Genesis - Chapter 01 - Line 00020

Contemplative Summary

And God said: Let the waters swarm with a swarm of living soul, and let the bird fly over the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.

Here life begins to move. Until now, creation has been form and structure — light, land, boundary, order — but now the command enters the realm of breath and pulse. The verb yishretzu — “let them swarm” — releases abundance, not by measure but by overflow. The waters, once passive mirror, now awaken as womb; within them stirs the nefesh chayyah, the living soul — consciousness rising from depth. In parallel, the ‘of — bird, winged being — ascends through open air, tracing the first gestures of freedom across the sky. Between sea and heaven, motion itself becomes prayer.

This verse marks a turning: creation no longer simply exists; it responds. The divine word does not craft a single form but initiates multiplicity — life in its teeming, untamable fullness. Each movement, from the swarm below to the flutter above, expresses the same truth: aliveness is relation, a continuous exchange between depths and heights. To contemplate this line is to feel the surge of being within and around us — the restless creativity of soul meeting form. The waters teem, the air stirs, and for the first time, the world breathes.