KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
WORDS OF GOD IN RED
This verse is part of the creation story.
To get what Genesis 1:20 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “And God” | אֱלֹהִ֔ים | Gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative | God |
| “said,” | וַיֹּ֣אמֶר | To say (used with great latitude) | said |
| “Let the waters” | הַמַּ֔יִם | Water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen | Let waters |
| “bring forth abundantly” | יִשְׁרְצ֣וּ | To wriggle, i.e., (by implication) swarm or abound | bring forth abundantly |
| “the moving creature” | שֶׁ֖רֶץ | A swarm, i.e., active mass of minute animals | moving creature |
| “that hath” | נֶ֣פֶשׁ | Properly, a breathing creature, i.e., animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental) | that hath |
| “life,” | חַיָּ֑ה | Alive; hence, raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively | life |
| “and fowl” | וְעוֹף֙ | A bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectively | fowl |
| “that” | (No Hebrew definition. English implied.) | ||
| “may fly” | יְעוֹפֵ֣ף | To fly; also (by implication of dimness) to faint (from the darkness of swooning) | fly |
| “above” | עַל | Above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications | above |
| “the earth” | הָאָ֔רֶץ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | earth |
| “in” | עַל | Above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications | in |
| “the open” | פְּנֵ֖י | The face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.) | open |
| “firmament” | רְקִ֥יעַ | Properly, an expanse, i.e., the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky | firmament |
| “of heaven.” | הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ | The sky (as aloft; the dual perhaps alluding to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve) | heaven |
See Genesis 1:20 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
• Genesis creation narrative Wikipedia Article
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.