And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
It is not good that the man should be alone, [Hebrew, lªbadow (H905), in his separation or singleness -
i.e., alone]. On a survey of each successive department of nature that rose into being, the divine testimony of satisfaction had been expressed by pronouncing it good. All the objects of the new creation, whether animate or inanimate, had their full complement of parts, were perfect in their nature, and corresponded in every respect to their character and condition. Adam alone was an exception; because his state at the period of his formation was not at once fully adapted to all the capacities of his being, and although as an individual he was complete in his organization, his body containing all the members, and his mind being endowed with all the faculties requisite for the functions of life and activity, he still wanted something to consummate his happiness, and fit him for the sphere in which he was destined to live.
With a soul full of affections, and capable of finding its sweetest enjoyment in the interchange of sentiments and the endearments of friendship, he had as yet no suitable object with which those natural feelings could ally themselves. Though formed with strong desires to love and to be loved, he possessed no means of exercising his emotions, no ear to which he could impart his thoughts, no bosom ready to reciprocate his feelings. However in subsequent times a cold philosophy may in some have frozen the genial current of the soul, or the force of habit in others have repressed the exercise of the social affections, and led them to pass their lives as hermits in the desert, it was otherwise with the first man, who, when he came newly formed from the hands of his Maker, was full of sympathies, which he tried, but tried in vain, to bestow on any of the objects around him. There is strong reason to believe that, constituted as he was, even the garden of Eden would have been no paradise to him; with all its store of delights, it would have been incapable of filling the aching void of his heart, who, though formed for society, was still living in solitude.
I will make him an help meet for him, [Hebrew, kªnegªdow (H5048)] - literally, 'as over against,' 'according to his front presence' - i:e., corresponding to, his counterpart-one like himself in form and constitution, disposition, and affections, and altogether suitable to his nature and wants. Even in this transaction man was dealt with as a free agent; because it was not until his observation of the homogeneous pairs of the inferior animals had excited within his bosom a longing desire for a mate also, and led to the development of a strong natural instinct of his nature, that, on the probably silent but manifested expression of his wish, the want was supplied. The Septuagint and Vulgate read "let us make," as in Genesis 1:26. But the correctness of the present Hebrew text in this passage is unquestionable; and the propriety of using the verb in the singular rather than the plural number is obvious, not only on the general ground maintained by Calvin and others-that in the creation of man, the chief and most important creature in the world, it was therefore said, "let us make," whereas it was unnecessary to repeat this formula here, the woman being only an addition to the man-but for the special reason that not the Deity, but "the Lord God" is throughout this chapter named as the Creator.