And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Ver. 22. And the rib which the Lord God had taken.] Matter, in the beginning of time, was taken from man to make a woman. And matter, in the fulness of time, was taken from a woman to make a man, even "the man Christ Jesus". 1Ti 2:5 And as out of the side of sleeping Adam Eve was formed; so, from the blood issuing out of the side and flesh of dying Christ, came his spouse the Church. His chief care therein was to "sanctify and cleanse" Eph 5:26 his Church, and therefore he "came by water and blood". 1Jn 5:6 So should it be every husband's; then would not the devil so oft break his head with his own rib; or, as St Gregory hath it, climb so oft by his rib to his heart, as by a ladder. a A good wife doth him good, and not evil, all her days. But this is not every man's happiness. Lucky Sulla, if he should not have had a wife. Sulla faellx, si non habuisset uxorem! So Job and Moses, for whom marriage caused problems. quorum conjugium, conjurgium There is in most a propension to the nuptial conjunction. The man misseth his rib, say the Rabbins; b the woman would be in her old place again, under the man's arm or wing. "Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?" Rth 3:1
Made he a woman.] Heb., builded, that is, created with special care, art, and fit proportion, in the manner of a house. A body hath God given the woman more capacious and roomy, both for the conceiving and containing of her young babe, which dwells in her womb, as in its house, and hath all its household stuff, as it were, about it, till time produce it into the light of life. Adam was formed, Eve built; her frame consists of rarer rooms, of a more exact composition than his doth. And if place be any privilege, we find, saith one, hers built in Paradise, when his was made out of it.
And brought her unto the man.] Marriage, then, is of Divine institution. The Saturnalian heretics sinfully said, that it was of the devil. And the blemish will never be wiped off from some of the ancients, who, to establish their own idol, of, I know not what virginity, have written most wickedly and basely against marriage. Three things we have here out of Moses to say for it against whatsoever opposite - viz., God's (1.) Spoke; (2.) Led; (3.) Blessed. Gen 1:28 Dixit, Duxit, Benedixit God the Father ordained it; God the Son honoured it with His first miracle; God the Holy Ghost did the like, by overshadowing the betrothed Virgin. Papists and others that disgrace it appear herein more like devils than divines, if Paul may be judge; 1Ti 4:2-3 or Ignatius, who saith, If any call marriage a defilement, he hath the devil dwelling in him, and speaking by him. c
a Diabolus per costam tanquam per scalam, ad cor Adami ascendit. - Mor, lib. iii. e. 5. Sic Phoroneus, apud Bruson, l. vii. c. 22.
b Requirit vir costam suam, requirit femina sedem suam. Hinc Ruth 3:1; Ruth 3:9. Annon quaererem tibi requiem? - Aben- ezra.
c Habet inhabitatorem Draconem Apostatam. - Ignat. Epist. ad Philad.