God announces he will make an עֵ֫זֶר, aid, for Man, then makes the beasts of the field (חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙) and the birds of the sky (עֹ֣וף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם). Man names every creature (הַבְּהֵמָה֙), bird (עֹ֣וף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם), and field beast (חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙) but does not find an aid.1
The addition of the הַבְּהֵמָה֙ in the naming, when they are not mentioned in the verse on creation, and the absence of the “wigglers” is interesting. Let’s return to Strauss’ lecture:
The second chapter of the Bible answers the question not how the world has come into being but how did human life, human life as we know it, come into being. Just as the answer to the question regarding the world as a whole requires an articulation of the world, the answer to the question regarding human life requires an articulation of human life. Human life, the life of most men, is the life of tillers of the soil or is at least based on that life. If you do not believe the Bible, you may believe Aristotle's Politics. Human life is, therefore, characterized most obviously by a need for rain and need for hard work. Now this cannot have been the character of human life at the beginning; for if man was needy from the very beginning, and essentially, he is compelled or at least seriously tempted to be harsh, uncharitable, unjust; he is not fully responsible for his lack of charity or justice because of his neediness. But somehow we know that man is responsible for his lack of charity and justice; therefore, his original state must have been one in which he was not forced or seriously tempted to be uncharitable or unjust.
And now the translation:
LORD God took Man put him in Eden to work to watch LORD God adjured Man “From the Garden’s trees eat save from the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil lest you die on the day of your eating from it” LORD God said “Man alone is unwell I will make for him an aid before him" LORD God fashioned from soil every Field Beast Sky Bird led each to Man to see what he would call it Each named by Man took its name to the very soul Man named every Creature Sky Bird every Field Beast He didn’t find an aid before him
St. Ambrose says, “The beasts of the field and the birds of the air which were brought to Adam are our irrational senses, because beasts and animals represent the diverse passions of the body, whether of the more violent kind or even of the more temperate.… God granted to you the power of being able to discern by the application of sober logic the species of each and every object in order that you may be induced to form a judgment on all of them. God called them all to your attention so that you might realize that your mind is superior to all of them.”
Louth, Andrew – Conti, M. (ed.), Genesis 1–11 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, IL 2001) 66.