Genesis 1:9-13

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DAY 3. DRY LAND AND VEGETATION
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KJV

 ⁹ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
¹¹ And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
¹² And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
¹³ And the evening and the morning were the third day.

NRSV

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.

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Literal reading as actual history

Referenced by brother David Burke here: Historical Interpretation of Genesis Creation

Hard to understand the botanical detail literally

(Compare Have ye never read?)

See this discussion (Q.4). This is one of the clearest indications in the text that the format of a seven-day week is a rhetorical and didactic device, not to be understood literally. Different kinds of trees come into fruit at different times of the year, and they were “each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind”.

The sun was not yet created: how did the plants live?

See The Four Sources of Light.