Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green plant.
Parallel translations
- WEB Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.
- KJV Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
- BSB Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
- NKJV Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
- NLT I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God grants humanity every moving creature for food, as he had earlier given plants. A new provision of food is established after the flood.
Overview
This expands the original grant of plant food to include animals, reflecting God's gracious provision for human life in the renewed world. It marks a development in God's dealings with humanity following the flood. The gift of food underscores God's faithful care to sustain those he has saved.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Rom 14:14I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
- 1 Tim 4:3–5forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- Col 2:21–22“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
- Deut 12:15Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.
- 1 Cor 10:31Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
- 1 Cor 10:25–26Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience,
- Col 2:16Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
- 1 Cor 10:23“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up.
- Acts 10:12–15in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky.
- Ps 104:14–15He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
- Rom 14:3Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
- Lev 11:1–47Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
- Rom 14:20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
- Lev 22:8That which dies of itself, or is torn by animals, he shall not eat, defiling himself by it. I am Yahweh.
- Gen 1:29–30God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
- Rom 14:17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
- Deut 14:3–21You shall not eat any abominable thing.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 9:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.