And they heard the voice of the Lord God
Which they had heard before, and knew, though perhaps now in
another tone, and very terrible, which before was mild and
gentle, pleasant and delightful: some by it understand a clap of
thunder, sometimes called the voice of the Lord, ( Psalms
29:3-9 ) and the rather because mention is made afterwards of
a wind; but rather the voice of the Son of God, the eternal Word,
is here meant, who appeared in an human form, as a pledge of his
future incarnation, and that not only as a Judge, to arraign,
examine, and condemn the parties concerned in this act of
disobedience to God, but as a Saviour of men, to whom, as such,
he made himself known, as the event shows, and therefore they had
no reason to entertain such terrible apprehensions of him, as to
flee from him; and so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan
paraphrase it, "the voice of the Word of the Lord God", the
essential Word of God then with him, and since made flesh, and
dwelt among men as the Saviour of them; and to him agrees what
follows: walking in the garden in the cool of the
day;
or "at the wind of the day" F17; of "that day" in which man
was created and fell, as some conclude from hence; in the
evening, at sun setting; for very often when the sun sets a wind
rises, at least a gentle breeze; and this might bring the sound
of the voice, and of the steps of this glorious Person, the
sooner to the ears of Adam and his wife, which gave them notice
of his near approach, and caused them to hasten their flight:
some render it emphatically, "at the wind of that day" {r}; as if
it was a violent wind which arose at that time, as a sign and
testimony of the indignation of God, as the sound of a violent
wind was a testimony of the coming of the Spirit of God, (
Acts 2:2 )
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the
Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden;
conscious of their guilt, and vainly imagining they could flee
from his presence, which is everywhere, and hide themselves from
his sight, before whom every creature is manifest, be it where it
will; and very foolishly fancying, that the thick trees and
bushes in the garden would be a screen and shelter for them: and
sad shifts do wretched mortals make to secure themselves from the
wrath of God, who are ignorant of the justifying righteousness
and atoning sacrifice of the Son of God: it is in the singular
number in the original text, "in the midst of the tree of the
garden" F19; which some understand of the fig
tree, whose leaves they covered themselves with, and under the
shade of which they hid themselves; and particularly of the
Indian fig tree, which is so large, that it is said that fifty
horsemen may shade themselves at noon day under it; nay, some say
four hundred F20; but tree may be put for trees, the
singular for the plural.