Genesis 2:1-17 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

Man in Eden, Innocence

Genesis 2:1-17

The first paragraph belongs to the previous chapter, as is clear from the use of the same term for God- Elohim. God's Rest was not from weariness, or exhaustion, but because His work of Creation was finished. He is ever at work, remember John 5:17. We enter into His rest, when we cease to worry, and trust Him in all and for all. In Genesis 2:4, Moses incorporates another of those wonderful God-given narratives, which had been handed down from the lips of the patriarchs. It is marked by the use of another term for God- Jehovah Elohim. Every man is entrusted with a garden, that he may keep it. God's goodness is no excuse for idleness. Whether your heart and life shall produce weeds, or flowers and fruits, depends on yourself. Ponder Proverbs 4:23; Proverbs 24:30-31.

Related Commentaries of Genesis 2:1

Genesis 2:1-17

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And 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.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God createda and made.

4 These 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,

5 And 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.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

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.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And 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.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.b

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth towardc the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man,d and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But 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 surelye die.