you must help him get them up on their feet again.
“You are to be my specially separated people. Therefore you are not to eat any flesh torn by wild animals in the countryside; rather, throw it out for the dogs.
He veils the sky with clouds; he provides the earth with rain; he makes grass grow on the hills;he gives food to the animals, even to the young ravens when they cry.
“Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘These are the living creatures which you may eat among all the land animals:“‘All winged swarming creatures that go on all fours are a detestable thing for you;except that of all winged swarming creatures that go on all fours, you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, enabling them to jump off the ground.Specifically, of these you may eat the various kinds of locusts, grasshoppers, katydids and crickets.But other than that, all winged swarming creatures having four feet are a detestable thing for you.“‘The following will make you unclean; whoever touches the carcass of them will be unclean until evening,and whoever picks up any part of their carcass is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening:every animal that has a separate but incompletely divided hoof or that doesn’t chew the cud is unclean for you; anyone who touches them will become unclean.Whatever goes on its paws, among all animals that go on all fours, is unclean for you; whoever touches its carcass will be unclean until evening;and whoever picks up its carcass is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening — these are unclean for you.“‘The following are unclean for you among the small creatures that swarm on the ground: the weasel, the mouse, the various kinds of lizards,any that has a separate hoof which is completely divided and chews the cud — these animals you may eat.
“You are not to watch your brother’s ox or sheep straying and behave as if you hadn’t seen it; you must bring them back to your brother.
Four things on the earth are small; nevertheless, they are very wise —the ants, a species not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer;
Of every clean animal you are to take seven couples, and of the animals that are not clean, one couple;the water covered the mountains by more than twenty-two-and-a-half feet.All living beings that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, other animals, insects, and every human being,everything in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life; whatever was on dry land died.He wiped out every living thing on the surface of the ground — not only human beings, but livestock, creeping animals and birds in the air. They were wiped out from the earth; only Noach was left, along with those who were with him in the ark.The water held power over the earth for 150 days.also of the birds in the air take seven couples — in order to preserve their species throughout the earth.
you are to set apart for Adonai everything that is first from the womb. Every firstborn male animal will belong to Adonai.
but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do.
and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in cloth and laid him down in a feeding trough, because there was no space for them in the living-quarters.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place —what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them; humans, that you watch over them with such care?You made him but little lower than the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor,you had him rule what your hands made, you put everything under his feet —sheep and oxen, all of them, also the animals in the wilds,
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you; just as I gave you green plants before, so now I give you everything —only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you are not to eat.
“Did you give the horse its strength? Did you clothe its neck with a mane?Can you tell how many months they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth,Did you make him able to leap like a locust? Its majestic snorting is frightening!It paws with force and exults with vigor, then charges into the battle;mocking at fear, unafraid, it does not shy away from the sword.The [rider’s] quiver rattles over it, [his] gleaming spear and javelin.Frenzied and eager, it devours the ground, scarcely believing the shofar has sounded.At the sound of the shofar it whinnies; as from afar it scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.
“‘Observe my regulations. “‘Don’t let your livestock mate with those of another kind, don’t sow your field with two different kinds of grain, and don’t wear a garment of cloth made with two different kinds of thread.
Three things are stately in their stride, four of stately gait —I have not learned enough wisdom to know the Holy One.the lion, mightiest of beasts, which turns aside for none;the greyhound, the billy-goat and the king when his army is with him.
Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?”
God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature — each kind of livestock, crawling animal and wild beast”; and that is how it was.
For the life of every creature — its blood is its life. Therefore I said to the people of Isra’el, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it will be cut off.’
Those others might as well kill a person as an ox, as well break a dog’s neck as sacrifice a lamb, as well offer pig’s blood as offer a grain offering, as well bless an idol as burn incense. Just as these have chosen their ways and enjoy their disgusting practices,
You grow grass for the cattle; and for people you grow the plants they need to bring forth bread from the earth,wine that gladdens the human heart, oil to make faces glow, and food to sustain their strength.
“For, look! I create new heavens and a new earth; past things will not be remembered, they will no more come to mind.
“An ostrich’s wings beat wildly, although its pinions lack plumage.It leaves its eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed by the sand,forgetting that a foot may crush them or a wild animal trample on them.It treats its chicks heartlessly, as if they were not its own; even if her labor is in vain, it really doesn’t care;because God has deprived it of wisdom and given it no share in understanding.When the time comes, it flaps its wings, scorning both horse and rider.
like cattle going down into a valley the Spirit of Adonai had them rest. This is how you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.”