Genesis 9:2

Gen 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth [upon] the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Ver. 2. And the fear of you, &c.] Timor, quo a bestiis timeamini, et terror quo bestias terreatis .( Piscat.) This is a piece of God’s image yet remaining to man, that every nature of wild beasts, birds, creeping things, and things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of the nature of man. {Jas 3:7, marg.} {a}

{a} Monoceros interimi potest, capi non potest . - Solin.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:2-3 There are two modifications to the original created order. (1) Previously, humans reigned over the animals (1:28), but now animals would live in terror of humans (similar military language is found in Exod 23:27-31; Deut 11:25; 31:8). (2) The animals’ terror was related to a change in human diet. Humans were now permitted to eat the meat of animals to supplement their subsistence on grains, fruits, and vegetables (Gen 1:29).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

By the virtue of this commandment beasts rage not so much against man as they would, yea, and many serve to his use thereby.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And the fear of you and the dread of you--The second part re-establishes man's dominion over the inferior animals; it was now founded not as at first in love and kindness, but in terror; this dread of man prevails among all the stronger as well as the weaker members of the animal tribes and keeps away from his haunts all but those employed in his service.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. The fear of you and the dread, c.] Prior to the fall, man ruled the inferior animals by love and kindness, for then gentleness and docility were their principal characteristics. After the fall, untractableness, with savage ferocity, prevailed among almost all orders of the brute creation enmity to man seems particularly to prevail; and had not God in his mercy impressed their minds with the fear and terror of man, so that some submit to his will while others flee from his residence, the human race would long ere this have been totally destroyed by the beasts of the field. Did the horse know his own strength, and the weakness of the miserable wretch who unmercifully rides, drives, whips, goads, and oppresses him, would he not with one stroke of his hoof destroy his tyrant possessor? But while God hides these things from him he impresses his mind with the fear of his owner, so that either by cheerful or sullen submission he is trained up for, and employed in, the most useful and important purposes; and even willingly submits, when tortured for the sport and amusement of his more bruitish oppressor. Tigers, wolves, lions, and hyaenas, the determinate foes of man, incapable of being tamed or domesticated, flee, through the principle of terror, from the dwelling of man, and thus he is providentially safe. Hence, by fear and by dread man rules every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and every fish of the sea. How wise and gracious is this order of the Divine providence! and with what thankfulness should it be considered by every human being!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. And the fear of you. This also has chiefly respect to the restoration of the world, in order that the sovereignty over the rest of animals might remain with men. And although after the fall of man, the beasts were endued with new ferocity, yet some remains of that dominion over them, which God had conferred on him in the beginning, were still left. He now also promises that the same dominion shall continue. We see indeed that wild beasts rush violently upon men, and rend and tear many of them in pieces; and if God did not wonderfully restrain their fierceness, the human race would be utterly destroyed. Therefore, what we have said respecting the inclemency of the air, and the irregularity of the seasons, is also here applicable. Savage beasts indeed prevail and rage against men in various ways, and no wonder; for since we perversely exalt ourselves against God, why should not the beasts rise up against us? Nevertheless, the providence of God is a secret bridle to restrain their violence. For, whence does it arise that serpents spare us, unless because he represses their virulence? Whence is it that tigers, elephants, lions, bears, wolves, and other wild beasts without number, do not rend, tear, and devour everything human, except that they are withheld by this subjection, as by a barrier? Therefore, it ought to be referred to the special protection and guardianship of God, that we remain in safety. For, were it otherwise, what could we expect; since they seem as if born for our destruction, and burn with the furious desire to injure us? Moreover, the bridle with which the Lord restrains the cruelty of wild beasts, to prevent them falling upon men, is a certain fear and dread which God has implanted in them, to the end that they might reverence the presence of men. Daniel especially declares this respecting kings; namely, that they are possessed of dominion, because the Lord has put the fear and the dread of them both on men and beasts. But as the first use of fear is to defend the society of mankind; so, according to the measure in which God has given to men a general authority over the beasts, there exists in the greatest and the least of men, I know not what hidden mark, which does not suffer the cruelty of wild beasts, by its violence to prevail. Another advantage, however and one more widely extended, is here noted; namely, that men may render animals subservient to their own convenience, and may apply them to various uses, according to their wishes and their necessities. Therefore, the fact that oxen become accustomed to bear the yoke; that the wildness of horses is so subdued as to cause them to carry a rider; that they receive the pack-saddle to bear burdens; that cows give milk, and suffer themselves to be milked; that sheep are mute under the hand of the shearer; all these facts are the result of this dominion, which, although greatly diminished, is nevertheless not entirely abolished.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

2. the fear of you and the dread of you] This is a new feature in God’s ordering of the world. Hitherto (Gen_1:28) man had received the command (1) to replenish the earth, (2) to subdue it, (3) to have dominion over the animals. Now, however, a new stage is reached. Man hereafter is invested with the right to take the life of animals for food. The animals, therefore, are in a new measure placed at the mercy of man; and “the fear and the dread” of him are associated with man’s fresh prerogatives.

teemeth] R.V. marg. creepeth, as in Gen_1:29-30 (P).

into your hand … delivered] i.e. placed at the mercy of you who now have absolute power. Cf. Deu_19:12, “deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the fear or you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth,.... This is a renewal, at least in part, of the grant of dominion to Adam over all the creatures; these obeyed him cheerfully, and from love, but sinning, he in a good measure lost his power over them, they rebelled against him; but now though the charter of power over them is renewed, they do not serve man freely, but are in dread of him, and flee from him; some are more easily brought into subjection to him, and even the fiercest and wildest of them may be tamed by him; and this power over them was the more easily retrieved in all probability by Noah and his sons, from the inhabitation of the creatures with them for so long a time in the ark:

and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; as appears by fowls flying away, by beasts and creeping things getting off as fast as they can, and by fishes swimming away at the sight of men:

into your hand are they delivered; as the lords and proprietors of them, for their use and service, and particularly for what follows, see Psa 8:6 where there is an enumeration of the creatures subject to men.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Fear, &c. God confirms the dominion of man over all the animals, though he must exercise it now by compulsion; they will not obey always without reluctance, as they would have done in the state of innocence. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Before they loved and reverenced you as lords and friends, now they shall dread you as enemies and tyrants.

Into your hand are they delivered, for your use and service. I restore you in part to that dominion over them which you for your sins have forfeited.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And the fear of you and the dread of you. Not simply of Noah and his sons, but of man in general. Shall be. Not for the first time, as it could not fail to be evoked by the sin of man during the previous generations, but, having already been developed, it was henceforth to be turned back upon the creature rather than directed against man. Upon. The verb to be is first construed with l, and afterwards with B. The LXX render both by ejpi, though perhaps the latter should be taken as equivalent to en, in which case the three clauses of the verse will express a gradation. The dread of man shall first overhang the beasts, then it shall enter into and take possession of them, and finally under its influence they shall fall into man"s hand. Every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon (literally, in; vide supra. Murphy translates with) all that moveth upon the earth, and upon (literally, in) all the fishes of the sea. This does not imply that the animals may not sometimes rise against man and destroy him (cf. Exo_8:6, Exo_8:17, Exo_8:24; Lev_26:22; 1Ki_13:24, 25 20:36; 2Ki_2:24; Eze_14:15; Act_12:23, for instances in which the creatures were made ministers of Divine justice) but simply that the normal condition of the lower creatures will be one of instinctive dread of man, causing them rather to avoid than to seek his presence a Statement sufficiently confirmed by the facts that wherever human civilization penetrates, there the dominion of the beasts retires; that even ferocious animals, such as lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, unless provoked, usually flee from man rather than assail him. Into your hand are they delivered. Attested by

(1) man"s actual dominion over such of the creatures as are either immediately needful for or helpful to him, such as the horse, the ox, the sheep, &c.; and

(2) by man"s capability of taming and so reducing to subjection every kind of wild beast lions, tigers, &c. ;

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He grants them power over the inferior creatures. He grants, 1. A title to them; into your hands they are delivered - For your use and benefit. 2. A dominion over them, without which the title would avail little; The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast - This revives a former grant, chap. i, 28, only with this difference, that man in innocency ruled by love, fallen man rules by fear. And thus far we have still the benefit of it,

1. That those creatures which are any way useful to us are reclaimed, and we use them either for service or food, or both, as they are capable.

2. Those creatures that are any way hurtful to us are restrained; so that tho' now and then man may be hurt by some of them, yet they do not combine together to rise up in rebellion against man.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

וחתכם means AND THE DREAD OF YOU, similar to (Job 6:21) “ye see a terror (חתת)." The Agada takes the word as signifying “life”, “vitality” (חיות): So long as a baby, even one day old, has life you do not have to guard it against the attacks of mice, whilst Og, king of Bashan, when dead needs to be guarded against the attacks of mice, as it is said, “And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be [upon the beasts of the field etc.].” When will the fear of you be upon the beasts? So long as you are alive (חתכם) (Shabbat 151b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ומוראכם, this formulation is parallel to the words וכבשוה, which also referred to dominance over other creatures on earth (Genesis 1,28).

וחתכם, the root of this word is חתת, and it appears in this sense in Job 6,21 or 41,25. The grammatical construction is similar to פת-פתים-פתכם.

בכל אשר תרמוש האדמה, in the first half of the verse the Torah employed the preposition על, i.e. על כל חית הארץ, whereas now it uses the prefix ב as preposition. Both prepositions are perfectly normal in classical Hebrew. It is as if the Torah had written בכל חיה שתרמוש על האדמה.

ובכל דגי הים, even though the fish do not share the same habitat as you, and are therefore presumed to have nothing to fear from you, G’d puts the fear of man in them also, regardless of their relative immunity from man. בידכם נתנו, the Torah adds these words to include reptiles, etc., be they large of small, whose movement on earth is very slow, seeing that they too move on the face of the globe. The reason why the Torah describes their movements as תרמוש in the feminine mode, is to remind us that each of these creatures possesses a נפש, a non-tangible life force, and this life-force called נפש is a feminine noun. The basic definition of “life” is the ability to move from one place to another.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.