Nature of animals

Animals in their profusion

Genesis 1:24–25 LEB

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind: cattle and moving things, and wild animals according to their kind.” And it was so. So God made wild animals according to their kind and the cattle according to their kind, and every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

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Animals as illustrated by their variety

Isaiah 11:6–8 LEB

And a wolf shall stay with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie down with a kid, and a calf and a lion and a fatling together as a small boy leads them. And a cow and a bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together. And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle. And an infant shall play over a serpent’s hole, and a toddler shall put his hand on a viper’s hole.

See also Ox, donkey; Goat, sea cow; Rabbit, pig; Weasel, rat; Heifer; Deer, gazelle, antelope; Sheep, bear, lion; possibly the hippopotamus; possibly the crocodile; Snake; Frog; Fox; Jackal, wild goat, hyena; Worm

Human beings within the animal creation

As part of creation

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Significantly different from the rest of creation

Genesis 1:26–27 LEB

And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image and according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them.

Human beings as stewards of the animal kingdom

Psalm 8:6–8 LEB

You make him over the works of your hands; all things you have placed under his feet: sheep and cattle, all of them, and also the wild animals of the field, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, everything that passes along the paths of seas.

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Animals as the objects of divine, and therefore human, care

Genesis 9:8–10 LEB

And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, behold, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every animal of the earth with you, from all that came out of the ark to all the animals of the earth.

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Animals and Noah’s ark

Genesis 7:13–23 LEB

On this same day, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark, they and all the living creatures according to their kind, and all the domesticated animals according to their kind, and all the creatures that creep upon the earth according to their kind, all the birds according to their kind, every winged creature. And they came to Noah to the ark, two of each, from every living thing in which was the breath of life. And those that came, male and female, of every living thing, came as God had commanded him. And Yahweh shut the door behind him. And the flood came forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and lifted the ark, and it rose up from the earth. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed overwhelmingly upon the earth, and they covered all the high mountains which were under the entire heaven. The waters swelled fifteen cubits above the mountains, covering them. And every living thing that moved on the earth perished—the birds, and the domesticated animals, and the wild animals, and everything that swarmed on the earth, and all humankind. Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life, among all that was on dry land, died. And he blotted out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained.