GENESIS 2
The Seventh Day
About This Chapter
Genesis 2 begins with God completing His work of creation and setting apart the seventh day as a day of rest. The chapter then turns from the broad account of creation to a closer look at the first man and woman and their life in the Garden of Eden.
In the garden, God gives the man meaningful work, freedom to enjoy what He has provided, and one clear command. That command will become important in the next chapter. As you read, notice how God provides for human needs and establishes the relationship between the man and the woman.
This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding humanity's relationship with God, the responsibility that comes with freedom, and the beginning of marriage.
1So the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. 2By the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
The Man and the Woman in the Garden
4This is the story of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
5At first no wild bushes had appeared on the earth, and no plants had come up in the fields, because the LORD God had not yet sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground. 6Instead, streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7Then the LORD God shaped a man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living being.
8The LORD God planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and he put there the man he had shaped. 9The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were beautiful to look at and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it split into four rivers. 11The first is called the Pishon. It winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12The gold of that land is pure, and sweet-smelling resin and onyx stone are found there too. 13The second river is called the Gihon. It winds through the whole land of Cush. 14The third river is called the Tigris. It flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God gave the man this command: "You may eat freely from any tree in the garden, 17except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You must not eat from that tree. On the day you eat from it, you will certainly die."
What This Means: God gives Adam the freedom to eat from the trees in the garden, with one exception. This command gives Adam a choice between obeying God and disobeying Him. The consequences of that choice will become clear in the next chapter, when Adam and Eve disobey God’s command and sin enters the human story. Their disobedience changes humanity’s relationship with God and introduces suffering and death into a world that God originally declared good. The world we experience today is no longer the world as it was first created.
18Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him."
19The LORD God had formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that became its name. 20So the man gave names to all the farm animals, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. But no helper just right for him was found.
21So the LORD God put the man into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the LORD God built a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23The man said,
"At last! This one is bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
She will be called 'woman,'
because she was taken out of man."
24That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh.
What This Means: This verse establishes marriage as a union in which a man and woman form a new family together. Leaving father and mother describes a new primary family commitment, while becoming “one flesh” expresses the closeness and unity of that relationship. Jesus later refers to this passage in Matthew 19:4–6 when teaching about marriage.
25The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.