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Word for Word: Episode 32

עֵ֣ץ פְּרִ֞י עֹ֤שֶׂה פְּרִי֙ Fruit trees making fruit The most advanced plant created by God's command was the `ets ( עֵץ ). From a word meaning "firm", the tree is attached to the ground, from which it gets water and minerals, while reaching towards heaven, from which it gets its strength and food. The tree and other plants become the means by which God perpetuates life upom the earth. The fruit (Heb:  פְּרִי peri ) of the trees, especially, provides a visible and portable way to spread the attributes of its parents.

Word for Word: Episode 30

תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤א הָאָ֨רֶץ֙ דֶּ֔שֶׁא Let the land sprout sprouts In commanding the soil, God calls out first to a barren land. The ground had no seed of its own, so God must have created the plants in the dirt and in full bloom. The grass filled the land, glistening under God's light as it entered the leading edge of the globe. The word for the class of plant that came up is דֶּ֔שֶׁא (deshe) is from the verb דָּשָׁא (dasha) which means " to sprout, shoot, grow green". In the original text, the letters had no vowel points. This means the reader would use context and syntax to give the narrative life. The sense of the phrase is that God told the land to become green with grass, and it did.