animals

¹⁰The just one knows the lives of his beasts. But the inner most parts of the impious are cruel.

²⁶Consider the birds of the air, how they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much greater value than they are?

²¹And God created the great sea creatures, and everything with a living soul and the ability to move that the waters produced, according to their species, and all the flying creatures, according to their kind. And God saw that it was good.

⁷In truth, ask the mules, and they will teach you, and the birds of the sky, and they will reveal to you. ⁸Speak with the earth, and it will respond to you, and the fish of the sea will explain. ⁹Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord has made all these things? ¹⁰In his hand is the soul of all the living and the spirit of all the flesh of mankind.

²⁶And he said: “Let us make Man to our image and likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and the wild beasts, and the entire earth, and every animal that moves on the earth.” ²⁷And God created man to his own image; to the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and he said, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

¹¹who teaches us in addition to the beasts of the earth, and who educates us along with the birds of the air?”

³⁰and for all the animals of the land, and for all the flying things of the air, and for everything that moves upon the earth and in which there is a living soul, so that they may have these on which to feed.” And so it became.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb will pasture together. The lion and the ox will eat hay. And dust will be the food of the serpent. They will not harm, and they will not kill, on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

²And let the fear and trembling of you be upon all the animals of the earth, and upon all the birds of the air, along with all that moves across the earth. All the fish of the sea have been delivered into your hand. ³And everything that moves and lives will be food for you. Just as with the edible plants, I have delivered them all to you,

¹⁸I said in my heart, about the sons of men, that God would test them, and reveal them to be like wild animals. ¹⁹For this reason, the passing away of man and of beasts is one, and the condition of both is equal. For as a man dies, so also do they die. All things breathe similarly, and man has nothing more than beast; for all these are subject to vanity. ²⁰And all things continue on to one place; for from the earth they were made, and unto the earth they shall return together. ²¹Who knows if the spirit of the sons of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?

⁶The wolf will dwell with the lamb; and the leopard will lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the sheep will abide together; and a little boy will drive them. ⁷The calf and the bear will feed together; their young ones will rest together. And the lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸And a breastfeeding infant will play above the lair of the asp. And a child who has been weaned will thrust his hand into the den of the king snake. ⁹They will not harm, and they will not kill, on all my holy mountain. For the earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like the waters covering the sea.

²⁶And he said: “Let us make Man to our image and likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and the wild beasts, and the entire earth, and every animal that moves on the earth.”

²³Be diligent to know the countenance of your cattle, and consider your own flocks,

⁶The wolf will dwell with the lamb; and the leopard will lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the sheep will abide together; and a little boy will drive them.

²⁴Consider the ravens. For they neither sow nor reap; there is no storehouse or barn for them. And yet God pastures them. How much more are you, compared to them?

⁹The Lord is sweet to all things, and his compassion is upon all his works.