Vegetation

In the UPDV's opening chapters, vegetation is the first ordered category of life — created on the third day, distributed by kind, and immediately set apart as food for every creature. Two paragraphs of Genesis carry the entire frame: the third-day creation, and the food-grant to humans and animals.

Created on the third day

Vegetation is spoken into being by Speech and brought forth by the earth itself. "And [the Speech of] God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, [and] fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, in which is their seed, on the earth: and it was so." (Ge 1:11). The execution mirrors the command: "And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, after their kind: and God saw that it was good." (Ge 1:12). Three categories — grass, seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-trees — each propagating "after their kind" with seed inside the fruit, fix the structure of the plant world before any animal life appears.

A second account in Genesis 2 looks back at the moment before vegetation: "And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth: and the man was not [there] to till the ground;" (Ge 2:5). The pre-vegetation absence is tied to two missing causes — rain from above and a cultivator below — both of which the rest of the chapter supplies.

Given for food

On the sixth day, vegetation receives its first vocation: nourishment, divided between the human and the animal kingdoms. To the humans: "And [the Speech of] God said, Look, I have given you⁺ every herb yielding seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you⁺ it will be for food:" (Ge 1:29). The plural "you⁺" addresses humanity collectively. To everything else that breathes: "and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food: and it was so." (Ge 1:30). The original economy assigns plant life — and only plant life — as food for both kingdoms.