Genesis — Chapter 2

The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array.

On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken, ceasingaceasing Or “resting.” on the seventh day from doing any of the work.

And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy—having ceased on it from all the work of creation that God had done.

Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created.When the ETERNAL God made earth and heaven—

when no shrub of the fieldbshrub of the field I.e., suitable for pasturage. was yet on earth and no grasses of the fieldcgrasses of the field I.e., cereal grasses, suitable as crops. had yet sprouted, because the ETERNAL God had not sent rain upon the earth and there were no human beings to till the soil,

but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth—

the ETERNAL God formed a Humanda Human Heb. ha-ʼadam. Although this term is not gendered, to the ancient audience it went without saying that the progenitor of all human lineages was a male. from the soil’s humus,efrom the soil’s humus Heb. ʻaphar min ha-ʼadamah. blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.

The ETERNAL God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the Human who had been fashioned.

And from the ground the ETERNAL God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches.

The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is.

(The gold of that land is good; bdellium is there, and lapis lazuli.flapis lazuli In contrast to others “onyx”; meaning of Heb. shoham uncertain.)

The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush.

The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The ETERNAL God settled the Human in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it.

And the ETERNAL God commanded the Human, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat;

but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.”

The ETERNAL God said, “It is not good for the Human to be alone; I will make a fitting counterpart for him.”

And the ETERNAL God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the Human to see what he would call them; and whatever the Human called each living creature, that would be its name.

And the Human gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but no fitting counterpart for a human being was found.

So the ETERNAL God cast a deep sleep upon the Human; and, while he slept, [God] took one of his sidesgsides So Septuagint and Ibn Ezra; trad. “ribs.” and closed up the flesh at that site.

And the ETERNAL God fashioned the side that had been taken from the Human into a woman, bringing her to the Human.

Then the Human said,“This one at lastIs bone of my bonesAnd flesh of my flesh.This one shall be called the Woman,hthe Woman Heb. ʼishshah; i.e., the unique female participant in the situation. For from the Manithe Man Heb. ʼish; i.e., the sole (and male) participant in the original situation. was she taken.”

Hence a manja man Heb. ʼish. leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife,khis wife Heb. ʼishto, from ʼishshah. so that they become one flesh.

The two of them were naked,lnaked Heb. ʻarummim, play on ʻarum “shrewd” in 3.1. the Human and his wife, yet they felt no shame.