Genesis 2:1-10

1 So the sky, the earth, and all that filled them were finished.

2 By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing, so he rested from all his work.

3 God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.

4 This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the Lord God first made the earth and the sky,

5 there were still no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields because the Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no person to care for the ground,

6 but a mist would rise up from the earth and water all the ground.

7 Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living person.

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it.

9 The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From there the river branched out to become four rivers.

Genesis 2:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 2

In this chapter are contained a summary of the works of creation on the six days, and God's resting from his works on the seventh day, and the sanctification of that, Ge 2:1-4 and an account of various things relating to several parts of the creation enlarged on and explained, and of various circumstances omitted in the preceding chapter, which could not so well be taken notice of there; as of a mist arising out of the earth, which watered the herbs and plants before there was any rain to fall upon them, or a man to cultivate them, Ge 2:5,6 and of the matter and manner of man's formation, Ge 2:7 and of the planting of the garden of Eden, and the trees that were in it, and the rivers that watered it, and sprung from it, and the course they steered, the countries they washed, and what those countries abounded with, Ge 2:8-14 of man's being put into it to dress it, and keep it, and of the grant he had to eat of the fruit of any of the trees in it, excepting one, which was forbidden under a penalty of death, Ge 2:15-17 and of all the creatures, beasts and fowls, being brought to him, to give them names, Ge 2:18-20 and of God's providing an help meet for him, and forming Eve out of one of his ribs, and of their marriage together, and the institution of marriage, Ge 2:21-24 and the chapter is concluded with observing the present state and circumstances of our first parents before they fell, Ge 2:25.