Hebrew Scriptures and the Environment, Part II
Presented by the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Conservation Center
You visit the earth and water
it, make it abundantly fertile. God's stream is filled with water;
with it you supply the world with grain. Thus do you prepare the
earth: you drench plowed furrows, and level their ridges. With showers
you keep the ground soft, blessing its young sprouts. (Psalm 65:10-11)
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing for joy. (NRSV Psalm 65: 12-13)
Yours the day and yours the night; you set the moon and sun in place. You fixed all the limits of the earth; summer and winter you made. (Psalm 74:16-17)
Yours are the heavens, yours the earth; You founded the world and everything in it. (Psalm 89:12)
Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains. The sea and dry land belong to God, who made them, formed them by hand. (Psalm 95:4-5)
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice before the Lord who comes, who comes to govern the earth. To govern the world with justice and the peoples with faithfulness. (Psalm 96:11-13)
Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne...The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. (NRSV Psalm 97:1-6)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises....Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. (NRSV Psalm 98:4-9)
Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. (NRSV Psalm 102:25)
Earth is completely full of things you have made: among them vast expanse of ocean, teeming with countless creatures, creatures large and small, with the ships going to and fro and Leviathan whom you made to amuse you. All creatures depend on you to feed them through the year, you provide the food they eat, with generous hand you satisfy their hunger. (Psalm 104: 25-28)
How varied are your works, Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.... All of these look to you to give them food in due time. When you give to them, they gather; when you open your hand, they are well filled. When you hide your face, they are lost. When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came. When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104: 24, 27-30)
He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in; they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield....When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, trouble, and sorrow, he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes; but he raises up the needy out of distress, and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad.... (NRSV Psalm 107:33-42)
The Lord raises the needy from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap... (Psalm 113:7)
I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)
Whatever the Lord wishes he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps. He raises storm clouds from the end of the earth, makes lightning and rain, brings forth wind... (Psalm 135:6-7)
For I know the Lord will secure justice for the needy, rights for the poor. (Psalm 140:13)
The Lord is good to all, compassionate to every creature. (Psalm 145:9)
Happy those...whose hope is in the Lord, their God, the maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. (Psalm 146:5-7)
Celebrate our God, who covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, makes grass sprout on the mountains, who gives animals their food and ravens what they cry for. (Psalm 147: 7-9)
Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deep waters; You lightning and hail, snow and clouds, storm winds that fulfill his command; You mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; You animals wild and tame, you creatures that crawl and fly...(Psalm 148: 7-10)
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew. (NRSV Proverbs 3:19-20)
Wisdom's Part in Creation -- Does not Wisdom call, and raise her voice? On the hilltop, on the road, at the crossways, Wisdom takes her stand.... She cries aloud, "...The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth -- when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race." (Proverbs 8:1-2, 22-31)
He who trusts in his riches will fall, but like green leaves the just flourish. (Proverbs 11:28)
The just man takes care of his beast, but the heart of the wicked is merciless. (Proverbs 12:10)
In the path of justice there is life. (Proverbs 12:28)
He who oppresses the poor blasphemes his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy glorifies him. (Proverbs 14:31)
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
Who has cupped in his hand the waters of the sea, and marked off the heavens with a span? Who has held in a measure the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or has instructed him as his counselor? (Isaiah 40:12-13)
Do you not know or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 40:28)
They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings. (Isaiah 40:31)
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. (Isaiah 41:17-20)
Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it: I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice.... (Isaiah 42:5-6)
If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea; Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence. (Isaiah 48:18-19)
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the Lord comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted. (Isaiah 49:13)
He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Love justice, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart. (Wisdom 1:1)
For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity. (Wisdom 8:24)
O God of my ancestors and Lord of mercy, who have made all things by your word, and by your wisdom have formed humankind to have dominion over the creatures you have made, and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by your throne, and do not reject me from among your servants. (NRSV Wisdom 9:1-4)
For he gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements, The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times, the changes in the sun's course and the variations of the seasons. Cycles of years, positions of the stars, natures of animals, tempers of beasts, Powers of the winds and thoughts of men, uses of plants and virtues of roots -- such things as are hidden I learned, and such as are plain; for Wisdom, the artificer of all, taught me. (Wisdom 7:17-22)
For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you will it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things... for your imperishable spirit is in all things! (Wisdom 11:22-12:1)
But as you are just, you govern all things justly... For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all. (Wisdom 12:15-16)
For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. (Wisdom 13:5)
For creation, serving you who made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous, and in kindness relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you. (NRSV Wisdom 16:24)
When
the Lord created his works from the beginning, and, in making them,
determined their boundaries, he arranged his works in an eternal order, and
their dominion for all generations.
They neither hunger nor grow
weary, and they do not abandon their tasks. They do not crowd one
another, and they never disobey his word. Then the Lord looked upon
the earth, and filled it with his good things. With all kinds of
living beings he covered its surface, and into it they must return.
The Lord created human beings out of earth, and makes them return to it
again. He gave them a fixed number of days, but granted them authority
over everything on the earth. (NRSV Sirach 16:26-30 and 17:1-2)
He who lives for ever created the whole universe; the Lord alone is just. (NRSV Sirach 18:1-2)
The compassion of human beings is for their neighbors, but the compassion of the Lord is for every living thing. (NRSV Sirach 18:13)
Once more I will set forth my theme to shine like the moon in its fullness! Listen, my faithful children: open up your petals, like roses planted near running waters; Send up the sweet odor of incense, break forth in blossoms like the lily... The works of God are all of them good; in its own time every need is supplied. At his word the waters become still as in a flask; he had but to speak and the reservoirs were made. (Sirach 39:12-14; 16-17)
How beautiful are all his works! even to the spark and fleeting vision! The universe lives and abides forever, to meet each need each creature is preserved. All of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain, for each in turn, as it comes is good; can one ever see enough of their splendor? (Sirach 42:23-25)
As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the Lord fills all his works. (Sirach 42:16)
The clear vault of the sky shines forth like heaven itself, a vision of glory. The orb of the sun, resplendent at its rising: what a wonderful work of the Most High! (Sirach 43:1-2)
The beauty, the glory, of the heavens are the stars that adorn with their sparkling the heights of God, at whose command they keep their place and never relax in their vigils. (Sirach 43:9)
Behold the rainbow! Then bless its Maker, for majestic indeed is its splendor. (Sirach 43:11)
The stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said, "Here we are!" They shone with gladness for him who made them. (Baruch 3:34)
O all you works of the Lord, bless the Lord, to him be highest glory and praise forever. (Daniel 3:57)
Him who formed the mountains, and created the wind, and declares to man his thoughts; Who made the dawn and the darkness, and strides upon the height of the earth: The Lord, the God of hosts by name. (Amos 4:13)
The field is ravaged, the earth mourns, because the grain is ravaged, the must has failed, the oil languishes. Be appalled, you husbandmen! Wail, you vinedressers! Over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, the fig tree is withered; The pomegranate, the date palm also, and the apple, all the trees of the field are dried up; Yes, joy has withered away from among mankind. (Joel 1:10-12)
Those who go down to the sea tell part of its story, and when we hear them we are thunderstruck; In it are his creatures, stupendous, amazing, all kinds of life, and the monsters of the deep. For him each messenger succeeds, and at his bidding accomplishes his will. More than this we need not add; let the last word be, he is all in all! (Sirach 43:25-28)
See also Psalm 104 and Psalm 148 on this site.
Most of the quotations contained herein are from The New American Bible, copyright © 1970
(including the Revised New Testament © 1986). All rights reserved.
Some of the quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.,
and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
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