God made every herb before it was on the earth

This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were made, in the day in which the Lord God made the heaven and the earth, and every herb of the field before it was on the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up, for God had not rained on the earth, and there was not a man to cultivate it.
Gen 2:4-5, Septuagint

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What does it mean that God made herbs before they were on the earth?
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"What is the object of saying, "And God made every green herb of the field, before it was upon the earth, and every grass before it had sprung up?" (#Ge 2:5). He here by these expressions intimates in enigmatical language the incorporeal species; since the expression, "before it was upon the earth," indicates the arriving at perfection of every herb, and of all seeds and trees. But as to what he says, that "before it had sprung up upon the earth," he had made every green herb, and grass, et caetera, it is plain that the incorporeal species, as being indicative of the others, were created first, in accordance with intellectual nature, which those things which are upon the earth perceptible to the outward senses were to imitate. "
Philo of Alexandria, Questions About Genesis, article 2

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This was written in the 1st century AD. No "evil Darwin" or "atheism" behind it.

Interesting

Being made on the interstellar journey to earth.

We know for a fact that the earth is billions of years old and the verses you quote, providing the translation is correct, support that view.

Since God created the universe OUT OF NOTHING, all herbs and plants were in His mind and in His words before they came into existence. God spoke and they were created out of nothing (ex nihilo).

Or at least gives the appearance of being that old. But the Bible does not support this theory, and it is refuted within the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:11).

For in six days the LORD made* heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

*made = accomplished or brought forth.

It is interesting that you take one rendition and read into it something that is not there. Language is so imperfect. Here is the same verses in Young's Literal Translation:

Gen. 2:4, 5 "These are births of the heavens and of the earth in their being prepared, in the day of Jehovah God's making earth and heavens; and no shrub of the field is yet in the earth, and no herb of the field yet sprouteth, for Jehovah God hath not rained upon the earth, and a man there is not to serve the ground,"

You see it clarifies the statements to simply mean the plants weren't there yet. Read the ESV and it reads about the same as Young's.

It means that even Herb was elected. I honestly never believed that about Herb, though he is a pretty nice guy.

You know that for a fact, do you?

Yes.

In which laboratory did you confirm your theory? Uh, this is a 'Christian' web site . . . funny thing is, we believe the Bible here, not evolution.

People know so much. Does everyone know the word, history, only refers to the time since events of civilization and mankind in general have been recorded in writing.

Yet now we know every thing is billions of years old Evolution says birds were once reptiles......I still have not seen the ruins of a village or town of people who were half ape learning to use their newly develope prehnsile thumbs. But everyone who studies knows all of this. How wonderful for them. It is too bad they do not learn as much fro our Maker. God bless all who believe God, amen.

Fossilized birds due to the universal flood that trapped them . . . not geologic ages.

Check out Kent Hovind's creation science ministry. Im not condoning his teachings on EVERY area, but on creation science, he is spot on. I believe he is called to preach on that and evangelize. As soon as he started messing with other stuff it went down hill!

Hovind has a fun way of debunking evolution so simply that it has atheists shaking in their boots.

I like Kent.

[for me anyway] "before it was on the earth" is a great gulf of another idea and concept than "before it grew": therefore making it easy to exaggerate and over-estimate scripture.

Not a laboratory. From the Bible.

The Hebrew word 'yome' is a homonym, it has several meanings and means a space of time. Anything from a few hours to an age. We humans got it wrong in the translation.

H3117
יוֹם
yôm
yome
From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverbially): - age, + always, + chronicles, continually (-ance), daily, ([birth-], each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, X end, + evening, + (for) ever (-lasting, -more), X full, life, as (so) long as (. . . live), (even) now, + old, + outlived, + perpetually, presently, + remaineth, X required, season, X since, space, then, (process of) time, + as at other times, + in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), X whole (+ age), (full) year (-ly), + younger.
Total KJV occurrences: 2295

Invalid inference; the Lord God made the heaven and the earth, and every herb of the field before it was on the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up, for God had not rained on the earth, and there was not a man to cultivate it.

In no way indicates creative duration.
The best one could extrapolate from the text given is that while God had already created those herbs they had yet to sprout, because God had not intended them to, as of the point in time referenced by the text.
Another translation reads as follows.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
Genesis 2:4‭-‬5 NASB

What we must understand is that God gave us an over view or what happened for two easily acceptable reasons; one the most important message being that He created everything, and that he did it in an organized logical manner
And that if he had given the detailed how it all works; no one person could pen it in a life time and that the planet materially could not contain it.
How explicit should God be when he doles out information? Exactly as he wants to be. We are to take the information given as it is give and accept the points made. In the case of the creation, God is creator, designed and created by the power of his own words, and that he did it in an ordered fashion. The duration given is 6 days which is expressive of his omnipotence.
Accept it or not it's the information given, and either we believe God or we do not.
As far a science goes, well, they have been wrong more than they have been right and even a cursory study of carbon dating reveals it as dubious at best.
I remember when mt. Saint Helen errupted and scientist rushed to study the aftermath. Carbon dating indicated things to be millions of years old that were alive only a few months ago.

If it took God a million billion years to create the Earth and he had to use millions and millions of years to create life then how would it be believable that he could resurrect The Dead?

I took nothing. Philo is from the 1st century AD and quotes Septuagint, so I used Septuagint. Nothing else would make sense.