Genesis 2

Genesis 2

Genesis 2:1 So the sky and the land were finished, and all the army [1] of them.

Genesis 2:2 Then on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he stopped[2] on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

Genesis 2:3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it special, because on it he stopped from all his work that God had done by creating.

Genesis 2:4 This is the history[3] of the sky and the land when they were created, in the day that Yahveh God made the land and the sky.

Genesis 2:5 Before any bush of the field was in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up – because Yahveh God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no person to work the ground,

Genesis 2:6 and a mist was regularly ascending from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground –

Genesis 2:7 then Yahveh God formed the first man from dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breathing[4] of life, and that man became a living throat.

Genesis 2:8 Now Yahveh God had planted a garden at Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground Yahveh God made every tree to grow up that one would crave[5] to look at and was good to eat. The tree of life was in the middle of this garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also there.

Genesis 2:10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Genesis 2:11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Genesis 2:12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.

Genesis 2:13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 2:14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Genesis 2:15 Yahveh God took the human and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:16 And Yahveh God commanded the human, and this is what he said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

Genesis 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will not eat, for in the day that you eat of it “you will be mortal, you will die.”

Genesis 2:18 Then Yahveh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a partner[6] fit for him.”

Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground Yahveh God had formed every living thing of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living throat, that was its name.

Genesis 2:20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the sky and to every living thing of the field. But for Adam there was not found a partner fit for him.

Genesis 2:21 Then Yahveh God threw down this Adam into a deep sleep, and while he slept took one of his ribs and shut up flesh[7] in its place.

Genesis 2:22 And the rib that Yahveh God had taken from this Adam he made into a woman and brought her to this Adam.

Genesis 2:23 Then this Adam said, “This finally is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; she will be called a woman, because she was taken out of a man.”

Genesis 2:24 Because of this a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast[8] to his woman, and they will become as one flesh.

Genesis 2:25 And the man and his woman were both naked and were not ashamed.

[1] צָבָא = army. Genesis 2:1; 21:22, 32; 26:26.

[2] שָׁבַת = stop. Genesis 2:2, 3; 8:22.

[3] תּוֹלֵדוֹת = history, generation. Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1, 32; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 13, 19; 36:1, 9; 37:2.

[4]נְשָׁמָה = breathing. Genesis 2:7; 7:22.

[5]חמד = crave. Genesis 2:9; 3:6.

[6]עֵזֶר = partner Genesis 2:18, 20.

[7] בָּשָׂר = flesh, meat. Genesis 2:21, 23, 24; 6:3, 12, 13, 17, 19; 7:15, 16, 21; 8:17; 9:4, 11, 15, 16, 17; 17:11, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25; 29:14; 37:27; 40:19; 41:3, 4, 19.

[8] דָּבַק = hold fast. Genesis 2:24; 19:19; 31:23; 34:3.

Genesis 2 quotes

“The Hebrew words translated ‘work’ and ‘take care’ (Genesis 2:15) are both used later in the Bible in specifically religious contexts. “Work’ is often used to speak of the service of God — particularly, in some texts, the service of priests in the tabernacle.’’ ‘Take care’ is also frequently used of religious duties, especially the Levites’ task of guarding the tabernacle.’* These links underline the significance of our responsibilities in creation. When we ‘work’ the earth and ‘take care’ of it we are engaged in a high calling: the priestly task of worshipping God.”

Roberts, Vaughan. God’s Big Design : Life As He Intends It to Be. Inter-Varsity, 2005. p. 61.

” If God has the kind of power we see in this pericope, then we know not to take this language in any literalistic fashion: God does not get tired as we do (see also Isa. 40:28-31). Hence the language is analogical, and the import is that human work and rest are analogies of God’s work and rest.”

Collins, C. John. Genesis 1-4 : A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary. P & R Pub, 2006. p. 77.

“When we read the account of Adam’s creation in Genesis 2 in the context of the creation of the first man in Genesis 1, the suggestion that Adam functioned as a vicegerent is reinforced.”