The Fear of Man Falls Upon the Animals of the Earth

Midrash Aggadah Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:2 View source

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 16, 2025

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:2 marks a sharp change in the relationship between humanity and every other living thing. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and on every fowl of the heavens; of all that the earth swarmeth forth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered.

This is not the Eden of the first chapters of Genesis. In Eden, Adam named the animals as friends. Lion and lamb grazed together in the old drash. Here, after the Flood, a new dynamic is handed down. Every creature now carries an instinctive fear of the human. The wolf will run from you. The deer will bolt.

The Maggid hears two things at once in this verse. The first is a gift: humanity can now survive in a world that has grown wilder. The second is a warning. Fear was not part of the original design. It is a concession, a patch on creation after the Flood. The Torah is telling us — with Aramaic honesty — that dominion over animals is real, but it is not innocent.

The takeaway: when the animals run from us, we should remember that this is not our glory. It is the price of a world that was once gentler than the one we live in.

Themes

Noah & Flood Creation Ethics Sin

Biblical References

Genesis 9:2

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