Image Details

Heinz Selig

The fifth day of creation portrayed by Israeli artist Heinz Selig. Here God stretches out his hand and brings into being the “birds of the air and the fish of the sea…” (Psalm 8:9).

According to the author, the psalms contain “creation” poetry, not nature poetry. Alter argues that the natural world does not exist as a separate realm in the psalms, only as an embodiment of God’s creative and ordering power.

“The Fifth Day of Creation” is one of seven lithographs in a series titled “The Seven Days of Creation.” Selig, a resident of Haifa since 1933, presented a set of lithographs to both President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1979 to commemorate the historic Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed that year.