Genesis - Chapter 01 - Line 00026

Contemplative Summary

And God said: Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the cattle, all the earth, and every creeping thing that moves upon it.

Here the divine voice turns inward — a pause of deliberation within creation’s unfolding. The phrase na‘aseh adam — “let us make humankind” — breaks the rhythm of let there be, inviting counsel, reflection, intimacy. This plural speech, mysterious and communal, suggests creation not as command but as conversation — the Source addressing itself within the unity of its multiplicity. Humanity arises in the tension between image and likeness — tselem and demut — shadow and reflection, form and resonance. To be made in the image is to bear structure; to be made in the likeness is to live dynamically in correspondence with the divine pulse.

The mandate to rule (radah) follows not as conquest but as stewardship — a call to harmonize with sea, sky, and soil, to participate in the balance that sustains all life. Humanity’s dominion is not extraction but reflection: to mirror divine order through care, coherence, and consciousness. In this line, the cosmos becomes aware of itself — the observer emerging within the observed. To contemplate it is to sense the weight and wonder of this entrustment: to carry the likeness of creation’s Source, not as privilege, but as invitation to remember — we are the gaze through which the world knows it is good.