The Waters Teem: Genesis 1:20-23

God turned to the waters and the sky and spoke creatures into being:

"Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky."

And the seas erupted with life.

Whales breached the surface, their massive bodies arcing through spray. Schools of fish flashed silver in the depths. Octopi unfurled their arms in coral caves. Jellyfish pulsed through currents like living lanterns. The great sea creatures—tanninim, the Hebrew calls them—moved through the deep like legends, creatures of such size and mystery that later generations would weave them into stories of chaos conquered.

Above, the sky filled with wings.

Eagles caught thermals and soared. Hummingbirds hovered like living jewels. Flocks of sparrows wheeled in synchronized clouds. Every species of feather and flight, from albatross to wren, took to the air that had been empty since the second day.

God blessed them—the first blessing recorded in Scripture—and spoke reproduction over them: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."

Life was no longer a single specimen of each kind but a proliferating, multiplying abundance. The seas and skies would never again be empty.

And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

The world now moved and breathed and sang. But the land still waited for its inhabitants.