Genesis 2King James Version
A second, closer telling of creation, this time focused on the garden. God forms the first man from the dust of the ground, breathes life into him, and places him in Eden to tend it. Then He forms the first woman from the man's side and the two stand together, naked and unashamed.
The creation account zooms in on the sixth day. God forms the man from dust, breathes life into him, plants the Garden of Eden with its two special trees, and gives the man work and a prohibition. God sees the man needs a companion, creates every animal, and finally forms the woman from the man's side. They are naked and unashamed.
Human beings are made for relationship, for meaningful work, and for a world with limits, and the intimacy between man and woman is the first covenant.
7: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Dirt plus divine breath: the formula for a person, and the tension that runs through all of scripture.
The geography of Eden references real rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates, familiar to ancient Mesopotamian readers. The author plants the story in recognizable terrain, not fantasy. The Garden is a world where work is meaningful and presence is unguarded, before any of that changes.
God, who forms and breathes and provides; the man, shaped from the ground; the woman, drawn from the man's side.
This chapter establishes the pattern everything else builds on: human dignity tied to divine image, human limits tied to a specific command, and human longing for companionship as something God names and addresses. Marriage, work, and moral responsibility all trace back here.
For when you feel incomplete, or like something essential is still missing. The chapter says God noticed the aloneness before you did, and decided to do something about it.
1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.